Chris Rosenberg - "Cuban Crisis"

"Cuban Crisis"

By the late 1970s, Rosenberg's continued involvement in the drug trade as well as his business with the DeMeo Crew had given him a prosperous lifestyle. He was living in an affluent neighborhood and when not working was training for his pilot's license. He also owned a number of businesses, including a pizzeria and his body shop. His heavy involvement in drug trafficking included importing marijuana from Colombia and dealing in large quantities of cocaine. He was Roy DeMeo's second-in-command and when conducting drug deals sometimes referred to himself as "Chris DeMeo". Roy had become somewhat of a father figure to Chris.

In 1979 he visited Florida to set up a cocaine deal with a loanshark customer of Roy DeMeo's who had entered the drug business in an attempt to pay off his debts. This man, Charles Padnick, was acquainted with a Cuban man named William Serrano. Serrano had connections with a Colombian drug cartel and was informed by Padnick that a group of Italians were interested in purchasing a large quantity of cocaine. After he met with Chris, who introduced himself as Chris DeMeo, Serrano told his Colombian associates and a deal was set up, although Rosenberg was never informed of Serrano's source of the drugs.

A group of four, comprising Charles Padnick and William Serrano as well as the cousin and girlfriend of Serrano's Colombian drug connection, flew to New York to facilitate the deal. Within hours of landing, they were shot to death, dismembered and disposed of by Rosenberg and other members of the DeMeo crew. That same night Rosenberg visited a hospital with gunshot wounds on his hand and on the side of his head, suggesting that the group may have tried to fight back before being killed. When the Colombian Cartel acquaintance of Serrano's did not receive a phone call from his cousin or girlfriend that night to ensure that the sale had been completed, he contacted Charles Padnick's son Jamie in an attempt to get more information. Jamie flew to New York shortly after and disappeared as well after being murdered and dismembered by Rosenberg and his fellow crew members.

With the only information available being the location of New York City and the name "Chris DeMeo", the Colombian had contacts there inquire and eventually the situation led to Roy DeMeo and the Gambino family. Dominick Montiglio, the nephew of Roy's superior Anthony Gaggi, became a government witness in 1983 and claims that he was in charge of delivering messages back and forth between the Colombian's contact in New York and the Gambinos. The Colombians stated that if Chris Rosenberg were murdered, there would be no further conflict. The murder would have to be in the newspapers, otherwise they would not believe it had actually occurred. After being ordered to kill Rosenberg by his superiors, Roy stalled for a number of weeks, reportedly due to the close relationship he and Chris had. After a period of inaction on the part of the Gambinos, the Colombian sent a group of enforcers to New York and threatened violence if Rosenberg was not murdered soon.

During this situation between the Gambino family and the Colombian cartel, DeMeo committed his most public murder after mistaking a man for a Colombian assassin. The victim, Dominick Ragucci, was actually a 19 year-old paying his way through college by selling vacuum cleaners door to door. After Roy saw him parked in front of his house, he mistook him for a Colombian hitman and ended up pursuing the young man in a car chase that ended with Ragucci being shot to death by Roy after his vehicle became too damaged to continue driving. After this Anthony Gaggi met with Roy and ordered him to stop stalling and kill Rosenberg before there were any more innocent victims.