FBI Wiretap Captures Chilling Threat by Mobster

Believe it or not, the mob is still a thing.

Over the last two decades, most of the big names have disappeared, but La Cosa Nostra appears to be still alive and well.

To that point, the FBI captured some rather startling moments on a wire, and it is going to send a mobster to jail.

The Maniac

The FBI had a wiretap that managed to get wiseguy John Ragano, nicknamed “The Maniac,” threatening one of its informants.

Vincent Martino was working with the agency when Ragano threatened him during a meeting.

Ragano can be heard telling the informant, “I’ll slap the s–t out of you, you’re gonna tell on me?”

The tape was made in 2023, just a few days before Ragano was sent to prison on racketeering charges.

Martino had been searched for the meeting and forced to strip down, but the search failed to spot the wire in his clothing.

Martino flipped after reportedly owing the mob about $275,000.

Martino told jurors, “I was anxious, scared.

“I knew that at the end of the day, somewhere along the line, two weeks, two years, five years…someone was coming to collect that money.”

According to Martino, at the time of the altercation, he was standing there nude due to the strip search, with two members of Ragano’s crew standing behind him with a tire iron and a crowbar.

Martino got in the hole taking a six-figure loan from the mob during the pandemic. When he fell behind on the payments, he took out another loan from someone else, and Ragano eventually called him in to pay his debt, which he was unable to do.

It was during this time that Martino decided to cooperate with the feds to help them take down Ragano.