A new star witness has surfaced with details about a rogue FBI agent and his Mafia capo snitch, the late Gregory “The Killing Machine” Scarpa Sr., sources told The Post yesterday.
The witness is expected to testify before the Brooklyn grand jury now probing allegations that ex-FBI man Lindley DeVecchio provided Scarpa with confidential intelligence that led to a series of mob hits during the bloody Colombo wars of the 1990s. Scarpa, a paid FBI informant, died in prison in 1994.
Despite years of government and private probes into the FBI agent and his high-level mob informant, the story the “credible” new witness has to tell has not been heard before.
“It’s really big,” said one law enforcement source. “It’s a new witness with a new scenario, with a new cast of characters. It’s a new twist on an older tale. And there are lives at stake.”
In the past, accusations made against DeVecchio, 65, have included providing Scarpa with the addresses of his enemies so he could kill them. He also allegedly framed other Scarpa enemies and let Scarpa know where FBI wiretaps were located so he could steer clear of them.
DeVecchio has denied the allegations.
Andrew Orena, son of jailed Colombo godfather Victor Orena, is hoping the investigation will result in a new trial for his father. Victor Orena claims he was framed by Scarpa and DeVecchio for a 1989 murder committed by Scarpa.
Orena believes information dug up by his private investigators triggered the current probe – and he credited a Massachusetts congressman with encouraging him to contact Brooklyn DA.
Orena said that after his father lost a 2004 bid for a new trial, he contacted Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), who had helped get a corrupt Boston-based FBI agent tried and jailed.
Orena said he followed Delahunt’s advice, had his private eyes compile a report on the corrupt DeVecchio-Scarpa alliance, and made the referral to the DA’s office last year.
Delahunt and his counsel, John Kivlan, confirmed Orena’s account.
In a related matter, the family of a Brooklyn mobster gunned down in 1992 filed a wrongful death suit in Brooklyn federal court yesterday against DeVecchio and Christopher Favo, an agent who worked with him.
The suit contends that DeVecchio, at Scarpa’s behest, had investigators call off their surveillance of gangster Nicholas Grancia so Scarpa could gun him down.
Additional reporting by Zach Haberman