NEW YORK (AP) – A federal judge on Tuesday ordered John A. “Junior” Gotti held without bail after the man who insisted he had retired from a life of crime was arrested on charges linking him to three killings and large-scale cocaine trafficking.

Earlier Tuesday, federal prosecutor Robert O’Neill announced the indictment in Tampa, Fla., of the 44-year-old Gotti and five other men, saying they were “trying to gain a foothold” in the area.

Gotti – son of the late Gambino family crime boss John Gotti – was arrested at his home on Long Island. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

The conspiracy indictment against Gotti accuses him of being a chief in an arm of the Gambino crime family that operated in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania since about 1983.

That enterprise was involved in everything from murder and kidnapping to witness tampering and money laundering, and had its fingers in legal and illegal businesses and union locals, federal authorities said.

It says he was involved in the slayings of George Grosso in Queens, N.Y., in 1988; Louis DiBono, who was killed in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in Manhattan in 1990; and Bruce John Gotterup, killed in 1991 at the boardwalk at the Rockaways in Queens.

It also accuses him of possession and trafficking of more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.

A second indictment charges Gotti associates John A. Burke, 47, who is in prison in New York; James V. Cadicamo, 33, of Tampa; David D’Arpino, 33, of Howard Beach, NY; Michael D. Finnerty, 43, of Oceanside, NY; and Guy T. Peden, 47, of Wantagh, NY.

Both indictments were handed up last month.

In 1999, Junior Gotti pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud. He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in 2005.

Gotti also was tried three times in Manhattan on racketeering charges for an alleged plot to kidnap Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. The trials in 2005 and 2006 ended in hung juries and mistrials.

Federal prosecutors announced at the time that they were giving up – and Gotti said he had long since retired from his life of crime.

“They tried very hard to convict him up here. They spared no resources and it didn’t work,” said Gotti’s attorney, Charles Carnesi. “It’s tragic for him and his family to have to continually go through this. It’s almost laughable.”

Federal authorities in Florida successfully convicted other suspected members of the Tampa-area Gambino enterprise in 2006, including Michael Malone, Charles Carneglia and Ronald “Ronnie One Arm” Trucchio. The former alleged boss of the Tampa enterprise, John E. Alite, is awaiting trial in Tampa after being captured and extradited from Brazil.

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Associated Press writer Christine Armario reported from Tampa, Fla.

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