Feds should expedite probe of Carabbia's son

Now that Ronald D. Carabbia, the former Mahoning Valley gangster, is out of prison after serving 25 years for the killing of a mob rival, the FBI would do well to step up its investigation of the Mafia member's son, Ronald A. Carabbia. Why? Because there is always the possibility the 73-year-old former Poland resident will return to the Mahoning Valley. He is currently living in Columbus.
His return, in light of the FBI's public disclosure that the son is the subject of an ongoing probe, would not be a good thing.
The Valley is finally beginning to shed its image as a haven for organized crime, what with local mob boss Lenine Strollo cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department, and what we don't need is for the elder Carabbia to make a comeback.
As FBI Special Agent John Kane, who heads the bureau's Boardman office, told The Vindicator recently: "We would expect him to take a role in organized crime once he gets out -- it's not like old generals who just fade away."
We aren't impressed with an he agreement signed with the Adult Parole Authority that will govern his five-year parole. It was the authority that approved his release from the Chillicothe Correctional Institution despite pleas from the Kane and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason that he spend the rest of his life behind bars, in accordance with his sentence.
Car bombing
In 1977, Carabbia participated in the gangland slaying of Cleveland mobster Daniel J. Greene in Lyndhurst. A witness testified in the trial that the Youngstown Mafioso flipped the switch that blew up a car next to Greene's.
The parole authority chose to ignore the concerns voiced by Mason and Kane and, instead, seemed to have been swayed by letters written on Carabbia's behalf. One of the letters was from Carmen M. Marino, the former assistant prosecutor in Cuyahoga County who prosecuted Carabbia for murder.
But Marino didn't stop at merely trying to rewrite history by contending that Carabbia had not been a major target of the investigation into the Danny Greene killing. He offered the patently inaccurate analysis that the former Valley mobster would be no threat because "There is no criminal arena for him to re-enter because there is no organized crime in this area."
The fact that the parole authority bought such tripe leads us to the conclusion that if Carabbia wished to return to his Poland home, permission would be granted without so much as a blink of the eye.
Gambling
And while the FBI says it won't be paying any special attention to the 73-year-old mobster, we do believe the federal government needs to quickly wrap up its investigation of the younger Carabbia, who lives in Boardman. The agency is looking into organized crime gambling, and agents have raided locations that involve Ronald A. Carabbia.
If the probe turns up nothing to prove that the son has followed in his father's footsteps, then the FBI has a responsibility to make that known publicly. On the other hand, if there is evidence of his involvement in illegal activity, the government should indict him posthaste.