Carmelo (Melio) Cocchiaro

Carmelo Cocchiaro was a soldier in the DeCavalcante Family of New Jersey who gained fame in 1959 for doing something that was a bit ahead of his time - posing for a picture with the loot taken from several supermarket robberies and having it splashed across newspapers around the country.

He was also the brother of notorious DeCavalcante Family capo, Frank Cocchiaro , who might have helped Carmelo hide out in Upstate New York after that 1959 faux pas. Eventually, Carmelo relocated down to sunny Florida, but his reputation preceded him...and so did the law.

Carmelo Cocchiaro - Early Life

Carmelo (Melio) Cocchiaro - aka Carmen Cocchiaro, Carmine Cocchiaro, Camillo Cocchiaro, and Melio Cocchiaro - was born in Brooklyn on February 19, 1935, to Rosario and Frances Cocchiaro (nee’ Ibano.) He was raised at 24-38 86th Street in the Astoria section of Queens and later moved to 25-30 78th Street in the Jackson Heights section.

When he was in his twenties, Carmelo married a local Corona, Queens girl and together they raised three children, two girls and a boy.

By 1984, Carmelo had permanently relocated from New York to South Florida where he purchased a home at 1612 Fannin Avenue NW in the Palm Bay section. He would remain in Florida for the rest of his life.

As an interesting side note, his obituary lists him as a Yale graduate.

Carmelo Cocchiaro

At 6-foot 2-inches tall and weighing 250 pounds, Carmelo Cocchiaro cast an imposing presence in the street.

The brother of Family Capodecina Frank Cocchiaro, Carmelo was an FBI-documented “soldier” in the New York faction of the DeCavalcante Family since at least the late 1970s.

He worked at Local #394 - Labors & Hod Carriers in Elizabeth, NJ, a mob-dominated union and “in-house” DeCavalcante Family asset.

FBI # 226730D

Strike a Pose

Carmelo Cocchiaro's criminal associates included Sam DeCavalcante, John Riggi, Joseph Sylvestri, Joseph Sylvester, and other DeCavalcante members working at Local #394.

In 1954, Melio was arrested for assaulting a policeman.

In 1959, Cocchiaro was one of three young gunmen arrested for a series of daring robberies around Queens. He was specifically charged with supermarket robberies in Astoria, Queens Village, and Woodhaven in which they donned facial scarves and rushed into businesses heisting them at gunpoint.

After a police investigation, two of the three hoods were apprehended at their homes including Joseph Sylvester of 34-59 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City, and Joseph Sylvestri of 107-13 37th Dr., Corona. Sylvester and Sylvestri were cousins with the same name.

Detectives recovered several guns, some $4,000 of the loot which was said to have totaled $50,000 from several heists, and a picture of two of the gunmen holding a bag of money and pistols.

Carmelo Cocchiaro and Joe Sylvestri strike a pose long before social media became a thing.

The picture was splashed on the front pages of newspapers across the country, and a 13-state alarm was issued for the arrest of Carmelo Cocchiaro.

After five months on the run, Cocchiaro was apprehended in the sleepy town of Marlboro in Upstate, NY. No doubt his brother Frank and the LaMela brothers , who were also members of the DeCavalcante mob, had hidden Carmelo there.

Cocchiaro, Sylvestri, and Sylvester were charged with robbery, felonious assault, gun possession, and grand larceny. They were sentenced to long prison terms after being tried and convicted.

Side Note: The three robbers also became the laughing stock of the underworld at that time because of their obvious stupidity for taking pics of their exploits and leaving the "evidence" lying around, making for an easy conviction.

Business as Usual in the Sunshine State

Several years after Cocchiaro relocated down to Florida in 1984, he came under law enforcement’s radar screen and became a target of local authorities. Within three years, by mid-1987, police decided to start a criminal probe of his activities.

In January of 1988, Melio and his nephew Russ were among 19 mob figures and underlings indicted in South Florida after a six-month undercover investigation conducted by federal and state authorities.

Prosecutors charged the suspects with a variety of racketeering, conspiracy, and extortion counts for operating a Broward County bookmaking ring.

FBI mugshot of Carmelo Cocchiaro.

Among the defendants were high-ranking members and associates of both the DeCavalcante and Gambino Families, said Robert Lehner, chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Organized Crime Strike Force in Miami during a press conference.

A federal grand jury sitting in Fort Lauderdale released two indictments charging the defendants with multiple counts of loansharking , bookmaking, and strong-arm extortion.

“Threats of physical injury were used to compel victims to pay up,” Lehner said.

The indictments were considered significant because undercover agents were able to finally penetrate local organized crime hierarchies operating in South Florida, state and federal law enforcement spokesmen said.

The investigation first began under the direction of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE spokesman John Joyce told reporters, “We are dealing with some fairly major players in the crime family."

"A lot of people think that organized crime figures come to South Florida to retire and enjoy the sunshine, but I can tell you that they continue to do business as usual,” he said.

Working Hand-in-Hand

One of those charged was seventy-five-year-old Joseph (Joe Piney) Armone, who was identified by prosecutors at the time as the underboss of the Gambino Family in New York. At the time of his Florida arrest, Armone was awaiting sentencing in New York on a 1987 federal racketeering conviction.

Also arrested was seventy-year-old David (Fat Dave) Iacovetti, a notorious Gambino soldier and Fort Lauderdale restaurant owner who helped oversee Gambino family racket interests in both South Florida and Connecticut.

Carmelo Cocchiaro under arrest.

Nine other Florida-based defendants tied to the Gambino Family were arrested including mob “associates” Joseph Della, Frank Carrozza, Daniel Samela, Robert Grillo, Charles Bottiglieri, Eugene Vardis, Georgios Dedes, Michael Rounsley, and Edward Van Dorn.

FDLE Commissioner Robert R. Dempsey described the Gambino Family as “the largest, most influential criminal organization in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Las Vegas, Connecticut, and Florida. The DeCavalcante Family is smaller, but has enterprises in New Jersey, New York, and Florida.”

“They had interrelationships working in South Florida,” he said.

Authorities said the ring took wagers on professional and college sports events and lent money at annual interest rates ranging from 156 percent to 260 percent, equating to 3% to 5% weekly interest.

The group linked to the Gambino Family was charged with making $104,500 in loans between September 1986 and December 1987. They charged 1 percent to 5 percent per week in interest, according to the indictment.

Under Carmelo's Direction

The group linked to the DeCavalcante Family under the direction of then fifty-three-year-old Carmelo Cocchiaro was charged in a second eight-count indictment with extending $165,000 in loans and charging between 2 percent and 3 percent weekly interest.

Besides Cocchairo, five others were also named in the DeCavalcante Family indictment including his son, thirty-two-year-old Family soldier Rosario (Russ) Cocchiaro as well as Florida-based family “associates” Ralph Reda, Joseph Maimone, Joseph S. Santoro, and Norman Weissman.

Several defendants were also charged with extorting $100 per week from two victims for “protection.”

A young Melio.

The government also filed motions to have the assets of a Lauderdale Lakes gasoline station forfeited to the U.S. Justice Department. Prosecutors were seeking the forfeiture of $142,600 in interest, stock, assets, and inventory of the business.

Daniel Mariano and Spiro Lazarou were the owners of the business and both were also charged in the indictment. Authorities said Mariano and Lazarou allowed their service station to be used as the site of certain illegal transactions for the criminal enterprise, Lauderdale Lakes Mobil Station at 3100 West Oakland Park Blvd., the indictment said.

Cocchiaro and his nephew eventually pled out in a deal worked out with prosecutors to federal loansharking charges.

After the smoke cleared and Melio was released from jail, he did his best to keep a low-key profile from authorities. He was already in his mid-sixties and the underworld landscape was changing.

Carmelo (Melio) Cocchiaro passed away on October 1, 2010. He was seventy-five years old.

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