Murder Plot Nets DeCavalcante Member 10-Year Prison Term: U.S. Attorney

NEWARK, NJ — The transcripts of Charles Stango's telephone conversations read like a script from "The Sopranos."

Excerpts included in the 40-page criminal complaint filed in March 2015, when Stango, a member of the DeCavalcante family of La Cosa Nostra was arrested during a sweep of members of the crime family that operated in New Jersey and elsewhere, provide details of multiple conversations with his son, Anthony Stango, and other members of the family, discussing plans for various criminal enterprises, including the murder of one family member who he believed was being disrespectful.

Stango, 73, of Henderson, Nevada, was charged with plotting the murder of a rival through a series of telephone conversations. Stango had pleaded guilty last year to one count of knowingly using an interstate facility – the telephone – with the intent to murder a rival. He also pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his supervised release, which he was serving following his imprisonment on racketeering charges in New York.

On Tuesday he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by U.S. District Judge William H. Walls, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced.

Stango, his son, Anthony Stango, 35, and several others were arrested during the March 2015 sweep. Anthony Stango, of Brick, and five others, later pleaded guilty to various crimes, including distribution of significant amounts of cocaine and attempting to set up a high-end prostitution house in Toms River. Anthony Stango received a six-year prison sentence in January 2016.

But it was Charles Stango's telephone conversations about the rival, identified only as "Victim 1" by the FBI, that led to his arrest.

In one excerpt from the tape recordings, Charles Stango reacts to information shared by Anthony Stango that made it appear Victim 1 had falsely held himself out to be a “made man” within the family structure, and Stango refuses to recognize Victim 1’s alleged new status:

Anthony Stango: "Let me get it exactly. Our buddy said 'after all those talks and helping you out with this, this how you ended up. Your father disowned you, called you a rat, and your wife was (expletives) in (expletive) Bayway."

Charles Stango: "Your father? Your father? Go ahead."

Anthony Stango: "He pretty much wants you to go (expletive) yourself. And he wants to come see you in due time. And I tell him this is why things are the way they are; whatever you want to come see me. I ain't running from none of yous ..."

Charles Stango: "There's a guy, knows my situation like him, and you're going to come disrespect my family huh. This is what you wanna do? What's the (expletive) ending is it death? I don't know. I don't know what the (expletive) it is.

Anthony Stango: "That's how it's looking daddy, thats how it's looking because they are going to get a (expletive) beating. ...."

Charles Stango: "Yeah. This has gotta end. This guy's gotta end. Cause there ain't no talkin'. I can't talk. You know. I'm, I'm tryin' to (expletive) uh go about our business. We ain't recognizing him anymore. Tell him that came from me. And if you go take a head of my house I'm gonna take five of yours. Alright?"

Charles Stango offered up to $50,000 to two assassins to carry out the order, prosecutors said. The two assassins were, in fact, undercover FBI agents, and law enforcement officials closed down the investigation to ensure the safety of Victim 1, who was never harmed.

In addition to the prison term, Walls sentenced Stango to three years of supervised release, a news release from Fitzpatrick's office said.

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