The Vario Crew
| Founded by | Lucchese crime family |
|---|---|
| Founding location |
 New York City
|
| Years active | 1950s-present |
| Territory | Various neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Staten Island |
| Ethnicity | Italian, Italian-American made men and Irish and other ethnicities as "associates" |
| Membership (est.) | Unknown |
| Criminal activities | Racketeering, bookmaking, loan-sharking, extortion, gambling, burglary, cargo theft, conspiracy, Counterfeit consumer goods, murder, smuggling, fencing, hotel robbery, hijacking and jewelry heist |
| Allies | Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno and Colombo crime families. |
| Rivals | Various gangs. |
The Vario Crew is a group operating within the Lucchese crime family. It was controlled by capo Paul Vario from the early 1950s into the early 1980s, when Vario, Jimmy Burke and a number of other associates were imprisoned, primarily due to the testimony of another long-term associate, Henry Hill.
Hill's life in the Vario crew was the subject of the 1990 Martin Scorsese crime film Goodfellas, with Ray Liotta portraying Hill.
Today the crew is still active, but less influential than before and is currently led by Domenico Cutaia.
Paul Vario received money from members of his crew and local criminals; Vario's crew was involved in hijacking cargo shipments from JFK Airport. His crew also ran several loansharking and bookmaking operations in Brooklyn.
James Burke was a close ally to Paul Vario. Burke ran a crew of hijackers that would pay off truck drivers and then unload the goods at a warehouse controlled by Paul Vario. Another ally to Vario was John Dioguardi, a Lucchese family capo who controlled unions in New York City. In the 1970s, when Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke were imprisoned, a majority of Vario's bookmaking operation were taken over by his Russian Jewish associate Martin Krugman.
Two of Vario's crew members, Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke, began dealing in heroin, cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines. Hill ran his criminal enterprise with his wife Karen, William Arico, Anthony Perla, Rocco Perla, Robin Cooperman and Judith Wicks. In early 1979, Burke and Hill began selling heroin.
After Robert "Bobby" Germaine Jr., the son of Henry Hill's drug partner, became an informant, Hill was monitored. In 1980, Hill was arrested for drug dealing and looking at several life-sentences. Instead he became an informant. Henry Hill's testimony led to 50 convictions. In 1980, on orders from James Burke, Angelo Sepe shot and killed Bobby Germaine Jr. in Kew Gardens, Queens. Jimmy Burke was given 20 years for fixing sporting events and a life sentence when the authorities convicted him for murdering scam-artist Richard Eaton. Paul Vario was given a 12½-year sentence during the KENRAC trial.
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Wikipedia