MOB TURNCOAT SAMMY THE BULL ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGES

NEW YORK - Mob stool pigeon Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano's wings were
clipped Thursday by Arizona authorities who charged the man who brought
down John Gotti with peddling the drug Ecstasy to teenagers.

Phoenix cops busted into Gravano's Tempe, Ariz., apartment at 6:31 a.m. and
found the admitted mob killer in bed, a handgun in the drawer on his side
table. Two other guns were discovered in the apartment where Gravano has
lived since testifying against Gotti, who was sent to jail for life in 1992.

The former Gambino crime family underboss looked "surprised" as he was
charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute dangerous drugs, said
Cmdr. Ken Timms of the Phoenix Police Drug Enforcement Bureau.

Gravano, who got off with a light sentence after turning on the New York
mob nearly a decade ago, facces up to 12 1/2 years in prison on the drug
count. More charges are expected, officials said. He was held last night on
$5 million bail.

The 54-year-old former mobster was living somewhat openly in Arizona,
giving interviews to the press and running what he said was a lucrative
construction business building homes and pools.

But in August, Arizona law enforcement officials discovered that he and his
family - including wife Debra, son Gerard, daughter Karen and son-in-law
David Seabrook - were secretly running a massive drug ring aimed at teens,
authorities said. Gravano's family and son-in-law also were charged in the
ring Thursday.

Working with a racist street gang called White Power - now known as the
Devil Dogs - Gravano allegedly bankrolled an operation that sold 20,000 to
30,000 Ecstasy pills per week. The pills were peddled in the Phoenix area,
but the ring also sold drugs in New Mexico and Ohio, according to
investigators with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Arizona.

White Power founder Mike Pappas was a friend of Gravano's son and worked
for Gravano's construction company, cops said.

Much of the hallucinatory drug wound up ingested by high-schoolers during
all-night rave parties, law enforcement officials charged.