A Florida man with historic ties to organized crime was released from the Fannin County jail under a $4,500 bond after allegedly threatening his girlfriend.
Steve Vento, 53, of 11424 North 165th Road, Jupiter, Florida, is charged with disorderly conduct, simple assault and criminal damage to property, second degree, according to records at the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office.
Vento was taken into custody Wednesday, February 9, in connection with the incident that happened the previous night.
According to a deputy’s report, Vento’s estranged girlfriend came to the sheriff’s office at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 8, saying Vento came to her Ritchie Creek residence, kicked in her door, and came toward her “in an angry manner” while yelling.
The girlfriend grabbed a firearm and pointed it at Vento, who then went toward the master bedroom where he kept a firearm. This allowed the girlfriend and her son to leave the residence and drive to the sheriff’s office where she filed the report of the incident.
Vento was arrested the next day without incident at the girlfriend’s residence. He told investigators he just wanted to retrieve his property and leave.
Vento first appeared on the organized crime scene when, at the age of 16, he was charged with murder in the 1984 slaying of Michael J. “Nippy” Micali in New Jersey. A 2012 article in the Palm Beach, Florida, Post said he was acquitted of that charge.
Vento is the son of the late Steve “Steakie” Vento Sr., who was a drug dealer and rival of notorious mob boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo.
In May 1986, Vento was shot in the head and back in what was described in court as a Scarfo-ordered mob hit.
At 18, Vento was charged with a plan to break his father out of the U.S. Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The elder Vento was serving an 18-year sentence for his role in a Philadelphia drug ring.
A 1986 story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel said Vento hatched the prison break plot in a Ft. Lauderdale hotel room.
Numerous published reports explained the plot included shooting out guard towers with a grenade launcher and machine guns, and swooping into the prison yard with a helicopter to airlift the father, and bank robber Noah Vance, to freedom.
Vento Sr. and Vance had stained their undershirts, which they wore under their prison shirts, with cranberry juice. The plan was for the two to remove their prison shirts so they could be easily spotted by the helicopter pilot.
The plot was foiled by undercover FBI agents after the agency was alerted by a helicopter rental company. Representatives of the company had become suspicious over a large payment for an undetermined cargo.
Vento was reported to be free on bail from the New Jersey murder charge when the failed prison break occurred.
Vento was eventually sentenced to five years for the attempted prison break.
Vento once owned a Daytona Beach-based motorcycle company called Godfather Racing.
In 2010, he was charged with conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud by a federal grand jury, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. He was accused of making false loan applications for $1.9 and $1.1 million.
According to U.S. District Court records, he pled guilty to one count of the indictment, was sentenced to one year and one day in jail to run concurrently with a state sentence he was serving, and was placed on five years supervised release.