Wanted Mobster Captured
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SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) – One of New Jersey’s most notorious fugitives is scheduled to show his face on Tuesday after more than a decade on the run.
Michael Coppola, wanted in the 1977 murder of a fellow mobster outside a Bridgewater motel, is scheduled to appear at an arraignment in Somerset County before state Superior Court Judge Paul W. Armstrong.
Once reputed to be an acting captain in the Genovese crime family, Mr. Coppola disappeared from his home in Monmouth County in 1996 weeks ahead of an arrest warrant charging him with the murder of John “Johnny Coca-Cola” Lardiere 19 years earlier.
The 68-year-old Lardiere had been shot five times outside the Red Bull Inn while on a prison furlough on Easter weekend.
Mr. Coppola, who was 50 when he was last reported seen in New Jersey, was captured late last Friday night in Manhattan, according to authorities. His case was the subject of an episode of “America’s Most Wanted,” and he had been rumored to be hiding in Florida in 2003 but managed to elude capture.
Authorities said Mr. Coppola stayed in contact with his former cohorts while he was on the lam. One of them, reputed Genovese family member Tino Fiumara, was secretly recorded having a conversation with Coppola and then discussing meeting him with another associate.
Fiumara pleaded guilty in 2003 to conspiracy for communicating with Coppola between August 1996 and April 1999.
Mr. Coppola was convicted in 1980 of extortion in connection with a kickback scheme involving the Bella Vita Restaurant in Parsippany-Troy Hills. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison and was released in 1983.
