NYDailyNews

City Offered Use Of Mobster's 6M Shredder

By MIKE CLAFFEY Daily News Staff Writer

ven the Mafia is pitching in to help the city.

Carmine Agnello, jailed John Gotti son-in-law and convicted racketeer, offered Mayor Giuliani the use of a $6 million shredding machine yesterday to chew up the steel beams mixed in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Agnello, a scrap magnate and reputed Gambino soldier who pleaded guilty to racketeering charges last month, told the mayor he watched the Trade Center disaster from his cell window in Brooklyn's Sunset Park area and "felt the pain and suffering the rest of the world felt."

"He would like to offer the use of his shredder and equipment to help remove and clean up the area known as Ground Zero," said a letter from Agnello's attorney, Scott Leemon. "The large steel and iron beams that are now being shipped to Staten Island could be shipped to the Bronx and shredded in minutes."

Leemon said the massive machine is one of only a handful of its type in the area and is worth $6 million to $8 million.

The machine works, Leemon said, by using supersharp blades to shred into small chips metal objects that are placed on a conveyor belt.

The beams could be shipped by truck to the yard in Hunts Point, the Bronx.

Agnello, 40, the owner of New York Shredding Corp., has been locked up since March 2000. He pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court last month to racketeering charges and faces nine years behind bars and an $11 million fine.

He admitted using extortion and arson in trying to take over a rival scrap yard run by undercover cops.

The federal prosecutors who put Agnello away declined comment on his offer. Giuliani could not immediately be reached for comment.

Agnello is estranged from his wife, Victoria Gotti, a novelist, newspaper columnist and daughter of the imprisoned John Gotti. The couple are seeking a divorce.

"This is a real offer," Leemon said. "I hope the mayor takes it seriously."

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Answers

Only in America, lol.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2001

Well, he is a New Yorker..

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2001