New FBI dig at mob burial site in East Farmingdale
FBI investigators on the scene along the train tracks in East Farmingdale, where they used a backhoe in search for the body of alleged mobster Ralph Greaves on Tuesday. (Oct. 19, 2010) Credit: James Carbone
FBI agents armed with a backhoe and other excavation equipment returned to an alleged mob burial site in East Farmingdale Tuesday, 18 months after uncovering the remains of a former Colombo crime family underboss there.
FBI spokesman James Margolin said that agents were once again searching the site. Sources said this search was for the body of Ralph Greaves, who, according to a mob informant, was killed and buried there in 1995. Greaves was slain after family members suspected him of becoming an informant, officials said.
This was the third time FBI agents have searched the site since 2008. The searches were triggered by Columbo turncoat Joseph Competiello, who said that three bodies had been buried at the site in the 1990s: Greaves, mob capo William Cutolo and Pace University student Carmen Gargano Jr.
The site is on the 100 block of Executive Drive, in an industrial area west of Route 110 and south of Route 109.
Agents Tuesday searched a several-hundred-yard section along the LIRR tracks adjacent to an industrial park and a row of homes.
A year and a half ago, FBI digging uncovered the body of Cutolo, 49, a former underboss of the Colombo family who was murdered in 1999 by rivals vying for control of the family, according to federal officials.
Cutolo was identified by dental records. His body, fully clothed, wrapped in a cloth and with a bullet hole in the head, was so desiccated that it was impossible to identify him visually.
Now, according to a source, the FBI has more precise information on the location of Greaves' body.
Diego Rodriguez, special agent in charge of the FBI's New York criminal division, who was at the site yesterday, said the bureau has also been recently using sniffer dogs to help locate bodies in the area.
Remnants of the third man, Gargano, 21, who disappeared in 1994, were found by FBI agents in a Brooklyn body shop, sources said.
Gargano was killed in 1994 as part of a revenge plot against a cousin of a member of the Luchese organized crime family. Gargano could have been murdered in Brooklyn and then buried near the bodies of Cutolo and Greaves in East Farmingdale, sources said.
It could not be immediately determined why the agents were searching only for Greaves' body Tuesday.
The search was halted just before 6 p.m. and will resume Wednesday.
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