He took the bait — and anything else he could fit on his plate.
A bloated Bonanno crime-family soldier who packed on 50 lbs. in lockup was sentenced Wednesday for forcing a turncoat to strip nude – after his attorneys called the clash a setup.
John Ragano aka “The Maniac” was slapped with a three-year sentence in Brooklyn Federal Court on charges he threatened to “slap the s–t out” of mob informatnt Vincent Martino and then forced him to drop his drawers to see if he was wearing a wire.
Ragano was convicted in October 2024 of extorting Martino, who owed him $150,000 in illegal loans.
But attorneys for Ragano, 62, whined that the Martino was sent by the feds to the auto shop where the confrontation unfolded on July 5, 2022, was a way to “piss him off” and spark an angry reaction– just five days before he was sent to prison on a separate racketeering conviction
“He took the bait,” attorney Joel Stein said, after attorneys portrayed Ragano’s efforts as “stupid” but a friendly attempt to get the money back without interest.
“July 5th was everything in this case… If it wasn’t for July 5th, we wouldn’t be here today,” Stein said.
The defense attorneys’ arguments, which went on for more than an hour, included a bit about his time at the Metropolitan Detention Center where they said he’s endured terrible conditions and packed on 50 pounds to his already enormous frame despite maggots in his food. He’s been behind bars on the racketeering charge days after the confrontation.
“I saw John the other day [and said], ‘Boy, you got really fat!’ He complains about the food there!” Stein said.
The attorney also argued that Ragano was making positive steps in his life before making the threat to Martino in 2022 — by getting his first “real job” outside the mob family and by trying to attend church on Sundays.
Ragano, who didn’t speak at sentencing, was caught on tape threatening Martino after the informant accused the Mafioso of being a rat in the back of A&G Auto Dismantlers in Ridgewood.
The wiseguy can be heard acting shocked by Martino’s accusation before he accuses the mob associate of wearing a wire and demanding he drops his pants.
“Then take off your f–king shit right now, man. Take off your f–king pants right now,” a raging Ragano says in the recording shown at trial.
He later told Martino he was going to “f–king slap the shit out of [him]” if he ratted him out to the feds — before threatening to see him once he gets out of prison.
“You owe me my f–king money. Let’s see how you’re going to do when I get out,” Ragano seethes in the recording.
Ragano committed the offense just before he was to report to prison to serve a nearly five-year sentence for extorting the same victim.
Brooklyn federal prosecutor Andrew Reich said Ragano simply hasn’t changed one bit like his attorneys claimed — and that he was “entirely undeterred” by the previous sentence.
“He was making [Martino] strip naked in the back of a garage and telling him with a full force of violent mafia family behind him, ‘Don’t forget, I know where you’re at now. I’ll see you when I get out,’” Reich said.
“He did not change, your honor, in the way that defense counsel has argued today.”
Judge Hector Gonzalez imposed the 37-month sentence to run consecutively with his 2022 sentence.
“I hope by the time he gets out, he’s hopefully too old to recidivate,” the judge sneered.
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