Mafia defector-turned-podcaster Gene Borrello is behind bars again: The Feds

According to the feds, he retracted his podcast about mob life, but not his life of crime.

Bonanno crime family defector Gene Borrello, who recently co-hosted a podcast that the feds said celebrated his time as a mobster, may be back in jail for a string of new crimes in Florida.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are asking a judge to throw Borrello, 38, in jail for three years, alleging he spent probation brawling with a girl, bragging about mob violence in a YouTube video and using a disposable phone to talk about drugs and violence.

As a government witness, Borrello helped imprison more than a dozen members of the Bonanno crime family, and after he was jailed from 2014 to 2019, a judge sentenced him to time served and probation. His own crimes were especially brutal—multiple shootouts, home invasions with bound victims, arson, and beatings.

Federal prosecutors allege that after his release, he became a bane to society, and his actions got worse.

“He showed no respect for the orders of this court or the law. He is dangerous to society. He has made no progress in rehabilitation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Galeotti wrote on January 17, asking Judge Frederick Block to sentence him at a hearing next Wednesday.

“In fact, since the defendant was allowed to leave for Florida, his behavior has become even more aggressive and dangerous. The defendant has again and again abused the trust of this court.”

These crimes include a January arrest for stalking and a December arrest for burglary in Pinellas County, Florida, a September stalking when he was accused of calling his girlfriend 58 times, and another September incident in which he allegedly threatened a bartender from the Tampa Bay area.

These are the latest criminal activity and parole violations since his release in 2019.

Borrello first began breaking the rules of his release by contacting criminals through his podcast and threatening an ex-girlfriend in 2021. He used to host the podcast “The Johnny and Gene Show” with another ex-mobster turned flipper, Johnny Alite. Another mob renegade, John Rubeo, almost went back to jail after appearing on their show.

“In his podcast, Borrello celebrated all aspects of organized crime and detailed the various acts of violence he and co-host John Alite were involved in,” Galeotti wrote.

Gene Borrello

And in February 2021, Borrello was arrested for threatening his ex on Instagram audio recordings.

“The minute you call the police on me… I’ll blow your husband’s head off,” Borrello told his ex, prosecutors said. “Do not forget about me. Remember what I did. I will immediately seize your father and beat all the dogs out of him.

Borrello ended up in jail again, according to court documents, but Block took him on “hiatus” in March 2021 and sentenced him to just 120 days in jail.

But his bad behavior continued after he served those 120 days, starting with a YouTube video called “Probation Violation and Return to Jail” in which he made disparaging remarks about his ex’s husband, calling him “fat” and ” stupid.” In another video called “Ronnie, can you feel it?” he described how he and Bonanno captain Ronald Giallanzo beat the man so hard he got dirty, prosecutors said.

Last May, he was accused of grabbing his girlfriend and smashing her phone during an unauthorized trip to Florida.

He avoided being sent back to jail at a hearing next month but immediately ran into probation officers by linking two job offer letters to contact numbers that belonged to one of his friends, prosecutors said.

This was followed by his final arrests for stalking and burglary.

When federal agents broke into his home in September, they found a mobile phone with text messages relating to probation scams, steroids and other drugs, as well as a Sept. 3 confrontation with a Tampa Bay bartender.

“Brother, I broke him,” he wrote to a friend who had problems with the bartender, according to court documents.

When the friend replied, “I wish you had [GoPro] When it’s all over, oh my god,” Borrello wrote back, “Bro, he’s a weed, he can’t talk tuff anymore.”

In a letter filed Sunday, Borrello’s attorney, Nancy Ennis, asked the judge for leniency, claiming he is “making significant improvements in his life” including taking a job as a parking attendant.

She also disputed federal prosecutors’ description of his September arrest for stalking and included a letter from his girlfriend in her file.

“After a heated argument, Jin realized that his girlfriend was threatening to commit suicide, as she threatened to do earlier. This prompted Jin to desperately pursue her and call her repeatedly,” Ennis said. “In retaliation, she called the police and Jin was arrested for stalking her. However, the charges were subsequently dropped in court.”

Ennis did not respond to a message asking for comment, and attempts to contact Borrello on Monday were unsuccessful.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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