Feds say alleged extortionist with mob ties threatened witness

Federal authorities want to lock up a defendant they say is an Outfit connected extortionist who just this week leveled a threat against a witness in the case against him.

Paul Carparelli, who is charged in a series of extortion plots, allegedly followed one of the witness’ employees out of a Wal-Mart parking lot Tuesday in west suburban Addison. As the pair idled at a stoplight, Carparelli allegedly gestured from his black Cadillac sedan for the employee to roll down the window of his white van.

“Tell [the witness] he is a f – – – – – – rat,” Carparelli said, according to prosecutors. “Tell him he knows what happens to rats.”

Carparelli’s attorneys did not immediately comment on the accusation. But prosecutors, who said they have security footage of Carparelli following the employee out of the Wal-Mart, plan to ask U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman to revoke Carparelli’s bond Friday. They said Carparelli’s comment had a “clear meaning.”

“The cooperating witness would be subject to severe violence or killed,” they wrote, “just as other federal witnesses have been killed in the past. The punishment for acting as a witness against the Chicago Outfit has been well-documented.”

Prosecutors also quoted from recorded conversations between Carparelli and a cooperating witness in which he allegedly laid out what prosecutors called his “three cardinal sins.”

“As long as you don’t steal from me, f – – – my wife or rat on me, you’re my friend one thousand percent,” Carparelli allegedly said.