Brawny Gambino soldier convicted of waterfront racketeering with family boss Peter Gotti has begun cooperating with a federal probe of alleged racketeering on the Staten Island docks by two politically connected island businessmen, Gang Land has learned.

The turncoat gangster, Primo Cassarino, a tough, foul-mouthed enforcer for a longtime Gambino docks boss, Anthony “Sonny” Ciccone, put new life into the investigation that nailed the three mobsters and 14 others on racketeering charges two years ago.

Cassarino, who was also found guilty of shaking down action-movie star Steven Seagal, has been talking to a task force of federal and state agencies about a variety of Gambino rackets for several months, sources told Gang Land.

Law-enforcement sources identified the targeted businessmen as Salvatore Calcagno, a developer and construction company magnate, and Carmine Ragucci, the former head of Howland Hook Marine Terminal, situated on the northern shore of the island near the Goethals Bridge.

The men are longtime friends, political allies, and financial supporters of the borough’s president, James Molinaro.

Mr. Ragucci, with strong support from Mr. Molinaro, took over Mr. Molinaro’s old post as chairman of the Richmond County Conservative Party in 2000. The following year, Mr. Ragucci and family members contributed $10,000 to Mr. Molinaro’s successful run for borough president, helping to make him the Conservative Party’s highest elected official in the state.

Calcagno, a business partner of Mr. Molinaro’s son Steven, contributed $7,500 and was the finance chairman of Mr. Molinaro’s primary and election campaigns.

As Gang Land reported in 2003, meetings between the businessmen and Cassarino, Ciccone, and a corrupt longshoremen’s union official were uncovered during a two-year probe by the Waterfront Commission into the Gambinos’ stranglehold over the Staten Island and Brooklyn docks, which has lasted 50 years.

Last month, just before the statute of limitations was to expire, the feds indicted Calcagno, 51, on tax evasion charges stemming from his 1998 filings.

The builder was charged with underreporting the gross sales of his company, Salvatore Calcagno Construction Inc., by $261,000 and overstating the firm’s expenses by $16,900, according to a two-count indictment. At his arraignment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Sue Mayer said the investigation was continuing and that additional charges were expected.

“Sal is a fine person and extraordinary businessman who is in no way part of any nefarious group,” lawyer Michael Rosen said. “He may have had lunch with someone who is, but that does not make him an evil person … or part of something sinister.”

Calcagno Construction helped build a refrigeration warehouse, known as the “banana house,” at Howland Hook, a 200-acre freight-loading complex that Mr. Ragucci ran until June 2001, when he was fired by its parent company.

Mr. Ragucci has not been charged with any wrongdoing, but during testimony at the Gotti trial, he was implicated as having been involved in criminal activity.

The president of Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Frank “Red” Scollo, testified that Mr. Ragucci made regular $9,200 payments to Ciccone between 1997 and 2001.

In court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Katya Jestin wrote that Mr. Ragucci was not a victim of the mob, but had violated labor laws that prohibit company officials from making payments to union officials and was a “co-conspirator” of the Gambino family.

Reached at home by Gang Land, Mr. Ragucci declined to comment.

Through wiretaps and bugs that investigators planted during the lengthy investigation, the Gambinos and Scollo were frequently heard speaking about Calcagno and Mr. Ragucci – they used “Chubby” to refer to Mr. Calcagno and “R” for Mr. Ragucci. But neither businessman was overheard on any of the 14 listening devices that were placed in restaurants, social clubs, cars, and other meeting places.

Investigators came close, however, on August 23, 2001, when Mr. Calcagno met Ciccone to discuss an undisclosed business problem at a bugged table at a New Dorp restaurant, according to an affidavit by an Organized Crime Task Force investigator, Joseph Rauchet.

But when the developer arrived, Ciccone shuttled him away for a private conversation, then returned to the table where Cassarino and Scollo were seated and said, “I’m done with Sal,” according to the affidavit.

Unfortunately for Calcagno – and Mr. Ragucci too – the feds aren’t quite done yet.

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At his sentencing last August, Cassarino – who received 11 years and 3 months – seemed to forecast his intention to defect from the mob when he addressed Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block.

“I realize I made a terrible mistake by choosing that life and I regret it,” he said. He then warned his son, and other young boys like him, not to follow in his footsteps. “I hope he and every Italian kid will not choose that life, because that life is over,” he said.

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Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres has lost his shadow – two armed deputy U.S. Marshals who had accompanied him everywhere after turncoat Mafia boss Joseph Massino convinced the feds that his acting boss, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, had plotted to kill the mob prosecutor.

Mr. Andres, whose protection began after Vinny Gorgeous and Massino talked about a hit against Mr. Andres in two tape-recorded discussions, appeared last week at two proceedings without the armed guards who were assigned to protect him four months ago.

The prosecutor declined to discuss the alleged murder plot, the protection it spawned, or its disappearance after a ruling by Judge Nicholas Garaufis that the Massino-Basciano tapes did not support the proposition that Vinny Gorgeous had plotted to kill him.

As an afterthought, Mr. Andres smiled and noted, “I’m not alone,” referring to two FBI Bonanno squad agents, including supervisor Nora Conley, who were seated in court.

During the sessions, two veteran Bonanno mobsters exhibited distinctly different styles in their respective conflicts with the feds over murder and racketeering charges stemming from the FBI’s assault against the beleaguered mob family.

Sicilian-born Baldo Amato, a once stylish, well-groomed soldier, looked disheveled and disoriented as his attorney pressed his case that Amato, 53, was suffering from serious neurological problems that could cause his death if he were to stand trial.

After Amato returned to his federal lockup to await a neurological exam, 69-year-old acting underboss Joseph “Joe Sanders” Cammarano, who suffers myriad undisputed physical ailments, appeared for the official pronouncement of his agreed-upon 15-year sentence for murder conspiracy and other charges.

The diminutive Cammarano, wearing prison fatigues that looked starched, stood tall and erect. After sentence was imposed, he blew a kiss to his wife of 50 years and dozens of family members, friends, and a priest. He then smiled and left to pay the price for a life of crime.

This column and other news of organized crime will appear later today at www.ganglandnews.com.