Ex-convict charged in mob drug case

But yesterday, federal officials alleged that DeLeo, 66, of Somerville, has only enhanced his criminal status by becoming a “made’’ member of New York’s Colombo family and serving as a street boss of a small crew based in Greater Boston and involved in drug dealing, extortion, and loan-sharking.

A federal indictment returned yesterday in US District Court in Boston charges DeLeo, Franklin M. Goldman, 66, of Randolph, Edmond Kulesza, 56, of Somerville, and George Wylie Thompson, 54, of Cabot, Ark., with racketeering conspiracy.

It alleges that DeLeo, operating a mob crew in an area that traditionally has been dominated by the New England Mafia, traveled to New York, Florida, and Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut to meet with members of the Colombo crime family and discuss a scheme to import marijuana from Canada to the United States.

The indictment also alleges that for the past year, DeLeo and the other men plotted to distribute marijuana and cocaine, extort money from victims, including one in Canton, and collect loan-sharking debts.

“What we’re seeing here is the Colombo family has grabbed a foothold in this area,’’ Warren T. Bamford, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, said during a press conference yesterday at the US attorney’s office.

He declined to speculate on why the Colombo family has allegedly made an incursion into New England, an area that has been controlled by the Rhode Island-based Patriarca crime family for at least a half-century and aligned with New York’s Genovese and Gambino families over the years.

US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said there was no evidence that DeLeo was working with the New England Mafia, which has been weakened by waves of prosecutions since the 1980s, and most recently the conviction of Carmen “The Cheeseman’’ DiNunzio of East Boston, a reputed former underboss.

“You just can’t come to the conclusion or the assumption that they are no longer in business,’’ said Ortiz, referring to the New England mob.

Laura Hoey, an assistant US attorney from Arkansas, said the investigation began as an inquiry into illegal gambling in Arkansas, but the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms uncovered evidence of a link to Massachusetts.

Last month, Arkansas authorities charged DeLeo with cocaine trafficking. He was arrested on those charges and was en route to Arkansas to appear in court when the new charges were brought yesterday in Boston.

Boston attorney William Cintolo, who represented DeLeo after his arrest last month, said, “I never knew him to be involved in any kind of drugs at all.’’

Cintolo declined to comment on the allegations in the Boston indictment.

Fitchburg lawyer Edward P. Ryan Jr., who represents Goldman, said, “An indictment is nothing more than an accusation, and statements made at a press conference are even less than that.’’

He said Goldman will plead not guilty to all of the allegations.

Goldman and Kulesza were both arrested on federal drug charges in Boston last month and have been in custody since then. Kulesza’s lawyer declined to comment yesterday.

The indictment alleges that DeLeo had a senior leadership position as street boss for most of this year; that Goldman “played a significant role’’ in setting up illegal drug deals and engaged in extortion; and that Kulesza served as an enforcer for the criminal enterprise.

DeLeo paid $50,000 for 2 kilograms of cocaine that were transported from California to Massachusetts in December 2008, the indictment alleges.

DeLeo was serving a 25- to 40-year sentence in the state prison at Walpole for kidnapping and armed robbery when he escaped in 1977 while being treated at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain. While living as a fugitive in Ohio, he was captured in a bank robbery case and struck a deal with prosecutors. He confessed that he was the triggerman who fatally shot a Columbus doctor, Walter Bond, on Oct. 31, 1977, at the behest of another doctor. He later testified against the other doctor.

DeLeo was sentenced to 15 years to life for the slaying, but in 1991, Governor Richard F. Celeste of Ohio, on his way out of office, granted DeLeo clemency for his Ohio crimes. Returned to Massachusetts, DeLeo then finished his earlier sentence and was released in 1997.

Goldman also received a break while serving a prior sentence. In 1993 he was convicted of federal cocaine charges and was given an enhanced sentence of 30 years because he had two prior felony convictions that made him a career offender. But, last year, US District Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf reduced Goldman’s sentence to time served and ordered him released after finding that he had been wrongfully convicted of kidnapping in 1977.

Wolf found that there was a “miscarriage of justice’’ because Goldman would have been sentenced to about 10 or 13 years on the federal drug case if he had not been classified as a career offender because of the wrongful kidnapping conviction.

Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com.