GANGLAND GODFATHER

Florida judge ordered the latest prosecution of John A. "Junior" Gotti returned to Manhattan, finding that the government left the "unmistakeable and disquieting impression" it had shopped for a trial location where it might finally win.U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday said Tuesday that an indictment brought against Gotti in Tampa features the same racketeering conspiracy charge that had failed to result in a conviction after three trials in Manhattan.He said Gotti's notoriety, his apparently acknowledged role in organized crime before he announced he had left the life behind and the frustration prosecutors feel after repeated losses "contribute to the temptation to extend to Florida the 'quest' to convict Gotti."Merryday added that the U.S. attorney in Florida "oddly" chose to charge a crime of RICO conspiracy that allegedly occurred largely outside that state."In this context, the charging decision of the United States, appa...

Joseph Vollaro, CEO of a Staten Island-based Andrew's Trucking Corp., came under scrutiny, said a law-enforcement source. Vollaro, described as a close associate of the Corozzo brothers and their Howard Beach, Queens, crew, was a "big earner" and may have been on track for induction into the crime family, the source said. After being caught with 1 kilo of cocaine, Vollaro agreed to provide evidence against the Corozzos and others by wearing a wire. "He made devastating recordings against the Corozzo crew . . . discussions about how they conducted their entire business, and how the money came in and how it was kicked up to their bosses," the source said. "They captured . . . payoffs from construction people, payoffs from jobs, kickbacks." In addition, wiretaps, surveillance video and photos also provided evidence the Gambinos demanded a tribute of $1 per cubic yard of landfill used at the site of the later-aborted NASCAR race track on Staten Island, and...