GRAVANO WOVE DECEPTIVE WEB

Just a week before his Arizona drug arrest, former Mafia hit man Salvatore
Gravano deceived his FBI handlers, asked a former agent to lie for him,
gave advice to a fellow mob turncoat and vowed revenge on an associate who
stiffed him for $25,000, according to police wiretap reports.

All this occurred while Gravano was being monitored by the FBI and working
with agents in New York, preparing to testify for the government against a
notorious international fugitive.

More than 6,000 pages of wiretap summaries and surveillance records
obtained by The Arizona Republic detail Gravano's life in the Valley and
outline the law enforcement probe into an Arizona crime syndicate that
imported thousands of doses of the drug Ecstasy from New York and California.

Gravano, known as Sammy the Bull, is a former Gambino family underboss who
testified against John Gotti and moved to Tempe through the government's
Witness Protection Program.

He sits in jail on $5million bond, awaiting a June trial in Phoenix. If
convicted on any of the 181 counts, Gravano's federal plea agreement
provides for him to be tried in connection with the 19 murders and other
crimes described in his autobiography.

Gravano, his closest family members and about 40 other people were arrested
in the Valley drug raids 13 months ago. About 20 defendants have since
pleaded guilty, according to court records.

Police and prosecutors identified Gravano, alias Jimmy Moran, as the
Ecstasy syndicate's boss, brains and bankroller.

He was indicted again this winter by a federal grand jury in New York,
accused of Ecstasy smuggling in collusion with an Israeli organized-crime
enterprise. An Arizona grand jury added new criminal counts in December.

Although Gravano's tale may be an American Mafia legend, public revelations
so far barely touch on much of his activity from December1999 through
February2000, secretly monitored by police.

According to electronic surveillance reports, Gravano:

Caused the Justice Department to drop charges against an international
fugitive named Bosko Radonjich and apparently misled his FBI handlers about
that case. At one point, detectives listened as Gravano urged former FBI
Agent Bruce Mouw not to admit to investigators that he and Gravano had
discussed the Radonjich prosecution.

Chatted with fellow Mafia turncoat Dominic "Fat Dom" Borghese about the
benefits of snitching and advised his former Gambino family cohort to get
as much out of federal marshals as he could.

Discussed with his wife how to handle someone who owed them $25,000.
According to wiretap summaries, Debra Gravano asked, "If he doesn't come up
with it . . . are you going after him?" Gravano is recorded saying, "If he
doesn't show up . . . then I'll take him out. It's too bad. . . . Boom.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom."

An FBI 'asset'

Long after Gravano withdrew from the federal Witness Protection Program
because he could not accept the limits on family contact, FBI agents in New
York continued to watch over him. They tried to keep his whereabouts from
being exposed by The Republic in 1999 after a reporter tracked him down.
Several months later, according to Maxim magazine, Gravano entertained
about 40 FBI supervisors as guest speaker during a national conference in
the Valley - while the Ecstasy probe was under way.

No one in the FBI, Justice Department, Arizona Attorney General's Office or
Phoenix Police Department would comment about how Gravano could have
orchestrated a major drug conspiracy while working with federal authorities.

Gravano has denied being any kind of drug lord. And, despite relentless
surveillance and 13 bugs, available records indicate that police gathered
little direct evidence of him doing narcotics deals.

However, wiretap records show that his son, Gerard Gravano, was among many
players who implicated his father as an Ecstasy boss who collected up to
50cents per pill.

The phone taps are expected to serve as critical evidence against the
Gravanos, business associate Michael Papa of Gilbert, and their so-called
Southwest Ecstasy Enterprise. Defense attorneys have challenged the
admissibility of the wiretaps, claiming that court affidavits were flawed
and that police went too far prying into conversations that had nothing to
do with drug investigations.

Ironically, Gravano sometimes joked about eavesdroppers during phone chats.
One example from police records: On Feb. 14, 2000, according to monitors,
he received a call from a New York FBI agent identified as Greg Hagerty,
who was preparing Gravano for another criminal trial. When Hagerty
complained about a bad connection, Gravano joked, "It's probably starting
to reject FBI things. Could it be my phone is bugged?"

The topic of that call was Bosko Radonjich, one of the criminal associates
Gravano gave up when he turned on John Gotti and the Gambino family years
ago. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office planned to try Radonjich in
March2000, with Gravano testifying that he gave Radonjich $60,000 to bribe
a juror during Gotti's 1987 racketeering trial. Prosecutors say the payoff
enabled Gotti to beat the rap initially, earning him the nickname of Teflon
Don.

The Teflon wore off after Gravano was arrested in 1992 and FBI agents let
him hear wiretap recordings of Gotti talking behind his back. Outraged at
the betrayal and facing life in the federal penitentiary, Gravano cut a
deal: In return for protection and an abridged prison term, he pleaded
guilty, admitted his murderous past and testified against the mob.

The ex-agent

Gotti and the juror were convicted in the bribery case.

Radonjich fled to Europe and became one of America's most wanted fugitives
for seven years. In a 1997 Esquire magazine interview, Radonjich claimed he
was a CIA operative and freedom fighter in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The magazine
also reported that he served as an adviser to Radovan Karadzic, the Serbian
leader who is now wanted on charges of genocide and other Bosnian war crimes.

In January2000, Radonjich was arrested by U.S. customs agents at Miami
International Airport. A search of his belongings turned up photographs of
the Iraqi Embassy in Cuba, plus notes on U.S. military installations in
North Carolina and Georgia. Authorities offered no explanation for those
documents.

But they were all set to try Radonjich in the jury-tampering case. Weeks
later, Gravano and Hagerty were on the phone firming up plans for Gravano's
testimony. When their conversation ended, wiretap records say, Gravano got
on the line with Bruce Mouw, a former FBI supervisor who retired two years ago.

Mouw, who directed the Gotti investigation, is widely credited with
crushing the Gambino crime syndicate thanks to Gravano's testimony.
According to the wiretap summaries, Gravano told Mouw that FBI agents were
asking whether the two had discussed the Radonjich case. Gravano urged Muow
to deny it. Mouw fretted about leaks and a possible grand jury indictment.

"Bruce mentions that he did not pass on a thing," the wiretap summary says.
"Jimmy (Gravano's alias) says, 'What's the big deal?' Jimmy laughs and
says, 'Don't start buttoning it up on me now. We're in trouble together.
Let's stay together, Buck.' Jimmy tells Bruce not to tell them (FBI agents)
about talking to Jimmy about Bosko. . . . Bruce mentioned about indictments
and grand jury. Jimmy says, 'It's bull . . . ' "

A week after that conversation, Gravano was arrested at his Tempe
apartment. Two months later, with their star witness in jail, federal
prosecutors dropped the jury-tampering case against Radonjich. He served
five months for making false statements to customs agents and was set free.

Mouw, reached at his New York home, said, "I have no comment."

Joe Valiquette, an FBI spokesman in New York, said agents there are not
allowed to discuss the Gravano case. He would not discuss whether the
bureau was investigating the bugged conversations. (Last month, Arizona
prosecutors sought court authority to share their wiretap records with the
U.S. Attorney's Office in New York.)

Phoenix police and the Arizona Attorney General's Office also refused to
comment.

Radonjich's lawyer, Lawrence Hochheiser, said he was not aware of the phone
conversations between Gravano and Mouw but has always believed that Gravano
fabricated the jury-tampering charge to curry favor with FBI agents.

'Fat Dom'

Days after Gravano's chat with Mouw, police wiretap monitors heard him
speaking with a man identified as Dominic "Fat Dom" Borghese, a former
Mafia member who turned against the Gambino family.

Gravano called Borghese on Feb.19, 2000, according to wiretap summaries.
The two discussed how to get the best deal from their government handlers
and shared a view that "life is a double-cross thing; if there is a way out
for you, you're dumb if you don't take it."

According to the Daily News of New York, Borghese was "flipped" by
prosecutors who used him against John Gotti Jr., just as they used Gravano
against John Gotti Sr. The newspaper says that Borghese attended the
younger Gotti's extravagant wedding and was inducted into the Mafia 10
years earlier by Gravano.

In Long Island, Borghese moved up the Gambino ladder until he was arrested
in 1994 and promptly followed Gravano's footsteps into the Witness
Protection Program. The Daily News reported that Borghese admitted
disposing of two murder victims and took a 42-month prison term.

The younger Gotti was to stand trial involving 86 felonies, including
extortion, armed robbery, fraud, loan-sharking and gambling. But, with
Borghese waiting to testify, Gotti Jr. pleaded guilty and accepted a
six-year minimum sentence, plus $1.5million in fines. It was viewed as
another major victory for federal agents.

Months later, Borghese and Gravano chatted about life as a protected
witness while police listened in. According to wiretap records, Gravano
assured his compatriot that federal marshals would provide money, furniture
and other benefits. They spoke of getting plastic surgery and dental work.

Then, surveillance summaries say, the two informers talked about violating
omerta, the Mafia's code of honor: "Both talk about how dumb people are to
go to jail for people (when) there is a way out."