By Richard Weir
Boston Herald
BOSTON - A Boston Mafia capo used his La Cosa Nostra clout to make his East Boston home a paid safe haven for heroin suppliers to conduct deals, prosecutors alleged yesterday.
Mark Rossetti, 50, considered one of a dwindling number of captains who run New England’s once-thriving Patriarca crime family, was ordered held on $250,000 cash bail after his arraignment yesterday in Lynn District Court on drug trafficking and conspiracy charges.
“His role as a capo gives him certain prominence in certain criminal circles, like drug dealing,” Essex First Assistant District Attorney John T. Dawley said. Dawley described Rossetti as a “facilitator” paid by drug dealers to help broker and safeguard transactions. “He provided protection.”
Rossetti was busted during a raid of his Bennington Street home shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday after a two-month undercover surveillance operation. Police also arrested Robert Ciampi, 49, of East Boston, who was found hiding in a room off Rossetti’s kitchen, along with two Boston men, Henderson Martinez, 20, and Joan “Julio” Valdez, who were in a Toyota that pulled up to Rossetti’s driveway, according to a police report.
Prosecutors allege that investigators found 142 grams of heroin stashed in a hidden compartment inside the car. As part of the sting, they also searched another home in Revere, where they found $2,200 in cash, as well as 18 grams of heroin, steroids and scales, prompting the arrest of two others, Yasmani Quezada and Rose Cefalo, the report said.