Mob hit man ‘Sammy The Bull’ freed early from Arizona drug conviction
Sep 21, 2017, 1:29 PM | Updated: Sep 22, 2017, 8:15 am
(AP Photo/Danielle P. Richards)
(AP Photo/Danielle P. Richards)
PHOENIX — Nearly two decades after being caught running a drug ring in Arizona, former mob hit man Salvatore ‘Sammy the Bull’ Gravano has been released from prison.
The Arizona Department of Corrections said Gravano, 72, was released from a federal prison this week. He served 17 years of a 20-year sentence.
He was convicted in 2002 for running a drug ring in Tempe across the street from an elementary school that was selling more than 30,000 tablets of ecstasy each week. The drugs had a weekly street value of about $500,000.
Gravano will be on federal parole for the rest of his life and will be kept under supervision by Arizona authorities through at least March 2019.
It wasn’t known where he had been serving his time and there was no word on where he planned to live.
Prior to arriving in Arizona, Gravano was an underboss in the infamous Gambino crime family. He played turncoat in the early 1990s and helped bring down John Gotti — and nearly 40 others — by testifying in return for a reduced sentence.
Gravano was sentenced to five years in prison after admitting to 19 murders.
The New York Post said Gravano moved to Tempe after a stint in the Witness Protection Program. He was living under the name Jimmy Moran and ran a pool installation business, in addition to the drug ring.
KTAR News’ Jim Cross contributed to this report.
