7 Bonnano Family Mobsters, Including Gotti Grandson, Arrested In Queens: US Attorney

QUEENS, NY — Seven alleged Queens-based members of the Bonnano crime family — including the grandson of "Teflon Don" John Gotti and an 82-year-old implicated in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa Heist — were indicted Wednesday for multiple crimes, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Vincent Asaro, 82, John J. Gotti, 23, Michael Guidici, 22, Matthew "Fat Matt" Rullan, 26, Christopher "Bald Chris" Boothby, 37, Matthew "Mack" Hattley, 26, and Darren Elliott, 30, are facing charges for arson, bank robbery, home invasion and other robberies, according to an indictment.

"The defendants are charged with committing an assortment of violent crimes – arson to exact punishment for a perceived slight and robberies to unjustly enrich themselves. This Office and its partners will continue to vigilantly pursue such organized violence and stop it in its tracks," Acting United States Attorney Bridget Rohde said in a statement.

The main charges from Wednesday's indictment stem from a 2012 arson. In April of that year Asaro was driving in Howard Beach when he was cut off in traffic, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Asaro tailed the other driver home and then hired a Bonnano family associate to firebomb the car, according to an indictment.

The associate hired Gotti and Rullan to help carry out the arson on April 4, 2012, according to an indictment. The man doused the vehicle in gasoline and lit it on fire before fleeing in Gotti's Jaguar sedan, avoiding an NYPD officer after a car chase, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Gotti, Rullan and Guidici were also implicated in an April 18, 2012, bank robbery in Maspeth, according to the indictment.

Boothby and Hattley were charged in connection to a March 2014 home invasion robbery, and Hattley and Elliott were charged in relation to jewelry store robberies in Franklin Square that occurred between August 2011 and May 2012, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The most notable of the seven alleged mobsters are John J. Gotti and Vincent Asaro.

Gotti is the grandson of "Teflon Don" John Gotti, the onetime boss of the Gambino crime family until his 1992 conviction. John J. Gotti was arrested in August for selling selling Oxycodone and other pharmaceutical controlled substances in Howard Beach and Ozone Park.

Asaro, who joined the Bonnano family more than 30 years ago and served as a captain of the family, was acquitted on all charges connected to the 1978 Lufthansa Heist at JFK airport. With an estimated value of $5.875 million in stolen cash and jewelry the Lufthansa Heist was, at the time, the largest cash robbery in United State history. The heist has been depicted in movies such as "Goodfellas" and "The Big Heist."

Photo of Vincent Asaro by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images