Investigators at the Queens District Attorney’s Squad and cops recently put the brakes on a team of tow truck drivers who stole more than 20 vehicles parked on city streets and sold them to a Queens junkyard affiliated with Victoria Gotti, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Brown said the drivers towed mostly heavy vehicles to A&J Scrap Metal Processing in Jamaica where they were paid $200 to $400 for each vehicle. They proved ownership of the vehicles by presenting a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) form containing the make, model and Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), authorities said.
According to authorities, A&J is located on a lot co-owned by Victoria Gotti and her ex-husband, Carmine Agnello, under the company name “Three Sons Real Estate”. The address listed on the deed for the lot is the same as Gotti’s Old Westbury, Long Island home.
The stolen vehicles included a 1983 Oldsmobile Delta 88, several 1998 Ford Econoline vans and a 1989 Chevy Caprice.
Brown said the suspects, who stole and sold the cars between May and October 2010, are identified as Francisco Adames, 40, LePaul Gammons, Lawrence Bellino, 37, Jonathan Colon, 35, and Michael Olivio, 42.
Each was charged with criminal possession of stolen property and related crimes. Gammons was also charged with grand larceny.
Adames, Bellino and Colon were released without bail at their arraignments at Queens Supreme Court. Gammons and Olivio were held in lieu of $2,500 bail, Brown said.
A sixth suspect, Jeffrey Sierra, owner of Vision Towing in Queens, was charged with falsifying business records. Vision Towing owns one of the trucks used to tow the vehicles.
—Liz Goff