United States v. Bentvena, 319 F.2d 916 (2d Cir. 1963)

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, No. 27733; argued January 30, 1963, decided June 13, 1963. Before Moore, Smith and Hays, Circuit Judges; the opinion is by Moore, with a concurrence by Smith. Thirteen defendants appealed. The indictment, filed on May 5, 1960, “contained eight counts, and named twenty-nine defendants”; count eight charged all of them with conspiracy. “The first trial, before Judge Levet and a jury, ended in the declaration of a mistrial after a trial of six months.” The retrial before Judge MacMahon began on April 2, 1962, and the jury returned its verdicts on June 25, 1962.

The principal government witness was Edward Lawton Smith, whom the court calls “a Canadian with underworld connections.” In April 1959 he began to cooperate with the Bureau of Narcotics and introduced an undercover agent of the Bureau, Patrick Biase, to one of the defendants. In the court’s outline of the evidence, a group of Canadians “headed by Guiseppe ‘Pepe’ Cotroni” handled export from Canada, couriers carried the drugs across the border, and centers in the New York area diluted, packaged and distributed them. The opinion states: “Overall responsibility for the continuing operation rested in its ‘chief executive’, the appellant Carmine Galante.” The sentence summarizes the government’s evidence about this conspiracy; it says nothing about any wider organization.

The court reversed the convictions of Bentvena, Monastersky and Struzzieri on the substantive and conspiracy counts and Salvatore Panico’s conspiracy conviction, and affirmed the convictions of all other appellants. A footnote lists the sentences, among them “Galante — 20 years and $20,000,” “Mirra — 20 years” and “Ormento — 40 years and $20,000”; Ormento was one of three sentenced as multiple offenders. The misconduct at the first trial, which led to contempt sentences, is the subject of United States v. Galante.