"He's gonna get indicted any day, this moron. He's built himself a gallows. He's bought the noose," Gotti said two years ago during a jailhouse visit with his daughter (and Carmine's wife) Victoria and his brother Pete.

At the time, the Dapper Don was lamenting the racketeering indictment of his son Junior, which he also characterized as stemming from stupidity. Several times he warned Victoria, a best-selling author, that her hot-tempered hubby, who's had several dustups with cops and traffic enforcement agents, would be the next Gotti family member to get in serious trouble.

"Look. You want a prediction? By June, her husband's gonna be indicted," said Gotti as he pointed to Victoria. (left) "And every two, three cents he's got, gonna be all tied up."

Gotti's timing was just a little off, but he accurately predicted that when Carmine was nailed authorities would try to seize assets from his $30-million-a-year string of scrap metal businesses. Probably no one, however, could have predicted he would be busted for allegedly trying to strong-arm undercover cops running a sting operation designed to nab car thieves and insurance scam artists.

This week, Agnello (right) was hit with state racketeering, extortion, and numerous other charges threatening and attempting to terrorize the cops. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years. Meanwhile prosecutors froze millions of dollars of his assets.

Last April, cops opened up Stadium Scrap, a scrap metal business in the Shea Stadium area of Queens that is home to 150 salvage yards, auto body shops, auto glass shops and scrap metal processors. The cops were crushing

Within a month after they opened up shop, on May 20, Carmine strolled brazenly right onto the set.

"We were in direct competition with them and we were giving better prices than they were, and they were losing accounts," said Detective James Halley, one of four cops who ran Stadium Scrap. "He came to us and said, 'Unless you're willing to do business, we're going to bump heads.' "

The cops were probably silently snickering; they certainly hadn't expected such a big fish to get caught in their net so quickly. Naturally, they  refused to knuckle under, and sat back and let the cameras do their thing. Agnello and three confederates were taped firebombing Stadium Scrap's trailer office and a flatbed three times in the next month, prosecutors said.

When Gerard Brave and Peri Kadanoff, two assistant Queens district attorneys determined they had enough evidence to nail Agnello and his buddies, the cops pretended they had gotten the message and agreed to do business with Agnello, selling their scrap metal to his New York Shredding Corporation for $2.10 a pound. Then, they followed their initial game plan, nailing 48 others for various auto-related crimes, including insurance fraud and possession of stolen cars, parts, and vehicle identification numbers.

Agnello's media-savvy lawyer, Marvyn Kornberg, says his client, who was held on $10 million bail,  was targeted by authorities because he was married to Gotti's daughter, but would be exonerated of all charges.

During Gotti's jailhouse visit, which was videotaped by prison officials, Gotti acknowledged that Carmine was a prime target because of his marriage to his daughter, but switched gears and started berating Agnello for his intelligence and his propensity for getting arrested over the years. Gotti said his son-in-law couldn't even visit him at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill. because of his arrest  record.

"He's an imbecile. And you gotta see the charges," said Gotti, pretending to read from Agnello's rap sheet. "Malicious mopery. Possession of brains with intent to use. Malicious mopery. Malicious mopery. Stolen bumper. Hubcab."

At another point, he asked Victoria: "So what's the story with Carmine?"

"What do you mean, what's the story with him?" she asked.

"Is he feeling good? Is he not feeling good? Is his medication increased? Decreased? Is it up? Down? Does he get in the backseat of the car and think someone has stolen the steering wheel?"

Gambino soldier Vincent Corrao, who served as acting capo while his dad, Joseph (Joe Butch) Corrao, (right) served time for racketeering, was nabbed for possessing a small quantity of Ecstasy (ketamine) in the parking lot of a Staten Island nightclub last Saturday morning.

Two days earlier, Jennifer Graziano, a daughter of Bonanno capo Anthony (T.G.) Graziano, was hit with federal drug charges for being a member of a  marijuana distribution ring allegedly run by her sister Rene's husband.

The younger Corrao, 34, of Monsey, was spotted handing something to Gambino associate Shelton Willis by narcotics cops and arrested on misdemeanor drug charges when cops found a small quantity of drugs on Willis, said Chief Assistant district attorney David Lehr.

After spending a night in jail, Corrao (left) and Willis, 28, of Staten Island, pleaded innocent and were released on their own recognizance.

Graziano, 28, and her brother-in-law, Hector Pagan, 34, husband of Rene Graziano, were overheard discussing pickups, work schedules, and paydays of runners who delivered pot to customers around the city, according to an arrest complaint by DEA agent Michael Cline.

Graziano isn't the first female member of the family to run afoul of the law. Her sister Lana was charged with mail fraud in 1989. Those charges, and similar ones prepared against their mother and Lana's mother-in-law, were dropped when the men of the family pleaded guilty to tax charges in a plea bargain that spared the women.

Jennifer Graziano, a graduate student at New York University, is one of two college students among eight defendants in the case. A third was studying to be a court reporter. All were released on bail.

Guerra, 35, a close associate of Colombo boss Alphonse Persico, (below left) was indicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn for dealing drugs in 1993 and 1994 and by a jury in Manhattan for extortion charges involving threats against a Manhattan brokerage in 1997.

After eight days in a federal lockup and four appearances in Brooklyn and Manhattan Federal Court, lawyer Mathew Mari won Guerra's release under strict house arrest conditions at his parents' Brooklyn home.

"Frank Guerra pleads guilty to being a friend of Alphonse Persico but innocent to both charges and is looking forward to clearing his name and getting on with his life," said Mari.

Last year, Gang Land reported that Guerra was allegedly involved in a drug deal for which Luchese associate Frank Smith was wrongly convicted and serving his 11th year of a 15 years-to-life sentence. Smith was tried with Persico's cousin, Theodore Persico Jr., who was also found guilty and sentenced to 20-to-life.