Carmine Agnello is the former husband of Victoria Gotti and the father of 3 boys who starred in the reality show, “Growing up Gotti.” A more appropriate title would have been, “Growing up Agnello,” but the public doesn’t have a fascination with Agnellos.
Carmine had to really love Victoria and/or fear her father, John Gotti. Legend has it he was beaten and shot in the ass by some guys John Gotti Sr sent after him because of something he did to Victoria. He ended up marrying her in a wedding that was attended by 1500 of their closest friends like something out of a B movie.
Carmine ran a junk yard in Willets Point, Queens and he virtually dominated the scrap metal business in the area. That was because Carmine's father-in-law, John Gotti Sr, became the boss of the Gambino Family and Carmine was inducted into the family.
Carmine brought in huge amounts of money for Organized Crime. In the 1990’s there were over 50,000 cars stolen in and around New York City. It became such a problem that local law enforcement set up special squads to combat this problem. They succeeded, but the business itself changed.
Carmine started with Jamaica Auto Salvage at 20 years old where he learned to strip cars of their parts and send the rest to metal dealers who bought the metal from him.
This brought him to where he was. By the 2000’s New York Shredding was the biggest scrap metal wholesaler in the state. It brought in over 250k a week. Carmine was helped along by a deal he had with Caterpillar. They provided the equipment and purchased his scrap.
The hitch is Carmine needed a steady supply of scrap metal. The NYPD set up a fake auto salvage where they paid more than he did per car and it put a dent in his operation. He threatened them and had their place firebombed. A lot of this was caught on tape.
He would end up taking a 9 year sentence and making a 10 million dollar payment to the Government for his crimes. During that time he got divorced from Victoria Gotti and his father-in-law John Gotti Sr passed away while incarcerated.
Carmine had a fresh start and while he was in prison he met a new woman named Danielle who he later moved to Cleveland to start a new life with away from Queens and the Gambino Family.
He started a towing company called Charity that hauled autos that were donated to charity.
He started a new scrap business and an auto parts place. Life seemed to be on the right track for Carmine.
That was until July of this year when Cleveland Ohio District Attorney announced that Carmine was arrested in an operation they called Operation Goodfella where he was the target.
They claimed that he was injecting racehorses he owned with performance enhancing drugs. They also claimed that he was up to his old tricks in the salvage business.
They claim he made upwards of 3 million dollars in a scam where he sold crushed cars full of sand to wholesalers. They claim he was also buying stolen cars from thieves around town.
Carmine, not one to sit on the sidelines. has already struck back at the locals by filing a lawsuit against the locals that says they seized his property just to put his company's Eagle 1 and Eagle 2 out of business. He claims in the suit that they raided his businesses for evidence of his doping racehorses and money laundering yet they took car crushers. heavy equipment, forklifts and many other pieces of equipment that he needs to do business.
It is always amazing to me when a guy like Carmine gets a second chance at life outside of the mafia. A guy who left New York with money and a new wife and a fresh start.
Well, it appears he fell into his old ways. Time will tell. Where there's smoke, there's fire.
We will see where this will go.
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