Alleged mobster sentenced in N.J. brothel scheme
NEWARK, N.J. — A reputed New Jersey mobster who planned to open a brothel in Toms River and disguise it as a club to benefit wounded warriors is headed to federal prison for six years, according to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
U.S. District Judge William H. Walls on Tuesday ordered reputed DeCavalcante crime family associate Anthony Stango of Brick to prison for his role in the foiled brothel and other crimes.
Stango, 34, pleaded guilty in August to a prostitution-related offense: using a telephone in interstate commerce to conduct a prostitution operation. He also pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute five grams or more of cocaine and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
With a prior record that includes convictions for drugs, burglary and theft, Stango admitted conducting a drug operation that sold a total of 1,915 grams of cocaine to an undercover officer on eight occasions between December 2014 and March 2015. At the same time, he was working to establish a brothel in Toms River, according to court documents.
According to telephone conversations intercepted by FBI agents, Stango talked with his father, Charles Stango, 71, of Henderson, Nev., about opening a private club in Toms River as a front for the brothel.
In the intercepted conversations, Anthony Stango told his father that he had talked to one or more prostitutes about their fees and details of the operation. Charles Stango told his son “to keep the drink prices reasonable in the club to generate profits and to put out fundraising materials that purported to be for wounded veterans,” although the profits would be kept by the crime family, according to affidavits in the case.
Anthony Stango told his father the prostitutes would charge what they wanted but would pay the crime family $350 an hour, according to the affidavits. He also told his father he had a criminal lawyer in Ocean County, N.J., who would be on the ready to use his credit card to post bail for anyone who got “jammed up,” and in exchange the lawyer would get a $50 cut from the hourly fee.
Anthony Stango will be under court supervision for five years following his release from prison, Walls said.
The father and son were among 10 alleged members of the DeCavalcante crime family rounded up March 12 in an FBI investigation into activities that included fraud, drug distribution, prostitution, gambling, selling stolen and contraband goods, murder, assault, extortion and other violence.
At the time of the arrests, authorities described Charles Stango as the “capo,” or captain in the crime family. Two other alleged members of the family, Frank Nigro, 72, and Paul Colella, 68, both of Toms River, were charged with plotting to kill a rival crime-family member in Elizabeth.