Matthew L. Guglielmetti, Jr., also known as "Matty" (born 1949), is a high-ranking mobster from Cranston, Rhode Island who is a Caporegime, or "captain," in the New England-based Patriarca crime family of La Cosa Nostra. Guglielmetti is said to be closely aligned with former family boss Luigi Mannochio.
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Guglielmetti is a second-generation gangster who began his criminal career in 1984, when he and his father, Matthew L. Guglielmetti Sr. were arrested for hijacking a truckload of Canadian whisky. However, the case was later dropped. In 1989, while the Patriarca family was in the midst of an internal factional war, Guglielmetti came to the attention of law enforcement authorities when it was discovered that he had attempted to act as a peace broker. In return for his efforts, he inherited the rackets previously overseen by the murdered underboss William Grasso. On October 20, 1989, Guglielmetti was recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) while the Patriarca family conducted a Mafia induction ceremony in Medford, Massachusetts.[1] As a result, Guglielmetti ended up doing nearly five years at a federal prison in Sandstone, Minnesota during the 1990s after pleading guilty to federal racketeering charges in Hartford, Connecticut. After his release, he resumed his criminal activities and soon presided over gambling and loan sharking for the Patriarca family.[2]
In April 2002, the FBI launched a probe into the Rhode Island construction industry. As part of the investigation, they created a fake company called Hemphill Construction in Johnston, Rhode Island. At the time, Guglielmetti served as steward for Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 271. After Hemphill opened, an undercover FBI agent met with Guglielmetti and offered him the chance to buy into the company. According to an FBI affidavit, Guglielmetti became a silent partner in Hemphill and started taking company funds, "including a share of the profits from laundering what Guglielmetti believed were drug proceeds through the undercover business."
In 2003, Guglielmetti served as union steward for Capital City Concrete, which was chosen as a minority contractor for a $5.8 million parking ramp at the Kent County Court House in Warwick, Rhode Island. The company was also selected for $7 million in contract work on a sewage overflow tunnel at Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. As work on the Warwick ramp progressed, state court officials pressed local contractors for payroll records in order to conduct criminal background checks on their employees. Capital City was among the last contractors to comply with this request. About a week before Guglielmetti stopped working on the ramp, Capital City finally turned over the records. Nothing emerged in the state files - apparently, Guglielmetti had unspecified charges expunged.[3]
In October 2003, Rhode Island and Massachusetts police visited the Warwick construction site to tell Guglielmetti that he and Manocchio had been recorded on undercover wiretaps discussing the collection of gambling debts and the mediation of a mob dispute. On January 20, 2005, FBI agents and Rhode Island State Police detectives raided the headquarters of Local 271 and Capital City Concrete in Cranston. Earlier that day, Guglielmetti and a pair of associates were arrested in Johnston.
On March 31, 2005, Matthew Guglielmetti signed a plea agreement admitting that he conspired to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine.[4] Later in 2005, Guglielmetti was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
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