Bowed head: This morning 78-year-old Vincent Asaro, 55-year-old Jerome Asaro, 70-year-old Thomas Tommy D DiFiore, 52-year-old John Bazoo Ragano and Jack Bonventre were arraigned in Brooklyn for the 1978 Lufthansa heist
It has taken them over 30 years, but the FBI have finally charged members of the New York mafia with the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK - made famous by the movie Goodfellas.
Five high-ranking members of the Bonanno organized crime family were arrested and charged in pre-dawn raids on Thursday morning in connection with the $6 million robbery that is still one of the largest cash thefts in American history.
The arrests took place across New York and included Thomas 'Tommy D' DiDiore, who is believed to be the highest ranking member of the Bonanno family outside of prison and Vincent Asaro, 78, who is alleged to be a captain, or capo in the ranks of the crime family.
This is the first time any accused member of the mafia has ever faced charges in connection with the crime.
The arrests of the five men follows a discovery by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of human remains at a New York property tied to James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke last summer.
Burke, the suspected mastermind of the heist, died in prison in 1996 while serving time for the murder of a drug dealer. Actor Robert De Niro played a character based on Burke in the film.
Vincent Asaro, identified as one of the leaders of the Bonanno gang, was charged with the theft of $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry from the Lufthansa Terminal at Kennedy on December 11, 1978.
At the time, it was the biggest cash heist ever in the United States. The stolen $5 million would be worth $17.9 million in 2013 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The crime stumped investigators for years, but a break in the case came last summer during a search that turned up human remains buried at the former home of Burke.
The indictment charges Asaro with the murder of Paul Katz in 1969, as well as robbery, conspiracy and other charges tied to the 1978 heist.
The Asaros, both alleged captains in the Bonanno organized crime family, also were charged together in a 1984 robbery of $1.25 million worth of gold salts from a Federal Express employee.
Information on their attorneys was not immediately available.
Burke owned Robert's Lounge, the saloon that a fellow Lucchese associate, the late Henry Hill - played by Ray Liotta in Goodfellas - described as Burke's private cemetery.
'Jimmy buried over a dozen bodies ... under the bocce courts,' Hill wrote in his book, 'A Goodfella's Guide to New York.'
Law enforcement have said that the arrested are Bonanno crime family members Vincent Asaro, 78; Jerome Asaro, 55; Thomas 'Tommy D' DiFiore, 70; John 'Bazoo' Ragano, 52; and Jack Bonventre, whose age isn't known.
Two of the suspects live in Queens, two in Long Island and one in upstate New York.
SOURCE-DAILYM
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