FBI agent tells of overhearing mafia plan to skim Nevada casino

Tuesday, March 3, 1998 | 10:17 a.m.

Agent Samuel Ruffino testified in U.S. District Court on Monday in the racketeering trial of alleged Detroit mafia boss Jack Tocco and four alleged associates.

Ruffino said he listened in 1982 to the men in the next room of a Holiday Inn near Detroit Metropolitan Airport. He said he was surprised to hear they knew the identity of an FBI agent working undercover in Las Vegas.

"I recalled an individual named Jimmy was taking an undercover FBI agent around town," Ruffino quoted one of the men as saying.

The undercover agent, George Togliatti, testified last week that he was pulled off his assignment the next day, The Oakland Press of Pontiac and the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.

Seventeen men were indicted two years ago on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion and attempting to illegally gain a secret interest in three Nevada casinos.

Five of the men are now on trial, including Tocco, 71, of Grosse Pointe Park; alleged mafia captains Anthony Tocco, 66, of Grosse Pointe Park and Anthony Corrado, 62, of Clinton Township; and alleged mafia members Nove Tocco, 50, and Paul Corrado, 39, both of Clinton Township.

Two of the 17 defendants have pleaded guilty, two others were excused from the current trial because of ill health, and the rest are expected to face trial later this year.

Ruffino said he could hear William Pompili talking with Anthony Corrado, Vito Giacalone and a third man talking in the room next door.

Giacalone has pleaded guilty and acknowledged there is a Detroit mafia.

Pompili was a Toledo, Ohio, bookmaker who allegedly became the Detroit mafia's front man in Nevada. Authorities say Pompili had been seen in a Toledo hotel room with Jack Tocco.

"I project at least $200,000 a year in skim money alone," Ruffino said he heard Pompili say.

The government contends Pompili helped lead the Detroit mafia into an initial interest in the Edgewater Hotel in Laughlin, Nev.