The Connecticut mobster recently in the news for his suspected links to the world’s most famous art heist has been arrested on weapons charges
Robert V. Gentile, 75, is suspected of having information related to the 1990 Boston art heist in which 13 pieces of art were taken from the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum. Two thieves, dressed as police officers, made off with a hoard of artworks worth over $500 million, including Johannes Vermeer’s The Concert and Rembrandt’s ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’. The Vermeer work is, without a doubt, one of the most highly valued stolen work of art in the world, making up nearly half of the total worth of the stolen works.
Gentile is believed by the FBI to have ‘had some involvement in connection with stolen property’ related to the theft of these masterworks. And now he has been arrested for possession of weapons – something that is forbidden given his status as a convicted felon, having been found guilty of larceny in 1996. Federal police report that they discovered three revolvers during a search of Gentile’s home on 10 February 2012, along with a store of live ammunition and home-made silencers.
While Federal law prohibits possession of silencers unless they been registered, it is also illegal for convicted felons to possess firearms or ammunition that have been transported across state lines or from overseas – as these are believed to have been. Each of these charges carry the potential penalty of 10 years in jail, and $250,000 fine.
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