Former mob assassin sentenced 12 years for drug charges

YOUNGSTOWN — A major drug offender, who went to prison for a 1996 Mafia assassination, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of cocaine and heroin possession and trafficking and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, imposed the prison time this morning on George Wilkins III, 41, of McClure St., Struthers.

When Struthers police pulled Wilkins over on State Street in August 2013, they found 6.6 pounds of pure cocaine and 3.3 pounds of pure heroin inside his car, with a combined value of about $240,000.

Wilkins was previously sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison in the June 3, 1996, shooting death of Ernie Biondillo, 53, of Campbell, as he was driving to work on the East Side.

Wilkins and two other men carried out a plot by former mob boss Lenny Strollo, who wanted Biondillo killed because they were organized crime rivals.