Louis Ricco also known as "Louie Bracciole" is a longtime member of the Gambino crime family

Gambino crime family

The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...

, holding the rank of caporegime

Caporegime

A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo, is a term used in the Mafia for a high ranking made member of a crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization...

 with illegal activities in the Bronx, New York, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 and Brooklyn, New York.

Promoted by Big Paul

Louis Ricco was recognized as a caporegime with a crew based in the Bronx since the early 1980s, under the leadership of Paul "Big Paul" Castellano

Paul Castellano

Constantino Paul "Big Paul" Castellano , also known as "The Howard Hughes of the Mob" and "Big Paulie" , was an American Mafia boss in New York City. He succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family, at the time, the nation's largest Mafia family...

. Ricco resides in Lodi, New Jersey

Lodi, New Jersey

Lodi is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 24,136. The borough of Lodi is governed under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law.Lodi owes its name to the Italian city of Lodi...

.

On January 21, 1998, Ricco, Junior Gotti

Junior Gotti

John Angelo Gotti III or "Junior" Gotti is a former New York City mobster who in the 1990s, according to law enforcement claims, led the Gambino crime family of Cosa Nostra for his imprisoned father John J. Gotti, who died in 2002. Between 2004 and 2009 Gotti has been a defendant in four...

, and 38 other Gambino mobsters were indicted on federal racketeering charges. Ricco's charges stemmed from his illegal gambling and loansharking activities. Part of the evidence used against Ricco and Gotti was gathered from listening devices placed under dinner plates in a Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

 restaurant. On January 12, 1999, Ricco pled guilty to one count of loansharking and was sentenced to 43 months in the Federal Correctional Facility in Otisville

Otisville

Otisco is the name of some places in the United States:* Otisville, Michigan* Otisville, New York...

. In early 2001, Ricco was released from prison.

Operations in Jersey

On October 17, 2001, Ricco was indicted in New Jersey on third degree conspiracy

Conspiracy (crime)

In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

 and third degree promoting gambling. After pleading guilty to the gambling charge, he was sentenced to three years in state prison to run concurrently with his Federal sentence. On December 17, 2003, Ricco, a resident of Lodi, New Jersey

Lodi, New Jersey

Lodi is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 24,136. The borough of Lodi is governed under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law.Lodi owes its name to the Italian city of Lodi...

, was excluded from the casinos in Atlantic City

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...

 for his illegal gambling charges.

Operations in the Bronx

As of 2007, Louis Ricco, is residing in the Bronx, where his illegal activities are illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion and racketeering. Apparently a top protege of John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico

Jackie D'Amico

John "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico is a New York mobster that served as street boss of the Gambino crime family from 2005 to 2011. "Street boss" had been the family's number one position ever since official Boss Peter Gotti started serving a life sentence in prison.-Early life:D'Amico stands 5'11" ...

, and longtime cooperator of Salvatore "Tore" LoCascio

Salvatore LoCascio

Salvatore LoCascio is a reputed caporegime in the New York Gambino crime family.-Early life:LoCascio grew up in Eastchester, New York when his father, Frank LoCascio, Consigliere to John Gotti, was sentenced to life imprisonment for mafia crimes...

, who is believed to control the other half of the Bronx. Ricco reportedly suffers from diabetes and hypertension

Hypertension

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...

.