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<h6 id="ra-headline"><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>Brooklyn pizzeria owner breaks down in court after conviction for serving up cocaine along with the pizza</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>Gregorio Gigliotti, 61, was jailed an 18-year for running an international drug trafficking ring under the cover of his family restaurant </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>During sentencing Gigliotti asked Judge Raymond Dearie to show leniency in sentencing son, Angelo Gigliotti, 36, and 56-year-old wife, Eleonora </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>Family convicted for using their restaurant, Cucino a Modo Mio, in Corona, NY to import cocaine</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>A produce import company also served as a front for huge drug trafficking scheme that imported 120 kilos of coke in 2012, alone,</strong></span><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong> 55 kilos of coke was discovered in shipments of Costa Rican yucca in 2014</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>Investigators searching the restaurant found cache of firearms, brass knuckles, over $100,000 in cash, a ledger detailing drug deals</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>Prosecutors previously said Gigliotti family had “close business ties” to Calabria-based mob, the &#8216;Ndrangheta&#8217;</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong> Italian authorities had learned Gigliotti was negotiating coke sale with members of the &#8216;Ndrangheta&#8217; clan</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>Feds also claimed Gigliotti and his son had ties to the New York City-based Genovese crime family </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1f0101;"><strong>Gregorio Gigliotti denied any mob ties on Tuesday</strong></span></h6>
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<h6 class="ra-caption"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-171499" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/eleonora-and-gregorio-gigliotti-and-their-adult-son-were-arrested-in-march-for-allegedly-running-a-drugs-ring-from-their-queens-pizza-restaurant-eleonora-pleaded-guilty-to-conspiracy-to.jpg" alt="Eleonora and Gregorio Gigliotti and their adult son were arrested in March for allegedly running a drugs ring from their Queens pizza restaurant. Eleonora pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine on Monday..jpg" width="1200" height="880" /><strong>Eleonora and Gregorio Gigliotti [right], and their son Angelo were arrested in March of 2015, for allegedly running a drugs ring from their restaurant. </strong><strong>Gregorio begged the judge to spare his wife who pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine</strong></h6>
<p>A convicted drug dealer broke down in Brooklyn court, NY on Tuesday. Federal judge gave Gregorio Gigliotti an 18-year sentence for his role in a family run drug scheme based at a family owned pizza restaurant. With several members of the family convicted of importing and exporting cocaine along with, the 61-year-old pizzeria owner prayed the court for a show of clemency for his family.<br />
When the verdict was read in court in 2016, Gregorio Gigliotti held up pretty well, even gave a two-thumbs up sign to family members minutes before the jury entered the courtroom, while his wife of his son, also on trial, sobbed uncontrollably.<br />
The Jury convicted Gregorio Gigliotti on all counts including possession of seven guns found in a safe in the basement of his restaurant. Angelo, was acquitted on the gun charges.</p>
<h6><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-171571" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/gregorio-gigliotti-in-front-of-his-queens-pizza-restaurant1.jpg" alt="Gregorio Gigliotti in front of his Queens pizza restaurant1" width="634" height="427" /><strong>Gregorio Gigliotti outside his pizza restaurant bagged 18 year jail sentence but begged the judge to spare his co-conspirators in the family drug trade</strong></h6>
<h6><img class="alignnone wp-image-171566" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/angelo-gigliotti1.jpg" alt="Angelo Gigliotti1.jpg" width="535" height="803" /><br />
<strong>Angelo Gigliotti was his father&#8217;s partner in the family drug trade. He too convicted in the &#8216;Coke packed in yucca&#8217; trial. His dad would prefer he stayed out of jail</strong></h6>
<p>On Tuesday however, with all legal channels exhausted, the rumored mob-connected, Queens restaurant owner who trafficked drugs tearfully asked the judge to show mercy while sentencing his wife and son, who were also busted in an international drug trafficking sting operation.<br />
“You truly have my life in your hands and God&#8217;s hands,” Gigliotti, said as he choked back tears. “I understand I made a mistake in my life.”<br />
Gigliotti asked Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie to be lenient sentencing his 36-year-old son, Angelo and his wife, Eleonora, 56. Both have been convicted on related charges</p>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-171463" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/italian-restaurant-cucina-a-modo-mia-in-corona1.jpg" alt="Italian restaurant, Cucina a Modo Mia, in Corona1.jpg" width="1200" height="745" />Italian restaurant, Cucina a Modo Mia, in Corona, where Eleonora and Angelo Gigliotti worked and conspired to import 55 kilos of cocaine from Costa Rica which recycled for the European market</strong></h6>
<p>In May of 2015, Federal prosecutors arrested 13 drug traffickers tied to a cocaine ring operating out of the Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Queens.<br />
Prosecutors said the owners, the Gigliotti family used their restaurant in Corona, called Cucino a Modo Mio, and a produce import company as a front for illegal trades. The FBI said at the time, that Gigliottis were “Using their family’s businesses as a front for a narcotics trafficking operation, the defendants as alleged sought to establish a global cocaine ring”.<br />
They were charged with plotting to distribute some 55 kilos of cocaine discovered in shipments of yucca, imported from Costa Rica, in 2014.<br />
When investigators searched the restaurant in 2015, they found a cache of firearms, brass knuckles, more than $100,000 in cash and a ledger detailing drug deals.<br />
Prosecutors proved that in that year alone, both men smuggled two shipments containing more than $1 million worth of cocaine from Costa Rica secreted inside the box flaps of yucca.<br />
Furthermore, they enlisted family members, including matriarch Eleonora Gigliotti, to deliver cash to dealers in Central America who then shipped the drugs to a family-run produce warehouse in The Bronx.<br />
In July 2016, Gigliotti and his son Angelo were convicted of bringing in over 50 kilos of cocaine in a smuggling operation, which had links to Italy and Costa Rica.<br />
The younger man was acquitted of two serious gun possession charges against him that would added another mandatory five years in prison. Still he faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years behind bars for the drug trafficking conviction while Gregorio faced at least 15 years.</p>
<h6><img class="alignnone wp-image-171574" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/coke-in-yucca1.jpg" alt="Coke in yucca1" width="719" height="891" /><strong>The Gigliottis allegedly had cocaine shipped from Costa Rica to the U.S. in boxes of yucca plants<br />
<img class="alignnone wp-image-171572" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/coke-in-yucca2.jpg" alt="Coke in yucca2" width="655" height="811" /></strong><br />
<strong>The cocaine, was then sent to a crime organization in Italy to be sold in Europe</strong></h6>
<p>Jurors heard dozens of wiretapped conversations between Angelo and Gregorio, sometimes in Italian, discussing the international operation.<br />
“Do you remember the movie ‘Casino?” Gregorio asked his son in one recording about a drug associate. “Do you remember what happened to the two brothers? This is what I have to do to him.”<br />
Eleonora Gigliotti had pled guilty to lesser charges of conspiracy to import cocaine in Brooklyn Federal Court. She faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison and also agreed to pay a $1.625 million forfeiture judgement.<br />
Although Gigliotti is a reputed associate of Genovese capo Anthony Federici, that information was excluded from the trail. But prosecutors previously said in a memo that the Gigliotti family had “close business ties” to the infamous Calabria-based crime organization the &#8216;Ndrangheta&#8217;. The memo cited Italian authorities who learned Gigliotti was negotiating a cocaine sale with members of the clan. Feds also claimed Gigliotti and his son had ties to the New York City-based Genovese crime family.<br />
Gigliotti&#8217;s attorney Elizabeth Macedonio painted a different picture, saying her client came from Italy to America in 1973 as a young man and worked hard to succeed. Before opening his restaurant, the name of which means “I cook it my way” in Italian, Gigliotti owned and operated several construction businesses.<br />
“Somewhere along the way,” Macedonio said, Gigliotti got mixed up with drugs and alcohol, which caused his decline. She asked for a 15-year sentence, the required minimum for his conviction. Prosecutors pressed for a 35-year-to-life sentence.</p>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-171534" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/franco-fazio1.jpg" alt="Franco Fazio1.jpg" width="786" height="521" />Among those arrested in the Italian sweep was Franco Fazio [right], known as &#8216;The Ambassador&#8217;, seen here smiling as he was led away in cuffs from his apartment in Calabria. </strong></h6>
<p>The same sting operation dubbed &#8216;Operation Columbus&#8217; snagged the Gigliottis’ cousin, Franco Fazio, aka &#8220;The Ambassador,&#8221; who was arrested by Italian police in Calabria along with a dozen other suspects. Fazio was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.<br />
Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Gandy noted Gigliotti went to trial and &#8220;at no point fell on his sword in any public way.&#8221; Gandy said Gigliotti was the one calling the shots in a large-scale operation that imported at least 120 kilos of cocaine since 2012.<br />
Dearie said he couldn&#8217;t understand why Gigliotti had done legitimate work so hard for so long only to end up in front of him.<br />
He wasn&#8217;t &#8220;some fat cat sitting in a hotel suite&#8221; dealing drugs, the judge said.<br />
&#8220;You just decided to add one more business. It&#8217;s hard to figure out why, other than money, as the expression goes.&#8221;</p>
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‘Coked’ pizzeria operator, Gregorio Gigliotti, gets 18 years for serving up cocaine bust – with teary eyes begs judge to spare convicted son and wife
