MAFIA TURNCOAT GETS 20 YEARS FOR RUNNING ECSTASY RING

Salvatore Gravano, the former Mafia hit man and government informant, was
sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday by a federal judge in Brooklyn
for buying and selling the drug Ecstasy after starting a new life in Arizona.

The judge, Allyne R. Ross of Federal District Court, gave Mr. Gravano,
known as Sammy the Bull, the maximum possible sentence, more than four
years more than the sentencing guidelines called for, adding that given his
history, the risk of recidivism was "virtually a certainty" unless he was
"incapacitated by incarceration."

Mr. Gravano, 57, will be 77 by the time he emerges from prison, but Judge
Ross took no chances, ordering that if he lives out his sentence, he be
placed on supervised release for the rest of his life. Mr. Gravano has also
pleaded guilty to related state charges in Arizona and faces 16 to 21 years
there, which he would serve concurrently with his federal sentence. His
Arizona sentencing has yet to be scheduled.

A longtime member and eventual underboss of the Gambino crime family, Mr.
Gravano murdered at least 19 men, by his own admission. In the early
1990's, he helped the government bring down 39 mobsters, including his
former boss, John J. Gotti. Mr. Gravano was rewarded with a relatively
brief sentence (five years - about three months for each murder) and a slot
in the witness protection program. He soon left the program, relocated to
Tempe, Ariz., and began installing swimming pools under the name Jimmy Moran.

But Mr. Gravano apparently chafed against the straight life. "He longed for
the glory days," Linda Lacewell, an assistant United States attorney, said
yesterday. He found them, prosecutors said, by forming a
multimillion-dollar Ecstasy gang whose members included his wife, his son,
his daughter and 32 others, all of whom were also charged. Some have
pleaded guilty.

The group was moving more than 20,000 tablets of Ecstasy a week and trying
to take over the market in the Southwest, prosecutors said, but some
younger members of the ring revealed to investigators that they were being
trained by Mr. Gravano. He and his confederates were arrested in February
2000. He was charged in Brooklyn because he bought 40,000 Ecstasy pills
from a drug gang in New York.

Mr. Gravano pleaded guilty to federal drug charges in May 2001. His
sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001, but was postponed because of
the terrorist attacks that day. The sentencing was then delayed by legal
wrangling on both sides and by the indictment of his lawyer, Lynne F.
Stewart, on charges that she helped one of her clients, an imprisoned
Egyptian sheik, run a terrorist operation.

The Sammy Gravano who appeared in court yesterday bore little resemblance
to the powerful-looking man familiar from photographs. He appeared slight,
with a shaved head, pale pink skin, dark blue prisonwear and bright orange
espadrilles. When Judge Ross asked if Mr. Gravano had anything to say
before sentencing, he answered with a gravelly "No."

He did, however, speak to his lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco. When the judge
pronounced sentence, Mr. Gravano said, "Good thing she couldn't give me any
more than 20 years." When she fined him $100,000, he said, "Where does she
think I'm going to get it from?"

As Mr. Gravano was being led from the courtroom, a reporter asked what he
thought of his sentence. He turned and said, "What do you think?"

Mr. Ricco said he would appeal the sentence immediately.