“Goodfellas” mobster Vinny Asaro was acquitted Thursday in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist and a slew of other Mafia crimes, including murder — a stunning verdict that was a massive blow to federal prosecutors.
Grinning ear to ear while leaving Brooklyn federal court after two years behind bars, the 80-year-old Bonanno crime-family capo was so thrilled that he even ad-libbed a Mafia-hit joke to reporters outside court.
“Sam, don’t let ’em see the body in the trunk,” he said in a mock aside as one of his lawyers popped open the trunk to the white Mercedes-Benz that would take him to freedom.
Prosecutors had been seeking a landmark conviction in the heist immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film, “Goodfellas.”
Prosecutors had argued that Asaro was heavily involved with the band of mob hoodlums who breached the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport on Dec. 11, 1978, emptying a vault of $6 million in cash and jewels.
Asaro was called “the ultimate tough guy,” a thug who once fraternized with Mafia legends including John Gotti.
But jurors cleared Asaro of any role in that score and also cleared him in the grisly 1969 slaying of Paul Katz, a reputed mob associate who was suspected of being an informant.
“It feels great,” Asaro said after walking out with a spring in his octogenarian step.
“I’m going to go home, and my daughter’s going to cook me a meal . . . Something other than a baloney sandwich . . . It’s been two years.”
Asaro is having the last laugh on his turncoat cousin, Gaspare Valenti, who had been key to the prosecution’s case.
Valenti is currently in the feds’ witness-protection program and has pleaded guilty to his own involvement in the Lufthansa robbery. He still faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars.
“Tell Mr. Valenti I’m happy he’s gonna live on the $3,000 a month the government is going to give him” in witness protection, Asaro sniped.
“It’s a shame what the government does with taxpayer money,” he tsked-tsked.
Broke and disillusioned with the Mafia grind, Valenti turned rat in 2008 and later wore a wire during countless conversations with Asaro and others.
Valenti gave jurors an intimate tour of the planning, execution and aftermath of the Lufthansa robbery.
The turncoat told jurors that he exhumed Katz’s body on his cousin’s orders.
Asaro’s lawyers, Diane Ferrone and Elizabeth Macedonio, apparently succeeded in discrediting Valenti and other Mafia songbirds who took the stand, blasting them as professional rats who were motivated to lie in exchange for government money.
Federal prosecutors had told jurors that the evidence against Asaro was overwhelming and that the cooperators’ testimony was supported by the evidence in the case.
Visibly shaken Thursday, the prosecutors — Nicole Argentieri, Lindsay Gerdes and Alicyn Cooley, who were joined by new US Attorney Robert Capers — left court without speaking to reporters.
Valenti had a strong turn on the stand, and the defense case was minimal.
But Macedonio finished strong in her closing statement, hammering at the cooperators as untrustworthy liars.
And despite a marathon, six-hour closing argument from prosecutor Cooley, the government’s case just couldn’t stick.
The case appeared to boil down to Valenti’s credibility — and the six-man, six-woman jury, after two days of deliberation, didn’t buy it.
