November 12, 2022 — Longtime Providence mobster Edward (Little Eddie) Lato is the new underboss of the New England mafia, according to the Rhode Island State Police. The 75-year old Little Eddie Lato’s fresh designation on the Feds radar came via court filings related to an embattled political powerbroker and an infamous Patriarca crime family associate’s business dealings in the legal marijuana dispensary space.
Lato, 75, was released from federal prison in 2019 after serving a sentence for extorting Rhode Island strip clubs. He was bumped up to a capo’s post in the early 2000s following another federal prison stint for loansharking.
The news broke late last month from ace reporter Tim White as part of WPRI TV’s “Troubling Ties” investigation probing the connection between then-Rhode Island House of Representatives Deputy Chief of Staff John Conti and the New England mafia’s Providence faction. Conti resigned upon the report airing and is alleged to have ties to Little Eddie Lato, Cranston-based capo Matthew (Good Looking Matty) Guglielmetti and veteran Providence mob enforcer Raymond (Scarface) Jenkins.
State police investigators surveilled Conti at a 2020 Christmas party held on Federal Hill where Lato and Guglielmetti were reported to be taking tribute payments. Jenkins and Conti were partners in a licensed marijuana grow and dispensary called Organic Bees. According to texts obtained in the case against Jenkins for illegal ownership by a convicted felon, Jenkins, 58 and Conti, 59, grew up together in East Providence and are close friends.
Guglielmetti, 74, had been the Patriarca clan’s underboss and Providence skipper, but relinquished the role to Lato due to health concerns, per sources. Lato rose through the ranks of the Providence mob under former crew boss Rudy (The Captain) Sciarra, who died of natural causes in 2012. The FBI considers Lato a top suspect in the 1992 gangland slaying of New England mafia enforcer Kevin Hanrahan on a Federal Hill street corner.
This article was originally posted here