Informant calls Blitzstein defendant Buffalo mob member

Tuesday, May 18, 1999 | 12:01 p.m.

A key government informant in the murder trial of Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein testified today that one of the defendants was connected to the Buffalo, N.Y., La Cosa Nostra.

Ronald Fino, former business manager of the Laborers International Union Local 210 in Buffalo and the son of an acting Mafia boss in that city, testified in the 13th day of the trial of Robert Panaro, 57, and Stephen Cino, 60.

Through a series of questions interrupted numerous times by objections by defense attorneys, Fino said Panaro worked as a steward for the union but at least on one occasion did not show up on the job for which he was paid.

Fino said he was told by Daniel Domino, a business agent for the union and a member of the Buffalo mob, that Panaro was one of three men who "were either made or going to be made." A made member is a term for a person who has become an official member of a Mafia family.

Fino, a union member from 1964 to 1988, told the jury in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Philip Pro that the union was controlled by the mob run by his father, but he was not a mob member himself.

Fino, who said he had known Panaro since childhood, said Panaro was a steward on a job where a man was almost killed. When he asked Panaro why he was not on the job at the time -- a job for which he was being paid -- Panaro replied that he was "doing business for (reported Buffalo underboss) Joey Tedaro."

"I knew that Bobby was working with Joey Tedaro's bookmaking operation," Fino said.

Defense attorney John Fadgen objected, and Pro told the jury to disregard the information.

But Fadgen noted outside the courtroom that even with Pro's instructions, "once you ring the bell, it cannot be unrung." Fadgen called the testimony "prejudicial."

The prosecution is trying to prove that Panaro and Cino, who Fino testified he also knew, arranged to have Blitzstein killed in January 1997 so that the Buffalo and Los Angeles crime families could take over his street rackets. Cino is reported to be a member of the Los Angeles crime family.

Under cross examination from Fadgen, Fino admitted to being an informant for the FBI since 1989, receiving $6,000 a month when he started and $7,200 a month six months later.

He also admitted to not having seen Panaro since 1989.

Prosecutors are attempting to prove that Cino, a purported member of the Los Angeles mob, and Panaro, a purported member of the Buffalo mob, were involved in the plot to kill Blitzstein and muscle in on his Las Vegas street rackets.

Blitzstein was at one time the right-hand man of the late Anthony Spilotro, the Chicago mob's Las Vegas overseer in the 1970s and 1980s.

The case stems from a 50-count indictment in February 1998 that named 16 suspected associates of crime families from Los Angeles and Buffalo. Most of them have entered into plea-bargain agreements.