FBI halts dig to find body

FBI agents halted excavation in East Farmingdale Thursday night after three days digging in an attempt to uncover the body of a mob associate who was slain in 1995, officials said Thursday.

An informant had told agents that the area near the Long Island Rail Road tracks adjoining an industrial park on Executive Boulevard had been used in the 1990s as a burial ground for at least three victims by the Colombo organized-crime family.

The agents have been seeking the remains of Richard Greaves, an associate of the Colombo family who was murdered in 1995 because he was suspected of wanting to become an informant.

Eighteen months ago, the agents found the body of a second victim, William Cutolo, the underboss of the family, who was slain in 1999 by rivals for control of the family, officials have said.

Sources have said that the third victim, Carmen Gargano Jr., a Pace University student, was slain in 1994 in a Brooklyn auto body shop and his body was moved to the East Farmingdale site. That slaying was part of a revenge plot against a relative, sources have said.

But Gargano's body was believed to have been buried where industrial buildings have since been constructed. And the builders have told agents that they did not find any remains while digging deep foundations for the buildings, sources have said.