Detroit mobster John (Johnny Bananas) Sciarrotta was recently busted in a federal drug sting and is facing a maximum 20 years in prison as punishment due to his checkered rap sheet. The 63-year old wiseguy and three others were arrested in Canton, Michigan back in March for trying to purchase $300,000 worth of cocaine from an undercover FBI agent. Johnny Bananas has two previous narcotics convictions on his record and was nailed in the historic Operation Game Tax case in the late 1990s, which ensnared virtually the entire leadership structure of the Detroit mafia. The feds had been watching Sciarrotta and his alleged partner David Miranda for several months before the March, 11, 2019 sting was executed. The transaction went down in a Holiday Inn Express parking lot and the men were apprehended at a nearby gas station. Sciarrotta and Miranda’s alleged connection was 47-year old Chris Tallarico out of Pittsburgh. Tallarico negotiated the coke buy with the undercover agent at a diner in Wayne, Michigan hours prior to the bust. An FBI surveillance unit watched Sciarrotta and Miranda circle the block in a SUV while Tallarico negotiated the deal at the diner and then hours later as he made the purchase in the hotel parking lot. When federal authorities searched Sciarrotta’s residence in Dearborn, Michigan they found a number of firearms and packages of cocaine. Johnny Bananas has taken pinches for grand larceny, carrying a concealed weapon, obstruction, resisting arrest, coke possession, heroin dealing and extortion in the past. The extortion charge stems from the Operation Game Tax investigation. Along with fellow mob soldiers Nove Tocco and Paulie Corrado, Sciarrotta kidnapped and threatened a local Detroit bookie named George Sophia in an attempt to get him to pay street tax to the Tocco-Zerilli crime family. At the time, Sciarrotta was a member of the family’s Corrado crew headed by Anthony (Tony the Bull) Corrado, Paulie Corrado’s uncle. Tony the Bull died behind bars in 2002 serving time from the Game Tax case. Sciarrotta was known to book bets for deceased Detroit mob gambling chief Allen (The General) Hilf in the 1980s and 1990s. Tony Sciarrotta, Johnny Bananas’ dad and a longtime area bookie, died of natural causes last year.
