`BULL' CHARGED IN RING

PHOENIX -- Former Mafia hit man Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, a mob
turncoat whose testimony helped put crime boss John Gotti behind bars, was
arrested Thursday for involvement with a drug ring, police said.

Gravano was not selling narcotics but was a "mentor" to the ring's leader,
Michael Papa, the founding member of a white supremacist gang, said Phoenix
police spokesman Jeff Halstead.

Thirty-five members of the ring, which trafficked the drug ecstasy, also
were arrested.

Gravano, a confessed hit man, ravaged the Mafia by defecting. His testimony
put Gotti, the so-called "Teflon Don," behind bars for life in 1992.

Under his deal with prosecutors, Gravano admitted to 19 murders, but served
only five years for racketeering.