QUEENS: Associate of Gambino Organized Crime Family Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Arson

NEW YORK CITY: Peter Tuccio, an associate of the Gambino organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra, was sentenced by United States District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall to 10 years’ imprisonment for his involvement in setting a car on fire to extract extortion payments.

The Court also ordered Tuccio to pay more than $75,000 in restitution.

Tuccio pleaded guilty in January 2021 to using fire to commit one or more felonies.

As alleged in court filings, in 2015, a businessman who had been extorted for years by a captain in the Gambino crime family (referred to in court filings as “Co-Conspirator 1”), began avoiding Co-Conspirator 1 in an effort to stop making his annual extortionate payment.

On December 3, 2015, Tuccio and his co-conspirators observed the businessman leave a smoke shop in Howard Beach and drive away in his 2014 Mercedes Benz.

They followed the businessman at a high rate of speed through the streets of Queens and confronted him outside a pizzeria, where Tuccio asked about Co-Conspirator 1 by name and complimented the businessman’s car.

Tuccio and his co-conspirators schemed to set the businessman’s car on fire as a message to the businessman that he had to continue making payments to Co-Conspirator 1.

Later that night, the businessman heard a loud noise and saw that his car was on fire outside of his residence.

After the arson, the businessman made additional payments to Co-Conspirator 1.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime & Gangs Section.

Assistant United States Attorneys Nadia E. Moore, Nicholas J. Moscow and Lindsey R. Oken are in charge of the prosecution.