Reputed Mafia associate Arthur Gianelli ran a sprawling illegal gambling enterprise that raked in millions of dollars, then used his money and underworld muscle to try to seize control of several bars in Boston and on the North Shore, a federal prosecutor told jurors yesterday.
"Mr. Gianelli is under the umbrella of the Mafia," Assistant US Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. said during opening statements in the federal racketeering, money laundering, arson, and extortion trial of Gianelli, 51, of Lynnfield and three others.
Weekly tribute payments that Gianelli made to New England Mafia underboss Carmen "The Cheeseman" DiNunzio kept his business running smoothly from 1999 to 2005, the prosecutor said. Gianelli's operation bet on football games, operated video poker machines, and later shifted to the Internet with the help of a gambling company with offices in Costa Rica, Wyshak said.
Customers who failed to repay loans from Gianelli's group faced intimidation and threats, he said.
That's what happened when Philip Castinetti, owner of a Saugus sports memorabilia store, took a loan from Gianelli's group on behalf of Gerry Cheevers, former Boston Bruins goaltender, and the superstar of the 1960s and 1970s stopped paying, according to Wyshak.
Gianelli dispatched a Revere loan shark, Philip Puopolo, "to see Castinetti to make sure he paid," Wyshak said.
Castinetti is slated to testify in the case, but Cheevers, who has declined to comment, is not, according to the government.
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