Ex-New York Police Detectives Found Guilty of Killing for Mafia

[UpInArms]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=awH0LW.zegHY&refer=us

April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Two former detectives were convicted today of being paid informers and assassins for the Luchese organized crime family while serving in the New York Police Department.

Louis Eppolito, 57, and Stephen Caracappa, 64, were found guilty of murder, obstruction of justice and other charges by a federal jury in Brooklyn, said Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office.

The detectives handed over sensitive police information and took part in at least eight killings while on the payroll of Luchese underboss Anthony ``Gaspipe'' Casso between 1986 and 1990, prosecutors said.

The two, arrested in March 2005 at their retirement homes in Las Vegas, face as much as life in prison. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein set a sentencing hearing for May 22, Nardoza said.

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NYPD Detectives Convicted of Mob Murders

Prosecutors said the two men carried out two hits themselves _ after pulling the victims over in traffic stops _ and delivered up some of the other victims to the Mafia to be killed.

Neither defendant showed any emotion during the 10 minutes it took the jury forewoman to reply "proven" 70 times to the racketeering acts they were accused of. The verdict was reached after two days of deliberations.

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Casso, known as one of the most brutal mobsters in the city, is suspected of involvement in 36 murders himself. Both sides considered calling him as a witness but ultimately decided Casso came with too much baggage.

According to testimony, the detectives "arrested" a mobster named Jimmy Hydell in 1986, but instead delivered him to Casso for torture and execution.