Port workers’ union boss linked to murdered gangster in ‘farce’ extortion case he defeated in trial

Harold Daggett, the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, who held a brief strike this week in a labor dispute that could have sparked a shipping crisis in the U.S., was once acquitted of federal racketeering charges related to alleged mob ties to the same organization . union.

Daggett’s lawyer, his cousin George Daggett, said the 2005 charges were politically motivated and based on weak evidence.

“This trial was a farce,” he told Fox News Digital. “People say to me, ‘You did a great job.’ And I tell them that a law student could have won that case. The case was actually brought by the Waterfront Commission in New York, and they hated the union.”

The Justice Department failed to secure a conviction, but the case had deadly consequences. One of the co-defendants, Larry Ricci, a reputed family captain from Genovese, disappeared midway through the trial and was later found dead in the trunk of a car outside the Huck Finn Diner in Union, New Jersey, 20 miles west of New York City.

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Harold J. Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, speaks as longshoremen at the Maher Terminals in Port Newark are on strike on Oct. 1, 2024, in New Jersey. (BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)

“He was either kidnapped — which is unlikely because he would be far too difficult a person to hold hostage — or murdered,” Ricci’s lawyer Martin Schmukler told the court after he disappeared midway through the trial, The Associated Press reported at the time. He was later acquitted in absentia.

The commission, then a joint oversight operation between the states of New York and New Jersey, pressured federal prosecutors to bring charges it could not prove, George Daggett told Fox News Digital.

This trial was a farce. People say to me, ‘You did a great job.’ And I tell them that a law student could have won that case. It was actually generated by the Waterfront Commission in New York, and they hated the union.

– George Daggett, nephew and lawyer of ILA President Harold Daggett

Harold Daggett denied the criminal allegations and said he was the victim of mafia extortion. He testified that another mobster, George Barone, put a gun to his head and threatened to slaughter his family.

The Huck Finn Diner in Union, New Jersey, shown in a Google Maps photo. Suspected mob captain Larry Ricci was found dead outside in the trunk of an abandoned car after disappearing in the middle of an extortion trial. He was acquitted in absentia.

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“I was so nervous that I peed on myself,” he testified at the time, according to a New York Post report. In a separate statement, he denied knowing Barone was a Genovese “soldier,” according to court documents.

Prosecutors had alleged that Daggett had ties to the Genovese crime family as early as 2000, and the union has long been accused of giving no-show jobs to gangsters’ relatives and providing kickbacks.

In exchange for union contracts, the mob was supposed to protect the careers and salaries of corrupt ILA officials, prosecutors alleged.

Harold Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), center, speaks with picket workers outside the APM container terminal at the Port of Newark on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Longshoremen walked away from every major port on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts for the first time in nearly 50 years. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The Justice Department could not convince jurors that the suspects were guilty of a crime.

George Daggett, the attorney, said the case began after his cousin asked a Catholic priest for financial advice and had $18 million in union funds placed under the supervision of the same money manager who worked with Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, N.Y. Jersey. .

“So during the trial, every time a gangster’s name was mentioned, the government had a big sign, and they made a circle, (and) every time a gangster was mentioned, they put his picture on this big sign,” said he. . “The government’s case ended, and I took Father Cassidy’s picture and put it in the middle of all those gangsters. So that was kind of the process.”

Dennis Daggett, executive vice president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), speaks with picket workers outside the APM container terminal at the Port of Newark on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, in Newark, New Jersey, USA. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Although the case involved charges of racketeering and trade interference, prosecutors asked their first witness how many people he had killed, Daggett said.

“You knew it was all downhill for the government after that,” he said.

After Ricci’s disappearance, his attorney continued to work on his behalf during the trial and clear his name.

Dock workers gather at the Bayport Container Terminal in Seabrook, Texas on October 1, 2024. (MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)

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“What happened was it wasn’t a good fact pattern for the government, but the Waterfront Commission pushed so hard that the Eastern District said OK,” Daggett told Fox News Digital. “Larry Ricci lost his life because people, I think, thought everyone would be guilty. There was no way the verdict could have been guilty.”

Another co-defendant, Albert Cernadas, pleaded guilty, but jurors found Daggett, Ricci and Arthur Coffey, another ILA director, not guilty at trial.

No one has been charged in Riccis’ death, although federal prosecutors said they overheard a New Jersey mobster talking to his son about recovering the murder weapon during wiretaps. That man, Michael Coppola, was sent to prison in another RICO case involving ILA kickbacks, identity fraud and the 1977 murder of a man named John “Johnny Cokes” Lardiere.

Prosecutors have also hinted that Ricci’s killing opened the way for other suspected gangsters to corruptly benefit from the ILA, court documents show.

Harold Daggett became president of the union in 2011. It’s alleged he drove a yacht and a luxury Bentley car, lived in a sprawling mansion in Sparta, New Jersey, and took home more than $900,000 in union wages last year — $728,000 because he was union. president, and another $173,000 for his previous role at local 1804-1, which he left in 2011, FOX Business reported.

The ILA, which represents dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts, went on strike this week in a dispute over what the union calls unfair wages, against a backdrop of steep inflation, a rising minimum wage that has outpaced union increases, and the threat of human job losses due to automation.

A container ship sits anchored in New York Harbor as it awaits the reopening of the Port of Newark after members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, or ILA, began leaving their jobs on Oct. 2, 2024, in Staten Island, New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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The union demanded concessions from the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) before the parties reached an agreement late Thursday.

The ILA, which represents 45,000 U.S. workers at ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast, said the parties have reached a tentative wage agreement that extends the current contract until Jan. 15, 2025.

“It was hard when (in 1977, when) we went on strike for 80 cents,” Harold Daggett told FOX Business on Tuesday. “The companies only made $5 to $10 million, but… since COVID and pre-COVID, they’re making billions and billions of dollars so far. It’s a completely different story, but they don’t want to share it. They would rather see a fully automated terminal here on the East Coast so they can make more money. They are crazy about money.”

The strike could have paralyzed the US supply chain and cost the country’s economy more than $4. billion per day, according to a JPMorgan analysis.