By David Amoruso for Gangsters Inc.

Colombo crime family consigliere Ralph DiMatteo pleaded guilty to racketeering charges last week. The Mafia leader went viral after his son posted a photo on Twitter showing him lounging in a pool the day after prosecutors had indicted him.

DiMatteo had flown to Florida the day before the feds charged 13 Colombo family mobsters with various crimes. As news of the indictment hit newspapers, DiMatteo was nowhere to be seen. Until his son shared a photo of his dad on Twitter.

The picture was like something out of The Sopranos. All that was missing were the ducks. After seeing his mob father in newspapers all around the country, with the headline that the FBI considered him a fugitive, DiMatteo’s son deleted it. Too little, too late, of course.

His father turned himself in to authorities the day after “breaking the internet”.

Guilty of corrupting labor union

On July 6, 2023, 68-year-old DiMatteo plead guilty to serious charges, admitting being involved in extortion, conspiracy and money laundering from 2020 to 2021.

As a leading member of the Colombo family, DiMatteo used threats and extortion to corrupt a labor union in Queens, New York, and manipulated it to serve the crime family’s needs.

The Colombo family forced them to select vendors for contracts who were associated with them and demanded over $10,000 per month from the union’s affiliated Health Fund’s assets to the administration of the family, which included DiMatteo, since-deceased-boss Andrew “Mush” Russo, and underboss Benjamin “Benji” Castellazzo.

When he is sentenced on October 5, DiMatteo faces between 41 and 51 months behind bars.