Meet the Suspect: Carmello Merlino
Carmello Merlino is affiliated with the Boston area New England Mafia. He is a Patriarca family underboss. Often first to be informed of dealings in the criminal underworld of Boston.
Merlino’s place of business, TRC Auto Electric auto body on Dot Ave, is frequented by such organized crime figures as Carmen Tortora and Robert Guarente, along with Stephen Rossetti and David Turner. Turner himself is a person of interest in the Gardner case. TRC Autoelectric is a known front for the Patriarca drug ring.
Known employees of TRC Auto Electric include:
- Stephen Rossetti
- David Turner
- David Hougton
- George Reissfelder
- Bobby Donati (known police informant)
In a bid for leniency for his involvement in a $1-million-a-year cocaine ring, Carmello Merlino offered to produce a painting filched in 1985 from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Museum in Cambridge.
Feb. 7, 1999, Merlino and three criminal associates - William Merlino, 47, nephew, David A. Turner, 40, and Stephen Rosetti, 49, were seized by federal agents for conspiring to rob a Loomis-Fargo & Co. armored depot in Easton. But when Carmello Merlino faced 25 years in federal prison for his involvement in the botched heist at the armored car depot, the reputed New England Mafia figure claimed he could offer information on the missing Gardner paintings.
Merlino’s place of business, TRC Auto Electric auto body on Dot Ave, is frequented by such organized crime figures as Carmen Tortora and Robert Guarente, along with Stephen Rossetti and David Turner. Turner himself is a person of interest in the Gardner case. TRC Autoelectric is a known front for the Patriarca drug ring.
Known employees of TRC Auto Electric include:
- Stephen Rossetti
- David Turner
- David Hougton
- George Reissfelder
- Bobby Donati (known police informant)
In a bid for leniency for his involvement in a $1-million-a-year cocaine ring, Carmello Merlino offered to produce a painting filched in 1985 from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Museum in Cambridge.
Feb. 7, 1999, Merlino and three criminal associates - William Merlino, 47, nephew, David A. Turner, 40, and Stephen Rosetti, 49, were seized by federal agents for conspiring to rob a Loomis-Fargo & Co. armored depot in Easton. But when Carmello Merlino faced 25 years in federal prison for his involvement in the botched heist at the armored car depot, the reputed New England Mafia figure claimed he could offer information on the missing Gardner paintings.