CAMDEN, N.J. – An Atlantic City, New Jersey, man was
sentenced today to 150 months in prison for selling over 200 grams of crystal
methamphetamine and for staging a fake robbery of a Union County, New Jersey,
pawnshop for the purpose of perpetrating an insurance fraud, U.S. Attorney
Craig Carpenito announced.
Salvatore “Sam” Piccolo, 68, of Atlantic City, a member of
the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra organized crime family, previously pleaded
guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler to an information charging
him with distribution more than 50 grams of methamphetamine and one count of
wire fraud. Judge Kugler imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements
made in court:
Piccolo distributed quantities of crystal methamphetamine to
FBI undercover agents on three separate occasions between June 2017 and
September 2017. On one occasion, he sold the undercover agent approximately
four ounces of crystal methamphetamine in a restaurant parking lot in
Sicklerville, New Jersey, in exchange for a $5,660 cash payment. On two other
occasions in September 2017, FBI undercover agents purchased two ounce
quantities of crystal methamphetamine from Piccolo in Atlantic City for cash
payments of $2,800 for each transaction.
Piccolo also admitted that on April 19, 2014, he and an
accomplice conspired to commit an insurance fraud. They entered a pawn shop in
Union County, purportedly to sell some silver items. Once inside the shop, the
accomplice displayed a hand gun while Piccolo, wearing a nylon mask, chained
the front doors closed to prevent anyone from entering. The owner was bound, as
a pretense, while Piccolo and his accomplice looted the safe of what the owner
told police was approximately $60,000 in cash, several pieces of jewelry, and a
hand gun. The owner later submitted to his insurance company a fraudulent loss
claim that was paid for approximately $174,000.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Kugler sentenced
Piccolo to five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $174,025 in
restitution to Northland Insurance of Minnesota.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of FBI,
under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie in Newark, with
the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney
Patrick C. Askin of the Criminal Division, Camden Office, and Senior Litigation
Counsel V. Grady O’Malley of the U.S. Attorney's Office Organized Crime/Gangs
Unit in Newark.
Defense counsel: Louis Barbone Esq., Atlantic City
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