An Italian woman living in New York was sentenced to seven years in prison for being part of a drug trafficking network that imported cocaine from Costa Rica.
Eleonora Gigliotti, co-owner of a pizzeria in the Queens neighborhood, was sentenced by the Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday.
Her husband Gregorio and her son Angelo were sentenced to 18 years in prison for receiving cocaine from Costa Rica, hidden in cargoes with cassava, and then marketing it using the pizzeria as a screen.
According to US authorities’ investigation, Eleonora came to Costa Rica to pay $ 400,000 in cash to their partners. That cell was and arrested in October 2015 in operations headed by the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ).
The woman, with extensive mental illnesses, told Judge Raymond Dearie that she only “wanted to be a good mother and wife.”
New York police confirmed that the Gigliotti would have amassed a $41 million fortune by shipping cocaine from Costa Rica.
Authorities suspect that Gregorio and Angelo had ties to the Genovese family, one of five mafia organizations that control crime in New York.
There are six other people arrested for this crime: García (Cuban), Montero, Guzmán, Campos, Zúñiga Arias and Zúñiga Sánchez.