Pubdate: Sun, 06 Aug 2000
Source: Plain Dealer, The (OH)
Copyright: 2000 The Plain Dealer
Contact:  1801 Superior Ave., Cleveland, OH 44114
Website: http://www.cleveland.com/news/
Forum: http://forums.cleveland.com/index.html
Author: John Caniglia
Note: Plain Dealer news researcher Cheryl Diamond contributed to this article.

EX-OFFICER ORGANIZED DRUG RING, FEDS SAY

He And 29 Others Have Been Charged

Robert Walsh’s business partners became anxious when he underwent heart bypass surgery last spring, but their concerns were not about his health.

Rather, they wanted to know if Walsh’s stay in Lakewood Hospital would interrupt the steady supply of cocaine he had been providing for years, according to FBI wiretap affidavits.

"That S.O.B. had emergency surgery the day I was supposed to pick him up at the airport," Alfred Laudato, a man accused of helping Walsh distribute cocaine in Cleveland, said in an April phone call. "I sat there for three hours. We’re running around all over the place looking for him."

Even after his surgery, the 70-year-old Walsh continued to run a sophisticated drug ring that brought as much as $12 million worth of cocaine to Greater Cleveland in the past two years, federal authorities say.

Walsh denies the allegations. His attorney, Angelo F. Lonardo, declined to discuss the case but said Walsh’s health is failing. He suffers from heart problems and diabetes.

"When you meet him, you can’t help but like him," Lonardo said. "He is such a nice guy. He has a smile that will light up a room, but he has some problems now. Medically, I mean."

Actually, he has more than just medical problems. Federal prosecutors charged Walsh and 29 others in U.S. District Court in June with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

Ironically, he began his working life trying to fight crime.

Walsh became a Cleveland police officer in 1950, eventually working his way up from patrol officer to detective. Officers who knew Walsh then said they suspected he had links to organized crime. Walsh, who was assigned to the 3rd District, resigned in 1956.

"You really didn’t want to be around him," said a retired officer who asked not to be identified.

"He had a very good job in the Police Department," former Police Chief Edward Kovacic said. "The people who knew him said he was a good officer, and he had to be because he was involved in what those days was similar to an intelligence unit."

Walsh told drug investigators after an arrest in 1979 that he enjoyed being a police officer until he was hurt trying to break up a brawl. He said he believed he could do better for himself as a crook.

Four years after he left the department, his former Cleveland police colleagues arrested him on federal charges of making counterfeit $20 bills. In the next several years, he was accused of burglary with explosives in Los Angeles, grand theft in Little Falls, N.Y., and fleeing from sentencing in California.

He became infamous in organized-crime circles for his association with Jimmy "the Weasel" Fratianno and Raymond Ferritto. Walsh and Ferritto were accused of killing Julius Petro, a Cleveland mob enforcer, at the Los Angeles International Airport in 1969, according to authorities.

In his biography, "The Last Mafioso," Fratianno said Petro died because he tried to shake down California bookmaker John G. Monica. Fratianno said Walsh drove Petro to the airport and Ferritto "shot Juli in the back of the head."

Walsh was never charged. Ferritto was later convicted in the bombing death of Cleveland mobster Danny Greene and admitted to killing Petro.

In 1979, Walsh was accused of masterminding a plot to fill an old Air Force transport plane with nearly four tons of marijuana and 200,000 Quaalude tablets to ship from Colombia to Hammond, La. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Walsh’s police experience made him an elusive target, said a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

"He was good - really good," said David Gorman, who worked undercover in Walsh's case in Louisiana. "He was an absolute master at picking up surveillance officers. He would make me look like a sissy back then because he knew so much."

So how did Walsh get caught?

In Ohio and Louisiana, authorities say, Walsh guarded his work closely. It was the people around him who attracted attention. One of Walsh's friends in Louisiana called Gorman and, believing the DEA agent was a crook, begged him for help in bringing in drugs.

After his release from prison, Walsh returned to Cleveland from California in 1996 to re-establish his drug business, according to FBI affidavits. The records indicate he supplied cocaine to his friends, including Ronald Lucarelli and Philip Christopher, a man better known for a $7.2 million bank robbery in California in 1972, one of the largest in U.S. history.

Walsh and his cohorts found plenty of willing buyers, the records indicate. Some were middle-aged men with criminal pasts and a thirst for quick money. Others were street hustlers. But, as in Louisiana and several other places, Walsh was in control.

FBI wiretap affidavits indicate he decided the prices, when deliveries would be made and who would be part of the ring. When there was a problem, Walsh would settle it. A confidential informer called him "aged and mean," according to documents.

When his son, Robert Jr., who also was indicted, allegedly failed to pick up a payment last spring, Walsh became irritated and said, "You can't let that stuff lay around," according to the affidavits.

Members of Walsh's drug ring used cellular telephones and spoke in code, federal authorities said. In hundreds of conversations, Walsh and his associates used phrases such as "Barry White albums," "bags of shrimp" or "siding jobs" to describe shipments of cocaine, according to federal records.

They drove their cars fast around the same block several times to determine whether they were followed and dealt the drugs in hospital parking lots to conceal the business, according to the records. They also purchased items they had hoped would prevent police from tracking them.

"Hey, look on your phone," Lucarelli told Laudato in a call in April. "Did my number come up?"

"No ... restricted," Laudato replied.

"This is that new phone," Lucarelli boasted. "This is that new one."

The phone, however, did not stop FBI agents from listening to the conversation. Both men were charged along with Walsh.

Walsh and his son used an apartment in Lakewood as their base here. They recruited two American Airlines baggage handlers to help them transport cocaine from Los Angeles to Cleveland, according to federal documents. They would smuggle drugs and money using carry-on luggage, the documents said.

The allegations, however, mystify neighbors who knew the man who helped raise seven children in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge. When FBI agents raided his home in June, stunned neighbors stood by and watched.

"We had no idea that he was into this," said a nearby resident. "He has such a nice family and some kids who have grown up to become productive adults. It is so hard to believe. They were very friendly, but they kept to themselves a lot."
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