Drug Trafficker Who Ran Cocaine Importation Scheme Out Of His Family’s Queens-Based Restaurant Receives 18-Year Prison Sentence

Earlier today, United States District Judge Raymond J. Dearie sentenced the defendant Gregorio Gigliotti to 18 years in prison for narcotics-trafficking and firearms-related offenses.

The sentence was announced by Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI); and Angel M. Melendez, Special-Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York.

Following a two-week trial in July 2016, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York found the defendant Gregorio Gigliotti and his son, Angelo Gigliotti, guilty of participating in a long-running cocaine importation scheme.  The jury also found the defendant guilty of unlawfully possessing firearms – including a defaced firearm – in furtherance of the drug-trafficking operation.  The defendant’s wife, Eleonora Gigliotti, also participated in the family-run drug-trafficking operation, and in January 2017, pled guilty to conspiring to import cocaine.  Angelo Gigliotti and Eleonora Gigliotti are awaiting sentencing, and face mandatory minimum sentences of 20 years and 5 years, respectively.

The defendants’ arrests arose out of a long-term investigation by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), in coordination with law enforcement authorities in Italy, into a transnational cocaine trafficking operation.  Between October and December 2014, federal law enforcement officers intercepted and seized approximately 55 kilograms of cocaine that had been hidden inside cardboard boxes that contained cassava and sent from co-conspirators in Costa Rica to the defendants in New York.  To facilitate their operation, the defendants used their family-run Italian restaurant in Corona, Queens, Cucino Amodo Mio, as well as a produce importation company, Fresh Farm Export Corp., that was incorporated in 2012 to provide a cover for their drug-trafficking operation.  On March 11, 2015, the day the defendants were arrested, federal law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Cucino Amodo Mio and recovered one 12 gauge shotgun; one loaded .357 magnum Trooper revolver; one loaded .22 caliber Colt pistol; one loaded .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver; one 9 mm Keltec pistol; one .762 Czech pistol; one .38 caliber Derringer that had a defaced serial number; ammunition magazines; loose ammunition; two handgun holsters; brass knuckles; a handwritten ledger showing the movement of more than $350,000; and more than $100,000 in cash.    

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime & Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Margaret E. Gandy and Keith D. Edelman are in charge of the prosecution..

The Defendants:

GREGORIO GIGLIOTTI

Age:  61

Malba, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 15-CR-204 (S-2) (RJD)