Salvatore Avellino
Born in 1936
A New York mobster and caporegime in the Lucchese crime family. He was involved in labor racketering in the garbage and waste management industry in Long Island, New York, and served as right-hand man and chauffer to boss Anthony “Tony Ducks” Corallo.
For nearly 15 years, Avellino used aggressive strongarm tactics to keep Long Island’s garbage hauling industry under Lucchese family control. In 1983, Avellino ordered his son Michael Avellino and son-in-law Michael Malena to set fire to competitors’ garbage trucks.
Avellino was a frequent subject of undercover federal surveillance. During one bugged phone call, Avellino explained Lucchese plans to an associate “We’re gonna knock everybody out, absorb everybody, eat them up, or whoever we, whoever stays in there is only who we allowing to to stay in there.” From his recorded conversations with Corallo and other senior Luccheese members, federal agents learned the organization’s internal structure, history, and relations with other crime families.
Federal agents also used undercover informant Robert Kubecka, the owner of a Suffolk County, New York, garbage hauling business, to gather evidence on Avellino. In 1982, Kubecka, who had been harassed and intimidated by Lucchese associates, agreed to wear a wire. Although Kubecka was unable to get close to Avellino himself, the information gathered eventually persuaded a judge to allow a wire tap on Avellino’s home phone in Nissequogue, New York. Later on, federal agents bugged Avellino’s Jaguar,in which he held regular conversations with Corallo.
In 1993, Avellino was convicted on racketeering charges and sent to prison. He was originally scheduled for release in 2006. However, in March 2001, Avellino pleaded guilty to using threats of violence to run his Long Island garbage business from federal prison. As part of a plea deal, Avellino was to serve five more years in prison after the end of his racketeering sentence. On October 13, 2006, Avellino was released from prison.