Alleged former mob associate, husband of leading Ohio owner arrested

A Cleveland-area scrapyard owner who prosecutors alleged was once a member of the Gambino crime family has been arrested on suspicion of several crimes related to drugging racehorses, according to reports surrounding the arrest last week of Carmine Agnello.

Agnello, 54, was arrested July 15, with prosecutors alleging theft, money laundering, conspiracy, drugging animals before competition, cruelty to animals, and corrupting sports, according to police. The most serious allegations involve his scrapyard business. The police report does not cite any specific instances of drugging racehorses.

Agnello’s wife, Danielle, is one of the leading owners in Ohio. According to Equibase records, horses owned by Danielle Agnello have won 164 races from 873 starts since 2011, when her name first appeared in owner records, for a strike rate of 19 percent. Her total earnings during that time were $1.16 million, or $1,329 per start.

On Wednesday, Agnello’s attorney, Ian Friedman, said prosecutors and police had not presented him with any evidence to support the allegations of drugging horses or fixing races. Friedman also said the investigators were employing a “shotgun approach” in their probe in an attempt to make one of the charges stick.

“We’ve looked into it, but there’s nothing there,” Friedman said, in reference to the allegations regarding horseracing. “Once they do their due diligence, they’ll find there’s nothing there.”

Prosecutors have not formally charged Agnello with any crimes, and he was released Friday on a $100,000 personal bond. Evidence has been submitted to a grand jury, according to police.

Anthony Stabile Sr., the Agnello family’s racing manager, said on Tuesday that investigators raided Agnello’s office at his Cleveland scrapyard and a house at the family’s farm outside Cleveland. He said the searches turned up a bottle of Robaxin, the trade name for the regulated medication methocarbomal, a muscle relaxant, as well as bottles of an iron supplement.

Stabile said investigators did not search any of the barns holding Agnello’s horses, which are primarily trained by Mike and Julie Pappada. The Pappadas were named by police as being associates of the Agnellos at the time of Carmine Agnello’s arrest, though they have not been charged with any crimes.

Stabile called the allegations of drugging and race-fixing baseless.

“If they want to protect the public like they say and they feel like someone is doping horses, why didn’t they go to the barn and pull blood on all his horses?” Stabile said. “This whole thing is a witch hunt.”

Agnello served time in 2001 after being convicted of racketeering and arson while living in New York. He was formerly married to Victoria Gotti, the daughter of the infamous Gambino family mobster John Gotti, but the couple divorced soon after his conviction. He married the former Danielle Vangar after being released in 2009. The couple moved to Ohio soon thereafter.

Stabile, who said he has known Carmine Agnello for 40 years after growing up in the same New York neighborhood, said Agnello formerly owned harness horses while living in New York. Stabile said Agnello called him in 2011 to set up a horse-racing operation for his wife, which led Stabile to relocate to Cleveland. Because of Agnello’s former convictions, it would be extremely unlikely for a racing jurisdiction to issue him a racing license.

“He’s a decent man,” Stabile said.