Frank Pasqua, Sr. – Narcotics “Czar” of the Gambino Family

Frank Pasqua Sr. was a soldier in the Gambino Crime Family who authorities considered a narcotics "czar" and a top interstate narcotics trafficker .

In fact, authorities believed that Pasqua was a steady source of supply for several mafia-connected Windy City heroin traffickers . But he was also involved in other rackets including stolen securities fraud and extortion.

In addition, Pasqua had many family members including two sons and several grandsons who were involved in the mafia. His son Richard and his grandson Frank Pasqua III would later become federal informants .

Continue reading for more about the life of Frank Pasqua Sr. in this in-depth biography.

Frank Pasqua Sr. - Early Life

Frank (Big Frank) Pasqua. Sr. - aka “Frank Page,” “Frank Pasquale,” “Frank Hunt,” - was born in Upper Manhattan on January 13, 1923. As a young man, he resided and operated in the Harlem and Bronx sections of New York City for many years.

His known stomping grounds were always East and West Harlem, the Bronx, Westchester and the City of Chicago. In fact, for quite a few years Frank Pasqua commuted regularly back and forth to the Windy City on business.

Frank was built big. At six feet tall and tipping the scales at over 250 pounds, it was easy to see how Pasqua acquired his nickname. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes, a swarthy complexion, and a bulky frame.

Frank Pasqua

Frank got married young to a local girl named Mildred (nee’ Bartolamucci), and at first, he and his wife lived in a small Bronx apartment. By the late 1950s, they were residing at 974 Rhinelander Avenue, Bronx.

But he and his wife were creating a family that eventually grew to six children, and Pasqua soon decided to invest some of his growing underworld profits into purchasing a modest new home in Suffolk County on Long Island for his fledgling young family which now included a gaggle of kids.

Among them, he had several sons (Frank Jr. and Richard) who both later joined the mob in future years as they grew into adulthood.

Gone Bad

Note: He also had several grandsons who got involved in underworld life. It’s important to note that his son Richard, and grandson Frank III, would both become undercover FBI and DEA informants in later years.

Dating back to the 1920s era, there was another Frank Pasqua who may have been related to our subject as either an uncle or cousin (his father’s name was Natale). This man lived and operated up in Harlem.

He was ostensibly the owner-operator of a funeral home on East 116th Street. This Pasqua was a small-time crook and bootlegger who plotted the murder of a local man to collect life insurance in league with several other small-time hoods. He was among four executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in 1934 for this crime.

Moving Up in the World

The Pasqua family was soon living in a bungalow-styled, single-family residence at 38 Shore Drive, way out on Mastic Beach on the extreme South Shore.

This was a beachfront community of both summer and year-round homes that served the dual purpose of upgrading the Pasqua family’s lifestyle from gritty inner-city apartment life and exposure to Frank’s underworld activities but which also necessitated Frank having to maintain another separate Bronx apartment for those late nights out at the Copacabana Nightclub and other Manhattan hotspots.

It just wasn’t conducive to driving the nearly 70-mile nightly trip home from the city at four or five each morning after doing his business.

In later years, Frank Pasqua relocated off the island and moved back up around the Bronx section of the city. His last known home address was 51 Rosedale Avenue, New Rochelle.

FBI # 241577B

Top Narcotics Trafficker

Frank Pasqua was repeatedly officially listed by the FBI, and in U.S. Senate Hearings over the years as an inducted member or "soldier" in the Carlo Gambino Family. He was thought to have been connected to one of their Bronx regimes.

He was described over the years by various law enforcement agencies as a top interstate narcotics trafficker.

In fact, back in the late 1950s, the FBI and Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD), which was the precursor to the current day Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), identified Pasqua as the head of a direct New York to Chicago drug pipeline.

The FBN said that Frank Pasqua was a steady source of supply for several mafia-connected Windy City heroin traffickers.

At the time, the FBI labeled him the biggest narcotics supplier in the Chicago area. By mid-1958, he was already incarcerated on drug charges.

Known narcotics dealers and mob associates Frank Panatera and Jack Rizzo were allegedly the distributors of Pasqua-supplied China White heroin that was shipped monthly to them for redistribution throughout the City of Chicago.

Depending upon the availability and need, sale amounts ranged from a mere three or four ounces per deal to one pound or more at a time.

Aside from the aforementioned Panatera and Rizzo, other close underworld associates of Frank’s over the years included these Bronx-based hoodlums of the Anastasia/Gambino Family: soldiers Giacomo (Jack) Scarpulla , James (Jimmy Ward) Massi, Germaio (Jerry) Anaclerio, Michael (Black Mike) Galgano , Alexander (Nick) DeBene, and Charles (Sleepy) Barcellona. Gambino capos Rocco Mazzie, and Vincent (Jimmy Jerome) Squillante, and Harlem drug traffickers Frank Corona, John (Johnny Schlitz) Ricciadulli. Pasqua was also extremely close to a blood-thirsty Chicago capo named Angelo (The Hook) LaPietra, and his brother, soldier James (Jimmy the Lapper) LaPietra.

A Devout Hoodlum

Frank Pasqua was a devout hoodlum through and through and was totally devoted to his underworld craft.

And although he dabbled in several other lucrative rackets over the years as opportunities arose, by and large, “Big Frank,” as he was commonly referred to, was a peddler of that deadly white powder - heroin or babania as it's known in the Italian underworld.

During the 1950s through 1970s period, he ostensibly held several legitimate investments in such businesses as a small produce trucking company. He even held an ownership interest in a recording studio.

It was also reported that he once held a 10% ownership interest in Seville Records, located in midtown Manhattan.

Pasqua was also once listed as the manager and held a proprietary interest in the ‘singing contract’ of an up-and-coming pop vocalist named Janice Harper. His record label later figured into a scandal and criminal investigation by the Nassau County District Attorney’s office.

Swirling Investigations

Criminal investigations seem to have swirled all around Frank and his immediate family his entire life.

In 1965, Frank was named in connection with an extortion case in which Bronx hoodlum James (Jimmy Crosby) Squillante was indicted for allegedly extorting $30,000 from a Nassau music publisher.

The composer of the hit song “Java” was allegedly approached by Squillante, who then tried several methods to squeeze and threaten the man into paying.

Nassau District Attorney William Cahn said at the time that although Pasqua and two other Cosa Nostra figures were involved in the case, they could not be directly connected to the actual extortion so they were not arrested.

Squillante later pled guilty to a coercion charge as a misdemeanor and disturbing the peace. He was given a one-year suspended sentence.

But Pasqua was considered the driving force behind the extortion plot.

Another example was in March of 1970 when his 24-year-old son Richard was one of eighteen people nabbed in a twenty-seven count indictment by the Federal Grand Jury sitting in Brooklyn in connection with the illegal passing of U.S. Treasury Bonds valued at over $500,000.

Richard Pasqua was specifically charged with conspiracy, forgery, transportation, and the sale of illegal securities.

The Plot Revealed

Federal Strike Force authorities stated that over a period of roughly three and half years, the ring’s conspirators devised a scheme to funnel bonds stolen in burglaries that were committed in the county of Brooklyn to ring members called "passers."

The "passers" would then acquire forged identification papers such as NYS driver's licenses and other backup IDs. They then traveled throughout the Long Island and New York Metropolitan area cashing in the stolen securities.

The ringleader of the operation was reported to be a known 44-year-old Brooklyn hoodlum named Joseph (Joe Carlo) Calabro. At one point, Frank Pasqua Sr. was also suspected to have maybe played a behind-the-scenes role in the scam.

Two years later in 1972, the case finally came to a head.

After a four-week trial, nine hoods connected to the Colombo Family were convicted before Federal Judge Jacob Mishler.

Trial testimony revealed that the stolen-securities ring was in operation for ten years and that the principal victims were two banks located in Nassau County: Hempstead Bank and Peninsula National Bank.

Ring members would first obtain the bonds and other stolen securities from "mob clearinghouses" that had bought the stolen securities at a huge discount and then resold them to the ring. “Passers” would then use false identities to cash the securities at banks by forging signatures.

Denis Dillon, head of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force said that in 1968 alone, the ring cashed $1,000,000 in stolen bonds and another $30,000 in stolen money orders.

Kingpin Joe Calabro, a Brooklyn resident, who was identified as a member of the Colombo Family, received five-years imprisonment.

Mastic Beach resident John Conforti was sentenced to ten years in jail, and his Mastic Beach partner Richie Pasqua received five years.

A Narcotics Czar

In May 1968, Frank was indicted on three counts of federal income-tax evasion for failing to pay taxes on $23,429 he earned in 1962.

He was specifically charged with failure to file, failure to pay, and evasion of income taxes totaling about $4,600 on $23,429 from a stock transaction.

The prosecutor said the money came from a $50,000 plus business deal.

But throughout his entire career, if there was one constant in his life, it was heroin. Frank Pasqua Sr. was, without a doubt, a top Mafia-connected heroin merchant for decades. And his criminal record reflected as much.

Over the years, he was arrested and indicted for such offenses as assault, conspiracy, tax evasion, and several narcotics-related cases. He served a four-year federal term in 1958 for heroin conspiracy.

In 1984, nearly thirty years later, he served another long prison term for his conviction on heroin possession, drug sales, and conspiracy.

At the time of his 1968 tax case, the federal prosecutor advised the judge that Pasqua was a “former narcotics czar” and was still listed in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics handbook distributed nationally to police.

As a side note: In 1965, Suffolk County Arson Investigators opened up a criminal probe after Pasqua’s Mastic Beach home was badly damaged in an apparent case of arson.

Firefighters who fought the blaze reported smelling kerosene odors. Labeling it ‘"definitely suspicious,’" Pasqua was questioned several times by arson detectives.

Neighbors told police that they had seen a late-model car pulling away from the home only 10 minutes before the home burst into flames.

The home, valued at between $40,000 and $60,000, had been insured by Pasqua for $136,000, police said. After several months of following up on various leads and criminal theories, the case remains unsolved to this day.

Frank Pasqua

The Lure of Heroin

In 1982, Frank Pasqua was indicted on narcotics charges yet again. But this time around it was with his son Frank Jr., his wife Rosemary Pasqua, and several top mafiosi and fellow drug traffickers.

In highly-publicized arrests, U.S. Attorney General William French Smith announced the arrests of twenty-one individuals on heroin trafficking, racketeering, and other federal charges in New York City. The arrests were the result of a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Former FBI Director William H. Webster told reporters at the time, “This is one of the biggest narcotics cases involving organized crime members and associates ever to be investigated."

"These arrests will have a significant impact on heroin trafficking in New York, which is a major supplier of hard narcotics to the country,” he said.

It was alleged that the drug network was based out of the Bronx, and many members of the ring were, in fact, residents of the Bronx, or hung around that area of the city.

Among those arrested with Pasqua Sr. were his son Frank Pasqua Jr., Dominic Tufaro, Frank Tufaro, Ronald Marrazzo, Frederick Sindona, Lucchese soldier Nicholas (Nick the Baron) Bonina, and Michael Pagano.

Others included Colombo capo Alphonse C. (Little Allie Boy) Persico, Colombo soldier Anthony (Tony the Gawk) Augello , Colombo associate John Donnelly, Ronald Seifert, Gambino soldier Guido (The Bull) Penosi, Lucchese associate William Castaldi, Frank Torrioni, Genovese associate William (Billy) Cilenti, Gabriel Letizia, Joseph Wilson, Louis Macchiarola, Michael Carbone, Susan Kantor, and Rosemary Pasqua.

Criminal counts included racketeering, narcotics trafficking and distribution, operating an illegal gambling business, and harboring a federal fugitive.

Authorities alleged that approximately 15% of all heroin sold in New York City was supplied by this network.

Off to Prison

After a lengthy trial, all the defendants were convicted. The reputed kingpin, Dominic Tufaro, received a prison sentence of 40 years behind bars with no chance of parole for "operating a continuing criminal enterprise." He was also fined $200,000.

Tufaro’s “chief lieutenant,” former Las Vegas blackjack dealer Ronald Marrazzo, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and fined $100,000 for his narcotics and racketeering conviction.

Frederick Sindona, described by prosecutors as a "money man" for a large group of narcotics dealers and Cosa Nostra members received 12 years in jail and a $25,000 fine for narcotics conspiracy charges.

Frank Pasqua Jr. was described as an "enforcer" for Tufaro and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and fined $50,000.

In asking the judge for a 30-year term for young Pasqua, prosecutors asserted that Pasqua “hopes and strives for a life in organized crime like his father before him.”

Dominic Tufaro was described as a former member of East Harlem’s “Purple Gang” that wholesaled heroin to several of the Five Families .

Prosecutors asserted that Tufaro dealt hundreds of pounds of heroin while a fugitive from justice between 1975 to 1982 and that his ring used profits to finance illegal gambling rackets .

“Dominic Tufaro has devoted his life to the distribution of heroin, starting in the narcotics business at the age of 21, the prosecutor stated in his letter to the sentencing judge.

The Outcome for Pasqua Sr.

There was no official record available that stated the precise prison term that Frank Pasqua Sr. received for this last heroin conviction.

He may have pled out early to avoid a costly and lengthy trial and, of course, the possibility of a long sentence. “Big Frank” was, after all, a well-known organized crime figure and a multiple-time convicted drug trafficker.

The BOP, or Bureau of Prisons, lists his release date as December 5, 1988. That means that he probably pled out in a deal with federal prosecutors that called for a jail term in the neighborhood of eight to nine years or so.

His case fell under the old federal sentencing guidelines where you max out at two-thirds of your sentence. So, he probably served in the neighborhood of five to six years behind bars.

Not a bad plea considering his label as a former “narcotics czar” and kingpin of a “New York to Chicago heroin pipeline.” He was getting on in years and this was a smart plea. It allowed Frank to get out of prison by his mid-late sixties.

Frank Sr. had been specifically hit with conspiracy to distribute heroin, the sale of heroin, possession of heroin, gambling conspiracy, money laundering, operating an illegal gambling business, and lastly, harboring a fugitive.

No more was ever heard from him publicly again. At least not in newspaper headlines or any criminal indictments with his name on them.

He seems to have kept his head low after that. He was already past 65 years old.

Frank Pasqua Sr. was believed to have passed away in the year 1996. If this is true, Frank would have been about 73 years old.

Until next time… “The Other Guy”

Frank Pasqua, Sr. – Narcotics “Czar” of the Gambino Family

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Frank Pasqua, Sr. – Narcotics “Czar” of the Gambino Family

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

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You May Also Enjoy

The Eugene Catena Regime Leadership Chart

*BG Exclusive* Iconic Genovese Soldier – Philip (Philly Katz) Albanese

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