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Mobster claims mid-crime injury should keep out of jail


By Rich Calder


A reputed mobster got A reputed mobster got “whacked” — and lived to whine about it.
Robert Franco, who confessed to being part of a mob effort to control New York and North Jersey’s garbage-carting industry, is trying to get out of jail time by claiming he still suffers terrible pain from getting whacked in the head four years ago by a chunk of falling concrete.
Feds say the reputed Genovese soldier and nephew of ringleader Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco is not a very wise guy — and doesn’t deserve a break.
Prosecutors revealed in court filings Wednesday that Franco, 51, of White Plains, was stealing recyclable cardboard trash for the mob when the concrete fell from elevated tracks in The Bronx and struck him.
They know, because the blockhead was unknowingly under FBI surveillance.
“The 2010 falling-concrete incident was observed by FBI agents conducting surveillance and occurred while the defendant was collecting stolen cardboard in the Bronx,” Assistant US Attorney Brian Blais told Manhattan federal Judge Kevin Castel.
“It is ironic for the defendant to seek leniency in part based on an injury suffered while the defendant was committing the very crime for which he is being sentenced.”
Blais asked Castel to give Franco six to 12 months in prison when he’s sentenced Wednesday.
Franco has pleaded guilty to transporting stolen garbage containers and cardboard across state lines.
Franco had asked Castel for leniency in court filings last month. He claimed he can’t cut it in prison because he “walks with a limp” from a 2003 car accident and “still experiences migraine headaches” from the falling-concrete accident, which left him with a “concussion” and required “18 stitches” to his head.
The government estimates that he helped steal 10 metal garbage containers valued at a combined $20,000 and 561 tons of cardboard worth a whopping $112,200 on the re-sale market.
However, the feds agreed to set the value of the stolen goods for sentencing purposes at “$30,000 to $70,000” as part of the plea deal.
The heisted metal containers were taken to a waste transfer station controlled by his uncle and artfully repainted in colors resembling those used by haulers affiliated with the elder Franco.
Both Francos are among 32 alleged members and associates of the Gambino, Genovese and Luchese crime families busted by the FBI in January 2013.
Carmine Franco has also copped a plea in the case busted by the FBI in January 2013