American mobster acquitted of 1978 Lufthansa heist

A reputed NY mobster has been found not guilty for his alleged role in an infamous $6m (£4m) heist dramatised in the hit film Goodfellas.

Vincent Asaro, allegedly a member of the notorious Bonanno crime family, was accused of murder, violence and extortion that supposedly spanned 45 years from the late 1960s until 2013.

“I was shocked, I was really shocked”, Mr Asaro said outside court.

Laura Bicker reports from Washington.

The value of the booty today is estimated at around $20m.

Evidently it wasnt enough to send Asaro to jail for the rest of his life.

The defense accused prosecutors of relying on shady paid cooperators, including Asaro’s cousin Gaspare Valenti.

The verdicts, delivered after two days of deliberations, left many in the courtroom stunned, most visibly prosecutors from the US attorney’s office, which had spent years building a case against Asaro, 80, with testimony from high-ranking Mafia figures and recordings made by an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Apparently pointed out to authorities by a cousin, Asaro was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in January 2014 in a series of raids that also netted his middle-aged son Jerome and three other suspects.

Vincent Asaro is mobbed by press and supporters after his acquittal. The prosecutor claimed the witnesses had incentive to frame Asaro to escape extended prison terms of their very own.

Valenti additionally testified that Asaro drafted him for the Lufthansa heist, telling him, “Jimmy Burke has a large score in the airport coming up, and you are invited to go”. Among them: murder, racketeering and the famed 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK worldwide Airport that helped inspire part of the plot in the 1990 film “Goodfellas”. They used a dog chain to choke the man to death, and then Valenti was ordered to help bury the body.

Closing her case against him Assistant US Attorney Alicyn Cooley, who described Asaro as the “ultimate tough guy”, launched into an exhaustive six-hour closing argument.

“Right now I’ve been eating bologna sandwiches”, he said.

“Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut”, actor Robert DeNiro famously said in one scene, portraying a character inspired by Jimmy “The Gent” Burke, who was said to be the brains behind the Lufthansa heist.