Reputed RI mobster wants charges dropped in plot

The U.S. attorney’s office has denied ever making such an agreement with Anthony “The Saint” St. Laurent, who is accused of offering to pay for the assassination of Robert DeLuca, a man the FBI claims is a captain in the Providence-based Patriarca crime family.

U.S. District Court Judge William Smith did not immediately rule on the request after a hearing Monday. St. Laurent, who is serving a prison sentence for an extortion plot, has pleaded not guilty to the murder-for-hire charges.

Investigators say the feud between the two men appears personal. DeLuca has publicly accused St. Laurent of being a police informant.

FBI Special Agent Joseph Degnan testified Monday that he first learned of the plot against DeLuca while investigating an attempt by St. Laurent to recruit men to shake down bookmakers across the border in Massachusetts.

During a meeting on April 7, 2006, St. Laurent offered $20,000 to FBI informant Anthony Nardolillo if he would kill DeLuca, Degnan said. St. Laurent was secretly recorded the following day urging Nardolillo and another man to consider his murder-for-hire offer.

When the would-be hit men worried about the consequences of killing a Mafia member, St. Laurent offered to introduce them to Louis Manocchio, who investigators believe is New England’s current Mafia boss.

After he was arrested for the extortion plot, St. Laurent told defense attorney John F. Cicilline to cut a deal with prosecutors. In return to quickly pleading guilty in the extortion case, St. Laurent wanted assurances he would not be prosecuted for plotting against DeLuca, Cicilline said.

Cicilline said he received a plea agreement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that he believed would protect St. Laurent against more charges.

But retired federal prosecutor James Leavey said the decision not to prosecute St. Laurent for allegedly trying to arrange the killing of DeLuca was never part of the plea agreement.

Leavey testified that he did not want to pursue the murder-for-hire case because the main informant had previously lied to the FBI and stolen government money. The recordings of the meeting with St. Laurent were also bad, he said.

Federal officials apparently re-examined the case after another informant told them that St. Laurent also offered him money to kill DeLuca. St. Laurent even drove with the man into Providence so he could see the restaurant where DeLuca was working, authorities said.

Investigators say the plotting continued even after St. Laurent was imprisoned.

He allegedly tried to arrange a hit from behind bars in late 2007 by working through an FBI informant who secretly recorded their conversations, according to court documents. A partial transcript shows St. Laurent wanted the hit man to deliver a message to DeLuca before shooting him in the head.

“Say, ‘This is from The Saint,’” he said.

Source: boston.com