After testifying against nearly four dozen of his comrades, including mob boss John Gotti, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano relocated to Phoenix in 1995 with a new name, a new background, a new face and a new career: owner of a swimming pool installation company.
But now the former mob underboss in the New York-based Gambino family is sitting in solitary confinement in jail on charges that he helped mastermind and finance a fledgling gang of white supremacists that sold the drug Ecstasy.
Gravano’s alleged role as mentor to the group, alternately known as White Power and the Devil Dogs, could be likened to going from the No. 2 man at a major corporation to a consultant for a mom-and-pop corner store.
On Monday, four days after authorities arrested Gravano, his wife, his son and his daughter, state prosecutors filed formal charges against the Gravano family and 43 others. The 181-count complaint charges the 54-year-old former mob leader with forging an alliance with the gang to sell drugs.
Authorities said the crew sold as many as 25,000 Ecstasy pills a week in the Phoenix area between December and February in a drug-dealing conspiracy that included racketeering and money laundering.
In addition, the complaint describes how Gravano’s influence had a significant impact on the scope of the illegal activity.
“This was a large operation involving a number of people. . . . It is not common to see a complaint with this many defendants with this many counts,” said Janet Napolitano, the Arizona attorney general.
Gravano’s testimony in New York courtrooms brought down Gotti and more than 40 members of the Gambino crime family. During the trials Gravano admitted to being directly involved in the killings of three people and indirectly involved in 16 other murders. In exchange for his testimony, Gravano was sentenced to only 5 years in prison, though prosecutors initially sought 11 years.
Upon his release in 1995, Gravano entered the federal Witness Protection Program and underwent plastic surgery to alter his face. He moved to Phoenix with a new name: Jimmy Moran. His wife, Debra, son Gerard and daughter Karen also moved to Phoenix.
He renovated a dilapidated building in an industrial area in southeast Phoenix. He opened Creative Pools and a construction company called Marathon Development. He hired Karen Gravano as his office manager.
“It’s a legitimate construction company, I see trucks going in and out of there all the time,” said Jim DeCredico, national sales manager of All Points International. The company, which transports autos around the country, is located across the street from Creative Pools.
Still, Gravano baffled his neighbors in the Tempe apartment complex near Arizona State University where he lived. For the past few years he lived in a one-bedroom, $590-a-month unit but drove a $40,000 Lexus.
“His car was pretty nice, I wondered, `Why is he living here?’ ” said one neighbor.
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Meanwhile, Debra Gravano bought a popular Italian restaurant in a Scottsdale strip mall and hired Gerard as chef. The restaurant was called Uncle Sal’s Italian Ristorante. The restaurant’s slogan: “The best kept secret in Scottsdale.”
Authorities alleged last week that the Gravanos used proceeds from the businesses to finance the Ecstacy operation and that drugs were distributed at the restaurant.
Despite his new identity, Gravano flaunted his mob past. He left the Witness Protection Program shortly after he moved to Arizona. In 1997, he appeared on television to promote his book “Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia.” And last July he granted an interview to The Arizona Republic about his old and new lives.
“Have my values changed?” Gravano told the newspaper. “No. You can’t change what you are inside. A leopard doesn’t change his spots.”
According to authorities, Gravano’s 24-year-old son Gerard Gravano introduced his father to the Devil Dogs gang and members from its predecessor group, White Power.
Gerard Gravano is on probation on charges of possessing marijuana and mailing the drug to New York.
“If Sammy was involved (in the drug operation) I would bet his role would be providing seed money and advice about how to run a sophisticated criminal enterprise,” said Patrick Cotter, who interviewed Gravano extensively as a member of the team that prosecuted Gotti.
“He could provide advice on how to divvy up the money, how to have people (in the gang) take you seriously and how to handle the competition,” added Cotter, now with the Chicago firm Arnstein & Lehr.
In his book, Gravano said he worried about his son getting involved in the criminal life. “He’s a tough kid, but a good kid. He’s not for the life. I had always sheltered him from it. And if he winds up in the life, he’s sure to end up either being whacked or going to jail himself,” he wrote.
Authorities offer no evidence that Gerard Gravano knew any of the people in the drug ring before moving to Phoenix.
But, according to police reports and court documents, many of his close associates in the drug ring have New York or East Coast ties. Michael Papa, the alleged chief lieutenant, grew up in New York. David Seabrook, charged with selling the drugs, was convicted in New York of aggravated assault charges. And Dominick Sirico, charged with distributing the pills, is wanted by New Jersey authorities for promoting illegal gaming.
Many of the people arrested worked at the restaurant or the pool construction business.
In the mid-1990s, Papa’s family moved to the upper-class Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, police say, where Papa joined and helped organize White Power. Though group members flashed white supremacy hand signs around town, police reported few problems with the group in those years. Papa and Jovan Isailovic were among the White Power members arrested on drug charges last week.
White Power in recent years evolved into the Devil Dogs. Papa’s younger brother Kevin and other members elevated the group’s profile significantly.
The Devil Dogs began threatening minority kids and pushing around some white kids, police in Gilbert said. None of the Devil Dogs has been charged, though authorities said they believe some may have provided intimidation for the operation.
Observers said the group seemed to be a study in contrasts: The members said they weren’t a gang, yet they wore their own colors: white tank tops, blue jeans, Doc Marten shoes with white or red laces. They spouted white power talk, yet one of their members is African-American. And Seabrook, one of the men arrested in the drug plot, also is black.
“People were idiots and would yell out, `White power’ and bark when they got drunk or stuff, but nobody was really serious about it,” said Justin Elkin, 18, a member of the Devil Dogs.
But last spring the group in separate incidents beat up two young men from Mesa, sending both to the hospital to undergo facial surgeries.
Despite the violence, Elkin denied the group had any involvement with distributing Ecstasy. `We drank beer and we started a few fights, that’s all we did,” he said.