Former Gotti son-in-law arrested in auto recycling scam

The former son-in-law of long-time New York organized crime figure John Gotti has been arrested in Ohio for allegedly loading obsolete vehicles with sand before selling them to an auto shredder operator.

According to a report in the Columbus Dispatch, Carmine “The Bull” Agnello, 55, was arrested at a scrap yard he had been operating in southeastern Cleveland. Agnello started the business after having been released from a federal prison in 2008.

Police in Cleveland say Agnello’s company “would buy stolen cars, fill them with sand to add weight and sell the compacted vehicles to an unidentified metal processing company.” Agnello also is accused of “bribing employees at the processing company to ignore the extra weight.”

At a news conference, Cleveland police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said an investigation into Agnello’s activities began after Cleveland police noticed both a spike in auto thefts and a shortfall in the recovery of such vehicles.

Subsequent searches at three Cleveland scrap yards and Agnello’s home resulted in the seizure of $45,000 in cash and several guns, according to the Dispatch report.

Agnello was married for 17 years to Victoria Gotti, the daughter of John Gotti who attracted attention as the focus of the reality television show “Growing Up Gotti.” The couple divorced in 2002 after Agnello pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding the Internal Revenue Service, related to income from a scrap business he operated in the New York borough of Queens.