Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992 TAG: 9201230216
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BECKLEY, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
CUCCI DRUG TRIAL UNDER WAY
A prominent Covington, Va., businessman who says the government spent 10 years trying to set him up just because he was from Sicily went on trial Wednesday on charges of selling four pounds of cocaine.Vittorio "Victor" Cucci, 39, is accused of conspiring to distribute the drug across the state border in Greenbrier County, W.Va.
Cucci and Joseph Covello, 50, of Brooklyn, N.Y., each face a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine on the federal conspiracy charge.
Cucci, who came to Western Virginia about 15 years ago, owns a pizzeria, auto dealership, clothing store and flower shop in Covington as well as a restaurant in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. All but the flower shop are named after Cucci, who has no prior criminal record. Covello operated a pizza restaurant in Brooklyn.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith said in his opening arguments that on July 25, Cucci sold an informant two kilograms, or 4.4 pounds, of cocaine for $60,000 in cash, half of which was to be paid for later. Covello, also a Sicilian native, is accused of transporting the drug and placing it in the informant's trunk.
The informant, Robert Seidman of Greenbrier County, was characterized by West Virginia authorities in 1990 as a "large-scale" drug dealer. He agreed to plead guilty to a cocaine distribution charge but was allowed to remain free and have his sentencing postponed while he worked as a paid confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Smith said Seidman approached Cucci at his auto dealership and told him his source for drugs was in prison and he needed another supplier. The prosecutor said Cucci said he would try to help.
Smith characterized Cucci as an eager participant rather than an innocent bystander and said the defendant even complained at one point that he wanted a bigger role than just a middleman.
Cucci, Smith said, told Seidman that his source for the cocaine was an "old friend from Sicily."
Cucci's attorney, Greg English of Alexandria, Va., said there is no question that his client was involved and had a source who was in New York.
But English said Cucci is a victim of entrapment.
"Victor didn't think it was a crime to introduce two people who planned to do something bad," English said. "The government is not allowed to manufacture a crime, which is exactly what was done in this case."
To prove he was illegally entrapped, Cucci will have to show that the informant got him to do something he would not have done if the government hadn't come up with the idea and pushed him to doing it against his better judgment.
Cucci said during an interview with the Roanoke Times & World-News last month that nobody wants to believe a Sicilian with a fourth-grade education could come here with no money and become a successful businessman.
If he was in the Mafia and was laundering money as investigators said they suspected for years, "Why didn't they get me for that?" Cucci asked.