One-armed Gambino mobster eyed in spectacular $1.7M Chanel heist
· Toronto Sun
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Cops have zeroed in on a one-armed mobster who allegedly pulled off a US$1.7-million heist at the Chanel boutique in Manhattan.
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According to famed organized crime writer Jerry Capeci on his Gangland News website, Thomas “Tommy” Dono is an unassuming Gambino crime family soldier.
A onetime bank burglar, Dono reportedly stole a small fortune in the 1990s. Now, prosecutors like him for the Chanel caper two years ago.
Heist was well-planned
According to police, Dono, 52, recruited a gang of 10 who stole items worth a whopping $1,776,700 from Chanel’s main store in Midtown. Cops said the job was well-planned and pulled off in three hours on July 13, 2024.
Overseeing the operation from a white minivan was Dono.
According to cops, Dono drove away around 1:25 a.m. followed by a second white van that contained 10 large laundry and trash bags packed with 300 Chanel items.
Several heist-men were disguised “as construction workers,” and the robbers gained access to the Chanel store by breaking through a stockroom ceiling hatch. None of the stolen merchandise has been recovered.
So far, only the one-armed gangster has been arrested. He pleaded not guilty to grand larceny on May 19 and was released by Judge Felicia Mennin on $300,000 bond, half of what the Manhattan DA’s office wanted.
More arrests expected
According to Gangland, the investigation is continuing with more arrests expected.
Sources said Dono was quickly eyed in the scheme due to his left arm — or lack therof. He reportedly had the arm taken off at the shoulder following a horrendous car crash.
“Given his unique physical characteristics,” court records state, he was “identified relatively early.”
Investigators also found surveillance videos of Dono and the two white vehicles involved in the burglary parked outside a three-family home on Bay 10th Street in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn on the same days they were allegedly used in the Chanel heist.
Sources told Capeci that Dono is the nephew of late Gambino soldier Thomas “Huck” Carbonaro, who was behind the plot to take turncoat underboss Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano off the board. He went down on racketeering and attempted murder.
Dono became a made man five years ago after he was sprung from prison for his role in the 1998 murder of FBI informer Frank Hydell, who was fatally shot outside a strip joint on Staten Island.
Capeci reports that Dono’s 2008 racketeering indictment alleged that in 2001 he was proposed for membership in the crime family, “as a reward for crimes (he) committed on behalf of the family, including the murder of Hydell.”
In the end, Dono took a plea for a 15-year prison term for his role in the Hydell murder. He was released in 2021.
Sources told Gangland that Dono is a mobster in good standing under capo Louis “Big Lou” Vallario. It was Vallario who took over Gravano’s old Brooklyn crew when he began cooperating.
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