Crooked ex-LI cop who moonlighted as a Bonanno solider helped fuel mini-mob war with rival Genovese: Crime family over public

Mob justice is best served cold.A crooked Nassau County police detective moonlighting as a Bonanno soldier helped fuel a mini-mob war on Long Island — choosing “the crime family over the public he swore to protect,” a court heard Tuesday.Ex-Det.Hector Rosario conspired to target rival Genovese mafiosos in the feud that spilled out after the organized crime clans struck an unusual agreement to split the proceeds of a gelato shop’s backroom gambling den, according to the feds.But peace didn’t last and Rosario “sold himself” to the Bonnanos — even staging a fake police raid at a Genovese backroom gambling den, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said in opening remarks at the alleged dirty cop’s trial.“He and other men barged in acting like actual police officers, broke a gambling machine and sent a message,” Anna Karamigios, assistant US attorney for the Eastern District, told jurors.The Bonannos and Genovese – two of the Five Families in the American mafia – generally kept to their separate spheres during the 1980s and into the early 2000s, said a long-time mob investigator.“There were no beefs and no sit-downs,” the investigator said.

“As far as business, there were no major schemes that they worked on together.“Back then, ‘The Chin’ (Vincent Gigante), the head of the Genovese family, did not respect (Bonanno boss) Joe Messina, so he would have nothing to do with him.”Now, the expected two-week trial against Rosario — who is charged with obstructing a grand jury probe into racketeering and lying to the FBI — promises to expose secrets of New York’s alive-and-well mob underworld.Jurors spent the trial’s first day of testimony Tuesday being introduced to a Who’s-Who of wiseguys, from Sal Russo to “Sal the Shoemaker.”They also learned about a constellation of illegal gambling operations — leading to a sweeping bust in 2022 that rounded up eight alleged mobsters and Rosario, who’s accused of being on the take for $...