The Carione Brothers: Colombo Family Garbage Racketeers Extraordinare

Through the years, many hoodlums have been affiliated with New York’s Joseph Colombo Family. During the course of their careers, some would become notorious, while others operated quietly — some so quietly that they hardly caused a ripple, remaining anonymous throughout their lifetime. The Colombo Family’s Carione brothers were three such racketeers who fell into the “quieter” category.

Frank, Anthony and Joseph Carione originally came from Queens County. They and their sister Lucille were all born and raised in the Maspeth section of the borough.

Their father and mother, Angelo and Irena (nee’Guida) Carione, raised their children in a modest home located at 53-12 66th Street. Within their neighborhood, the Carione brothers were all known as rough and tumble knock-around kids, especially Frank and Anthony.

Anthony and Frank were the oldest. Their kid brother Joe emulated and looked up to them and generally followed their lead. Where they went, he went. What they did, he usually did. The three brothers were nearly inseparable.

As a young man coming of age in the neighborhood, one of Anthony’s first jobs was working for a coal and ice company as a truck driver making deliveries to neighborhood residents and businesses. Anthony eventually brought Frank into the business, getting him a job as a driver with the same company.

As they became more familiar with the ins and outs of the trucking industry, the Carione brothers eventually gravitated to the related field of debris and garbage removal .

Soon, the Cariones — ever ambitious young fellows that they were — decided to go into business for themselves. Their kid brother Joe eventually jumped into the mix as well.

This venture into the rubbish removal business became the fortuitous first step into what would turn out to be a career path that steered all three brothers for the rest of their lives.

From that time forward, the Cariones never looked back. It was the start of a profitable career in the private sanitation and carting industry.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

It appears that the Carione brothers were simply meant to be together. They were simpatico in nearly every way possible, from physical attributes to their behavior and character. What they liked and disliked, the things that interested them, right down to the type of girls they were attracted to.

In fact, if you weren’t paying attention, or just happened to glance at them quickly, you could even mistake one brother for the other. Thats how closely they resembled one another in both looks and mannerisms.

Anthony, born November 26, 1927, was the oldest. Anthony stood 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed in at 135 pounds. He had brown eyes, black hair and a dark complexion.

Frank, born March 26, 1929, was two years younger. Frank stood 5 feet 5 inches tall and was a few pounds lighter than his older brother, weighing in at a mere 125 pounds. He reportedly also had dark-brown eyes, black hair and a dark Mediterranean complexion.

An older Joseph A. Carione at his Long Island home.

Last, but not least, rounding out the trio was Joseph. Born on November 19, 1933, Joe was the youngest. Joe stood 5 feet 4 inches tall and also weighed about 130 pounds. He, too, was described as having dark-brown eyes and black hair and an olive-complexion.

The Carione brothers were virtually carbon-copies of one another.

And while they may not have been physically intimidating to look at, or made powerful first impressions, like the old saying goes — “looks can sometimes be deceiving.” In the case of the Carione brothers, no truer words were ever spoken.

What the Carione brothers may have lacked in physical appearance and presence they more than made up for in moxie and aggressiveness and tenacity. That became very obvious as time went on.

Takin' Out the Trash

Although the Cariones had grown up in Queens and had started their business there, by the 1950s, the brothers had all relocated out to Long Island, eventually moving the carting business out there with them.

Somewhere along the way, Frank met and started dating a local girl three years younger than him by the name of Maude Frances Melander, whom he eventually married.

At first the newlyweds moved into the same house as Frank’s parents. But by at least the early 1960s, Frank and Maude were able to buy a new home for themselves at 44 Bethany Drive, Commack, Long Island.

Frank Carione’s home, 44 Bethany Drive, Commack, L.I.

Some years later, they moved to a larger home they purchased at 80 Long Beach Road, in Saint James, a quiet neighborhood located a few miles further east.

By the early-mid 1960s, Frank Carione and his brothers started to expand their carting firm and started gaining more prominence within Long Island’s overall private carting industry.

It was around this same time that the Carione brothers were first publicly identified by local law enforcement authorities as being associated with key members of the Joseph Colombo Crime Family.

Tony Carione’s home at 37 Grayon Drive, Dix Hills, L.I.

Frank was the first one to receive unwanted newspaper publicly shortly after he was installed as the president of the newly formed Suffolk County Cartmens Association.

The Suffolk Cartmens Association functioned as a trade group to represent the collective interests of private carters within the garbage collection industry. With forty to fifty dues-paying companies, the group quickly became a powerful coalition and voice in the industry -- and Frank Carione became a major force to be reckoned with.

Of the three brothers, Frank was the one selected to head up the association. Now, whether he was “elected” by a democratic vote of the general membership, or whether the Colombo Family “bestowed” Frank his position, is anybody’s guess.

Joe Carione’s home at 166 Grassy Pond Drive, Smithtown, L.I.

Regardless of how he initially got there, as time went on, the true nature of Frank’s activities became more apparent to mob watchers and police investigators. Subsequently, Frank quickly gained notoriety as a garbage racketeer.

Despite Frank getting all the attention during those early years, behind the scenes, not far behind, were Frank’s two brothers right there with him in the trenches.

Here Comes the Heat

By the very nature and sordid history of the garbage carting industry, over the years, the police department and members of their detective bureau knew the nature of the beast. They also knew the unsavory backgrounds of many of the trade members who had joined Frank’s association.

Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had also taken the time to educate their Suffolk County colleagues about who the Carione family was related to.

It wasn’t long before Suffolk County Rackets Squad detectives decided to take a closer look at the inner workings and business methods employed by Frank and his trade association.

Detectives soon determined that the association was really nothing more than a mob “front” used as a “whip” by Carione and his Colombo Family benefactors to manipulate the private garbage industry on Long Island for their personal gain.

Under the guise of running a so-called “trade association,” authorities realized that Carione and his mob allies were perpetrating a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to stifle competition in order to control Suffolk County’s entire carting industry.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said that to achieve their goals, the Colombo Family used a bevy of criminal activity, which stifled competition from independent carters in order to benefit dues-paying “members” of Frank’s association — enabling them to better dominate and control the overall carting business and to extract various types of extortion payments and other payoffs.

To that end, the Colombo Family employed a number of terror tactics like making threats against rival carters, firebombing garbage trucks and equipment, sugaring gas tanks, slashing tires, smashing windshields, territory takeovers, restraint of trade, beatings, and murder.

And nobody was immune from being targeted. Because, in reality, the Suffolk Cartmens Association even shook down their own members in the form of the hefty monthly association “dues” payments that each member was compelled to pay to Frank and the mob.

Police sources said that the Suffolk County Cartmens Association reportedly had 70 garbage firms as members that reportedly collected 90% of the garbage routes in four Western Suffolk towns: Huntington, Smithtown, Islip, and Brookhaven.

Subsequently, favored members of the “association” enjoyed a near “lock” on Suffolk County’s private garbage collection industry.

Aside from his responsibilities as head of the association, Frank was also president of Riteway Carting Corp., of Terryville, which he owned and operated and was the major company stockholder. In the coming years, he also gained ownership interests in several additional carting companies.

Authorities said that Frank’s brothers were also deeply enmeshed in the carting industry. Tony and Joe both held ownership in a number of private garbage collection companies and were suspected of having hidden interests in several others as well.

The "True" Powers

But perhaps even more important than the myriad of carting firms the brothers ostensibly owned over the years was the “hidden” power behind their success.

Both local and federal law enforcement sources have confirmed on numerous occasions that key members of the Colombo crime family were behind the Cariones meteoric rise to power within the industry.

In fact, there is little doubt that without the Mafia behind them, the brothers would have never been able to reach the level of success they ultimately achieved.

Throughout their careers, the Cariones were friendly with and interacted with a wide variety of mob figures from several Families, but none of their mob connections ever came close to duplicating the pivotal roles that mobsters Andrew (Andy Mush) Russo and Carmine (The Snake) Persico played in their lives and careers.

You see, the Cariones weren’t just “associated” with Russo and Persico, they were actually related to them.

Andrew T. Russo

Carmine Persico

It is believed that the Cariones were direct blood cousins to the Russos. And the Russos were first cousins to the Persicos. So, subsequently, they were all related either through blood or by extension, through marriage.

So, in reality, the Carione brothers were also related to Persico’s two brothers: Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico and Theodore (Teddy) Persico.

And if that wasn’t already enough to spin your head, in addition, a number of other Colombo Family figures were also active within Long Island’s carting including soldier Vincent (Jimmy Brown) Muce and associates: Felice (Philly Cigars) Vizzari , John Montesano, Anthony Montesano, Angelo (Fat Angelo) Garofalo , and his brother, Vincent Garofalo, to name but a few.

Vincent Garofalo

When you add into the mix all the hoodlums from other Cosa Nostra borgatas active in Long Island’s carting business, it became the equivalent of an underworld “free-for-all” of mayhem and organized criminality.

By the mid-1960s, district attorneys in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties came to the exact same conclusion after a number of complaints from independent carters about being targeted with a long series of harassment involving vandalism and sabotage of their trucks and equipment, physical beatings of their employees, several shootings, and worse.

Local law enforcement authorities immediately dispatched teams of detectives from their Racket Squads to investigate.

By 1966, dozens and dozens of hoodlums, company owners, their employees, labor union officials, garbage industry bigwigs and others had been picked up and brought in for questioning regarding what they knew about Suffolk bombing incidents involving two garbage firms.

The end result was that the Suffolk District Attorney stated emphatically that the county’s private carting industry with rife with corruption.

The Pugilists

Around this same time — the mid-1960s — Tony Carione got into the boxing business after he went partners in a Queens boxing gym.

And although his primary business was always garbage carting, once he became involved in the gym, Tony was always on the lookout for new opportunities and ways to showcase and promote his fighters.

To that end, by the late 1960s, Tony became interested in the Commack Arena, which was a huge tented sports complex on Jericho Turnpike in Commack, located just a few miles east of Tony’s Dix Hills residence. Over the years, the Commack Arena became very popular for the wide variety of sporting events and music concerts they offered to the general public.

The Long Island Commack Arena

Tony viewed the arena as a perfect place to promote his fighters by organizing and staging paid “fight nights” — selling tickets at the door to eager boxing fans. So, Carione contacted the venue’s owners and negotiated to lease the premises in order to showcase his growing stable of boxers and to promote fight cards to the public.

For the next twenty years or so, he trained and managed a small stable of amateur and professional prizefighters, the most notable of which was a young Italian-born amateur boxer named Vito Antuofermo, who later rose to sports fame by turning pro and winning the World Middleweight Boxing Championship.

While still a teenager, Vito immigrated to the United States with his parents. The Antuofermo family lived in the Ozone Park section of Queens. Legend has it that young Vito was a tough kid and a natural-born scrapper who was always getting into fights and other types of trouble in the neighborhood.

He eventually came to the attention of several older neighborhood denizens who advised the young man to try his talents in the ring for money instead of fighting in the streets for nothing.

Vito agreed to try it out. So they introduced him to trainer Tony Carione, who invited the youngster to come down to his gym and go a few rounds in the ring.

After witnessing Vito a bit in the ring, Tony took a liking to him and decided the kid had some potential. So, he made an offer to formally take the young man under his wing and train him professionally. Antuofermo accepted the offer and started working out and boxing under Carione’s guidance and management.

Retired former middleweight boxing champion Vito Antuofermo poses for cameramen in 2006.

Tony eventually saw enough promise in the young boxer that he offered to put him under formal contract, becoming his trainer, manager, and promoter. From that day forward, Carione would help guide and promote Antuofermo’s career as a boxer.

Under Carione’s tutelage, Vito eventually turned professional, and over the next decade or so, Tony was able to line up a continuing series of bouts for Antuofermo.

Side Note: Although Carione officially “fronted” as Antuofermo’s manager and promoter as far as the public and the New York State Athletic Commission was concerned, “unofficially” it was widely known throughout the underworld that the real owner of Antuofermo’s contract belonged to longtime Colombo Family capo, Andrew (Andy Mush) Russo — and by extension, Russo’s cousin — Colombo Family boss Carmine (The Snake) Persico.

Tony brought Vito along nicely and got him good-paying boxing matches at Madison Square Garden, in New York; The Tropicana Hotel & Casino, in Las Vegas, and at other top venues around the country and across the pond in Europe.

Vito fought many bouts against some very talented boxers, including Emile Griffith, Alan Minter, Rodrigo Valdes, Vinny Curto, Eckhard Dagge, Tony (The Kid) Durango, Hugo Corro and Harold Weston. He eventually accumulated a professional record of 59 fights: 50 wins (21 by knockout), 7 losses, and 2 draws.

Over the course of his boxing career, Vito also held a number of titles, including: World Boxing Association middleweight champion (160 lbs), World Boxing Conference (160 lbs), Ring magazine middleweight champion (160 lbs), and European Light-Middleweight Champion (154 lbs).

The New Champ

Back when he was an amateur Vito won the 1970 New York Golden Gloves Championship crown by beating Thomas Chestnut, before later turning pro.

In the coming years, he fought a number of fighters before finally landing a title shot on June 30, 1979, in Monte Carlo against defending World Middleweight champ Hugo Pastor Corro.

They fought a tough 15-round match that Vito won by a close decision from the judges. That night Antuofermo became the new undisputed World Middleweight Champion of both the WBC (World Boxing Council) and WBA (World Boxing Association) titles.

But arguably, the most important match he ever fought took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on November 30, 1979, when Antuofermo took on challenger Marvin “Marvelous Marvin” Hagler for the World Championship Middleweight Crown. It was a legendary match.

Defending middleweight champ Vito Antuofermo takes a hard right-hook from challenger Marvin Hagler in Las Vegas bout.

The 15-round fight ended in a controversial draw, where Antuofermo retained his WBA and WBC Titles despite many observers believing that Hagler had won the fight.

One sports commentator later described the fight this way:

“On the night of Friday, November 30, 1979, at the famous Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, the most avoided and feared fighter of the middleweight division, finally got his due and opportunity to fight for the World Middleweight Crown owned by champion, the rugged Vito Antuofermo of Italy, via Brooklyn, New York…

It was an action-packed fight from start to finish. Marvelous had Antuofermo bleeding in both eyelids, and the referee didn't stop the fight. Antuofermo didn't bow out and kept fighting, giving the public a terrific performance of will, heart, and determination…

But, Marvelous outboxed him. No doubt about it. Maybe Marvelous didn't press the gas enough in the late rounds and took off some rounds. Or maybe he was just tired. Or maybe Antuofermo was just really good…

Whatever the case, the fight ended as a draw. In one of the great Middleweight World Championship fights in history, Marvelous left disappointed and had to wait another full year for a title shot…

That was the same night when Sugar Ray Leonard became WBC World Welterweight Champion when he stopped Wilfred Benitez in 15 rounds.”

It is quite possible — even probable — that the judge's final score cards that night, which ended in a split-decision draw allowing Antuofermo to retain his title, were influenced by Andy Russo and the mob who made sure that their boy came out on top at all costs.

And aside from the reported $190,000 “purse” Antuofermo and his camp earned that night, there is also little doubt that Russo, Persico, and Carione made another financial killing that night by betting on the outcome of the fight — betting the “smart money” as its called.

By comparison, “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler — as the challenger — received a much smaller purse of $40,000 for the fight.

The 10 Most Powerful

In 1978, Newsday released a blockbuster series titled “Garbage: The Mob Is Still Collecting,” which exposed the mob’s continued dominance over Long Island’s garbage carting industry in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Bid rigging, bribery, payoffs, illegal dumping, shylocking, threats and coercion, extortion, sugared gas-tanks, truck arsons, fire-bombings, assaults and shootings, contract murders.

It was obvious that very little — if anything at all — had changed within Long Island’s carting industry over the past decade or so.

The series became another damning public indictment of the entire carting business.

The newspaper reported that authorities said dozens and dozens of mob figures were active in the industry, but that members and associates of the Colombo and Gambino Families were the most dominant hidden mob powers on the island.

Newsday then identified ten specific organized crime figures considered to be the most influential, according to various law enforcement and industry sources.

What follows are a few excerpts from the article and a partial sampling of the list:

“Aniello (Wahoo) Mancuso, of 15-28 Parsons Blvd., Whitestone, Queens. Has been a behind-the-scenes advisor to the Nassau and Suffolk Cartmens Associations. Identified by federal informer Joseph Valachi as a member of the Carlo Gambino Family. He is a close friend and was formerly on the payroll of powerful carting executive Joseph (Joe Mooney) Petrizzo. He was also a paid official of the Suffolk Cartmens Association. Brother Gennaro and cousin Vincent (Jimmy Jerome) Squillante used to be the top Long Island garbage racketeers. Has a gambling conviction.

Aniello Mancuso

Andrew (Mush) Russo, 46, of Simonson Road, Old Brookville. Active in garbage rackets on Long Island and nationally. Colombo Family captain. Hosts other top mob figures at parties at his five-acre estate. Has met with Mancuso to rule on carting disputes. Owned a Valley Stream carting firm. Cousins to the Carione brothers and to prominent hoodlum, Carmine (The Snake) Persico. Has been active in credit card rackets. Five arrests, one conviction for assault.

Frank Carione, 48, of 80 Long Beach Road, Nissequogue. Former president of Suffolk Cartmen’s Association. Identified by police as a Colombo Family associate. Has held carting contracts for the entire State University at Stony Brook. Close to Andrew Russo, his cousin. Owns Riteway Sanitation Corp. and Quickway Sanitation Corp., both in East Setauket. Served a year in prison for abduction.

Anthony (Tony) Carione, 51, of 37 Grayon Drive, Dix Hills. Brother of Frank and also identified as a Colombo Family associate. Twice denied liquor licenses because of mob connections. Owns Grand Carting, in West Babylon, and several other carting companies, some with his brother Frank. Currently has carting contracts for State University at Stony Brook and Nassau County government buildings in Mineola. Associates with Mancuso, Russo and Persico. Executive board member of the Waste Removal Institute of Nassau and Suffolk. Three disorderly conduct convictions in gambling-related cases and two additional arrests for assault and abduction that were later dismissed.”

The article went on to further identify, through thumbnail sketches, six other mob figures who law enforcement officials named as being among the most prominent mobsters in the industry. They were Felice (Philly Cigars) Vizzari, Anthony Pisciotta, Vincent Garofalo, and Frank (Frankie the Bug) Sciortino , all identified as Colombo-oriented hoodlums, and Paul Vario Sr., and his nephew, Peter Vario, both connected to the Lucchese Family.

Frank Sciortino

Bid Rigging & Other Pastimes

On June 27, 1979, law enforcement authorities publicly announced they had formed a federal strike force to investigate whether payoffs or undue political influence affected the awarding of construction, hauling, and labor contracts for Hempstead Town’s $110 million garbage recycling plant, Hempstead Resources Recovery Corporation.

The FBI said that the contract awarded to haul the plant’s ash and other waste to town landfills is held by Haulage Enterprise Corp., whose president, Pasquale (Patty) DiMatteo, has been a partner of mob associate Anthony (Tony) Carione in a refuse container corporation.

Police and carting sources say that “Carione, who had a criminal record for minor gambling offenses, has been active in garbage racketeering on Long Island with members of the crime organization once headed by Joseph Colombo.”

They said that Anthony Carione is a close associate of Colombo Family captain Andrew Russo. They stated that for several years, Carione was listed as the owner of record of Russo’s four-acre estate in Old Brookville.

Joseph A. Colombo Sr.

On February 5, 1980, Islip Town officials reported they had temporarily suspended the dumping permit of Grand Carting Inc. after evidence was brought to their attention that the company was illegally depositing garbage from Brookhaven Town into the Islip landfill on a regular basis.

The four-week suspension followed an administrative hearing one day earlier at which Grand Carting’s secretary, Joe Carione, admitted that the company had made an illegal dump.

But town officials said it was the second time in seven months that Grand Carting had been caught dumping garbage from another town in the Islip landfill. They stated the imposed suspension will now effectively prevent Grand Carting from collecting rubbish from any of its customer stops.

Officials also noted for the record that Grand Carting had been named in a 1978 Newsday series on Long Island’s carting industry as one of the mob-connected firms that had successfully rigged municipal bids for a number of years.

Authorities also noted that Grand Carting held hauling contracts for various Nassau County government buildings in Mineola and for the State University at Stony Brook.

Passing the Torch

As the years passed, the stranglehold the Colombo Family once had on Suffolk’s carting rackets and the power their Gambino Family counterparts held in Nassau County started to wane. Years of continued police investigations and arrests had slowly taken their toll.

The gutting of Colombo and Gambino Family operations only served to leave new openings for other Mafia factions to come fill the void created and seize control of Long Island’s lucrative carting industry for themselves.

As Yogi Berra, the Hall of Fame New York Yankees catcher, famously liked to say — “It’s déjà vu all over again” — albeit, under the jurisdiction of rival Cosa Nostra Families.

Enter the notorious Antonio (Tony Ducks) Corallo and his Lucchese Family.

Corallo, long considered to be a major labor racketeer of some note, had long ago cut his teeth as a young up-and-coming mafioso by first infiltrating and then corrupting a wide swathe of industries in the New York Metropolitan area.

Antonio Corallo

Through the use of strong-arm methods, bribery, coercion, extortion and murder, over the years “Tony Ducks” had taken over numerous important labor unions and industry trade groups which allowed him and his direct superior, legendary Mafia boss Gaetano (Tommy Brown) Lucchese, and many of their fellow Mafia members to become very wealthy men.

Subsequently, Long Island’s private carting industry was right up Corallo’s alley and just another chapter in his playbook as a master labor-racketeer extraordinaire.

Don’t get me wrong, the Colombos and Gambinos weren’t totally eliminated or cut out of the garbage rackets altogether. In fact, far from it. Both Families still owned and ran many carting firms and continued to retain plenty of racket interests within the industry. It’s just that the carting industry on Long Island was no longer exclusively theirs to control, nor did they enjoy the dominant positions they once did.

Slowly, but surely, the Lucchese Family became one of the most dominant — if not the most dominant — Mafia faction in control of the Long Island market.

But that too had its own shelf life. The Luccheses weren’t immune from either investigation or prosecution.

That fact became painfully evident in 1995 when the Attorney General for the State of New York brought a sweeping anti-trust civil lawsuit against dozens of Long Island-based carting companies and their principals for what was described as…

“A lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York entitled: State of New York v. Salem Sanitary Carting Corp., et al., CV-85-0208 (ILG). It is alleged in this lawsuit that certain garbage carting companies and individuals (the defendants) have violated federal antitrust laws by allocating customers among themselves. It is further alleged that, as a result of defendant's conduct, the prices paid for garbage collection services were higher than they otherwise would have been. Defendant's deny these allegations and deny any violation of law. The defendants that have been named in this case are listed below…”

It then went on to name 22 carting firms and 20 lead defendants, among them a number of mob members and their associates, including Lucchese Family capodecina, Salvatore (The Golfer) Avellino Jr.

The lawsuit also made note to mention that because of a lack of sufficient evidence, the following defendants had been dropped from the case. They included Lucchese boss Antonio (Tony Ducks) Corallo, underboss Salvatore (Tom Mix) Santoro, and Colombo associate Frank Carione.

The FBI Takes Another, Harder Look

After another long and protracted investigation — which federal sources later said employed both overt and covert operations — on September 11, 1996, the FBI charged Dennis Hickey and five others with garbage racketeering and running carting firms for the mob. The FBI said it was a nine-year-long scheme that raked in over $15 million illegally from the collecting of commercial garbage in the Town of Islip.

“The indictment alleges that the sole purpose of Hickey’s companies was to help facilitate the control and domination by organized crime over the carting industry on Long Island.”

In the indictment, Hickey was listed as an associate of the Colombo crime family and a member of Andrew Russo’s personal crew.

Carting industry magnate Dennis Hickey is handcuffed and escorted by FBI agents after his arrest on racketeering charges.

At a news conference held to announce the case, James Kallstrom, head of the FBI’s New York office, stated: “Under the guise of ostensibly operating under the carting license of Carione’s companies, Hickey, under Russo’s protection and direction, set up several dummy corporations to secretly continue to collect garbage in Islip in 1987 after he had been barred from obtaining a town carting license because he had been convicted of bribing town officials. On January 5, 1987, Hickey pleaded guilty to conspiracy and grand larceny, admitting he had made payments to town landfill employees so his company could dump waste there without paying fees.”

Kallstrom said the scheme had inflated the cost of garbage collection in Islip by barring competition from other carters and led to a hidden “mob tax” on the cost of doing business in the town.

Authorities said that if convicted, the defendants each faced up to 20 years on each count. In addition, the government demanded that Hickey and his colleagues pay back the $15 million they allegedly took through the scheme.

The federal government then moved to seize all assets of the defendants, including Hickey’s various carting companies and properties, which included several private homes that he owned on Long Island. Federal officials estimated the total value of Hickey’s properties alone at more than $25 million.

Hickey’s wife Marie was also charged…

…as was their son, Dennis Hickey Jr.

The government also asked the federal courts to immediately place Hickey’s three carting firms under the control of a federal court “monitor” while the court considers whether to permanently take them over. Federal officials identified the firms as Hickey’s Carting, Competition Carting, and Grand East Carting, each of which they said was based in Central Islip.

“This prosecution and forfeiture is part of our continuing effort to wrest control of the Long Island carting industry from members and associates of organized crime — company by company.” U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter said in a written statement.

The FBI stated that along with taking Dennis Hickey, and his partner, 61-year-old Andrew Russo into custody, they also arrested Hickey’s wife, Maria, his son, Dennis, 63-year-old Joseph Carione, of 264 Secatogue Lane, West Islip, and his son, Angelo Carione, 39 years old, of 75 Walter Court, Commack.

At the time of their indictment, Joe Carione and his son were said to be operating the Grand Carting Corp., of 98 Kean Street, West Babylon.

According to FBI agents, the Carione family had officially obtained the license to operate in Islip, but that Joe Carione was actually only a frontman for Hickey and Russo.

The Chickens Come Home to Roost

After a long series of delays and postponements by both prosecutors and defense attorneys, three years later, on February 19, 1999 Andrew T. Russo, Dennis Hickey, his wife, Maria Hickey, their son Dennis E. Hickey, along with several others charged in the illegal carting scheme agreed to enter guilty pleas, which officially brought to a close the racketeering case against them.

Each defendant pled to racketeering and conspiracy charges before a Federal Judge in United States District Courthouse in Hauppauge.

On the day they were sentenced, the judge ordered Andrew Russo to spend the next 5 years in prison. Dennis Hickey got 6.5 years behind bars and was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $6.9 million in restitution, along with another $600,000 owed in back taxes.

Maria Hickey pled guilty to federal income-tax evasion and got 5 years probation. Dennis E. Hickey pled guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and inflating insurance claims on several damaged vehicles owned by the Hickey Carting Company. He got 5 years criminal probation.

Joseph A. Carione in federal custody as he’s led to FBI Headquarters in Melville.

The feds also nabbed Joe’s son, Angelo Carione.

Joseph Carione and his son Angelo both pled guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud. They both received 5 years criminal probation. And on behalf of his company, Grand Carting Corp., Joseph Carione also pled guilty to one count of racketeering.

William Grainger, who was identified as an employee of Hickey Carting, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and inflating insurance claims on damaged company vehicles. He too received 5 years probation.

Sunshine State Shenanigans

Beyond his carting operations and criminal activities on Long Island, by the late 1960s, it appears that Tony Carione also became active down in Florida — in fact, all across Florida — after they decided to relocate there and live as part-time, semi-annual residents of the Sunshine State.

In 1970, Anthony and Barbara Carione decided to buy a second home in Seminole County, a beautiful ranch-style residence at 378 Forest Park Circle, in Longwood.

Already long since retired, Tony Carione relaxes at his home in Florida.

Later that same year, on December 1, 1970, Carione — ever the entrepreneur — opened up another carting company he named, H & W Refuse Service, Inc., with a partner, Joseph Ardolina.

Tony and Joe ran H & W Refuse Service from offices and a truck depot at 555 Hope Street, Longwood, conveniently located just a few miles from Carione’s home.

Carione listed himself as company president. Ardolina served as the vice-president.

The partners operated the firm for over a decade, but finally closed up shop and dissolved the corporation on November 10, 1983.

Authorities noted that Joe Ardolina also owned another local carting firm named Rite-Way Sanitation Corp.. which was also incorporated in Florida. This company was named after another carting firm the Carione family owned in New York. Although not on the incorporation papers, Tony Carione probably held an ownership interest in the Florida Rite-Way company as well.

At some point, Joe Carione decided to join Tony in Florida. But he and his wife preferred the West Palm Beach area better, so they bought a home at 3959 N. Ocean Drive.

Closing Up Shop

Anthony Carione died of natural causes in Florida on July 26, 2025. He was waked locally at the Highland Funeral Home, Orange County, and interred at a nearby cemetery in Orlando. Tony had made it to the very respectable old age of 97.

By the time of his death, Tony was already long-retired from both the carting business and boxing promotion.

Back in February 1981, Frank Carione had suffered a heart attack in New York, That forced him to start thinking about slowing down. So he reportedly sold his interest in Riteway Carting Company.

But as it turned out, Frank survived for another thirty-five years. He finally died of natural causes on February 1, 2016. Frank was 86.

Joseph Carione died in his sleep at his Smithtown home on October 18, 2021. Joe was 87.

On review, each of the brothers seems to have lived a good life and had done very well for themselves in their careers.

With the exception of that one jail bid Anthony and Frank did back when they were kids, none of the brothers ever did another day in jail. Yet, they were in the thick of it for many decades, and had, no doubt, made plenty of money along the way.

Not bad! Not bad at all!

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

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The Carione Brothers: Colombo Family Garbage Racketeers Extraordinare

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