Gangster Still Hates Rats, But He’s Released So He Can Deal With His Medical Problems

Accused Genovese gangster Anthony Costa was released from his federal lockup last week after the judge in his case learned that his jailers at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn had decided that he needed an emergency medical procedure and were unable to accommodate the 59-year-old inmate. 

Brooklyn Federal Judge Nina Morrison ordered the release of Costa, who sports a tattoo stating “I HATE FUCKIN RATS” on his back and is awaiting trial for the illegal possession of a loaded handgun, on a $4 million bond secured by property worth $1 million and the signatures of 13 friends and relatives. He’d been detaned as a danger to the community since his arrest six months ago when FBI agents found the gun in his car.

Morrison rejected the contention by assistant U.S. attorney Vincent Chiappini that the decision by the MDC to transfer Costa to a local hospital in Brooklyn last week to perform an emergency colonoscopy indicated that the much-maligned facility was doing its best to deal with the inmate’s medical problems.

The judge agreed with the argument that attorney Gerard Marrone has been making for a month now:  Costa suffers from a myriad of health issues that the MDC is simply unable to handle and that a $4 million secured bond along with home detention and GPS monitoring of his client would both enable him to receive the medical attention he needs and assure the safety of the community.

On Tuesday, September 2, “Costa was taken to an outside hospital” for a colonoscopy that the MDC had scheduled for October but which “the government rushed” in an effort to “get it completed” before his scheduled September 5 court appearance before Judge Morrison, according to a court filing by Marrone.

The outside physician “refused to do the procedure because Mr. Costa was not cleared by his neurologist and his cardiologist,” Marrone wrote, noting that “it is impossible” for Costa to undergo any procedure that needs to be performed “while he’s incarcerated” because he would have to be cleared beforehand by a cardiologist and a neurologist.

Costa’s medical problems began two years ago, Marrone wrote, after Costa underwent a routine colonoscopy and “a potentially cancerous polyp was found and removed,” He was told to have a follow up procedure six months later but was unable to, the lawyer wrote, because he suffered a stroke.

Since then, doctors have stated that the only way Costa can have the procedure is in a hospital setting where the possibility of “excessive bleeding” caused by blood-thinners prescribed to prevent him from having another stroke can be monitored and controlled, Marrone wrote.

In March, Costa was detained without bail as a danger to the community when prosecutors stated they had evidence that he had been involved in several “extortionate schemes” since 2018, was tape recorded speaking to loanshark victims in 2021 and in 2023, and that in August of 2023, he shot one loanshark victim “in the vicinity” of his Staten Island home.

Costa, who has not been charged with any of the crimes that the feds alleged in his detention memo, was indicted in May only for the illegal weapons possession charge. As he deals with his medical ailments, he is also discussing a possible plea deal to resolve his charges, and is scheduled back in court on November 18.