http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TURNCOAT_DON?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULTNEW YORK (AP) -- Jailed Mafia boss Joseph Massino secretly recorded his successor plotting the assassination of a federal prosecutor, becoming the first head of a New York Mafia family known to have turned government informant, sources familiar with the case said Thursday.
A federal indictment unsealed Thursday alleges that acting Bonanno family head Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano planned the killing of a top mob prosecutor in meetings with someone described as a "high-ranking member" of his crime family. The FBI recorded the conversations with the help of the high-ranking member, the indictment says.
Several sources familiar with the investigation identified Massino as the turncoat Mafioso. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because Massino had not been publicly identified as the informant
The alleged betrayal would rank as one of the most stunning violations of the Mafia code of silence in the history of American organized crime. It also would signal just how deeply the FBI has penetrated a crime family that nearly collapsed in the 1980s after undercover agent Joseph Pistone won its confidences posing as mobster Donnie Brasco