Primo Cassarino

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Primo Cassarino (b. 1956) was an enforcer for Gambino crime family captain Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone. Cassarino became a made soldier in the Gambinos in 1999, and soon became Ciccone's leading bagman and shake down artist on the Staten Island waterfront.

Ciccone once sent Cassarino and another associate to rough up an uncooperative union official at his Staten Island home. The two thugs waited outside his home and jumped on him while he was walking down his driveway. The two men soon learned that they had attacked the union official's neighbor because they had gone to the wrong house.

In 2002, Cassarino, along with Gambino boss Peter Gotti and captains Ciccone and Richard V. Gotti, was convicted of labor racketeering, extortion and shaking down actior star Steven Seagal [1]. Cassarino received an 11-year prison sentence. Shortly after receiving the sentence, Cassarino told the feds that he was willing to cooperate in hopes of getting his sentence reduced.

Cassarino provided information to the feds on the Gambinos control of the Brooklyn and Staten Island waterfront, as well as how the Genoveses controlled the Manhattan and New Jersey waterfronts. Cassarino would testify against Genovese crime family acting captain Lawrence Ricci and associates/ILA officials Harold Daggett and Arthur Coffey. Cassarino explained to the feds how the Gambinos and Genoveses shared a $400,000 payoff in a medical fund fraud scheme, in which Ricci received a $70,000 cut for himself.