MOB INFORMANT PLEADS GUILTY TO DRUG CHARGES

NEW YORK - Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the mob turncoat who
put John Gotti away, admitted Friday that he had returned to a life of
crime by running a multimillion-dollar Ecstasy ring in Arizona with
his son.

Gravano, 55, and his son, Gerard, 24, both pleaded guilty to federal
drug charges and face up to 15 1/2 years in prison at sentencing Sept.
11.

In the courthouse where he once testified against the likes of "Dapper
Don" Gotti, the elder Gravano admitted he "lent money to people" who
dealt Ecstasy.

Prosecutors said Gravano took over his son's failing drug-dealing
operation in 1998 to teach him how to turn a profit. The case was
prosecuted in New York because Gravano was accused of buying thousands
of Ecstasy pills in Brooklyn and selling them in Arizona.

Most of the evidence against him came from drug associates who
followed in Gravano's footsteps and became government witnesses.

His attorney, Lynne Stewart, branded the case a "vendetta" pursued by
prosecutors who felt betrayed by her client. She said Gravano only
provided funding, and she scoffed at allegations he had tried to form
an "Arizona Mafia."

"That's pure Hollywood," Stewart said. "That's HBO."

Stewart said Gravano was seeking a similar plea agreement over pending
drug charges in Arizona. But a spokeswoman for the Arizona attorney
general said the plea would not affect plans to put Gravano on trial
on Sept. 17.

Gravano was the once-feared underboss of the Gambino crime family who
later was reviled in mob circles as a rat.