A former FBI official accused of plotting four gangland murders was gloating today after the spectacular collapse of one of the most serious corruption cases in the bureau’s history.

Lindley DeVecchio provocatively toasted his freedom by raising a glass of champagne with his wife at Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan - scene of an infamous 1985 “hit” that killed American “Godfather” Paul Castellano.

Mr DeVecchio had been on trial for murder for allegedly helping his main mafia informer “whack” four people in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

At the time, Mr DeVecchio was supervising an FBI unit assigned to tracking the Colombo crime clan. Prosecutors charged that he collaborated with his main mob contact, Gregory Scarpa, a Colombo family “capo” whose reputation for brutality earned him the nickname “The Grim Reaper”.

In court, the prosecution claimed Scarpa showered Mr DeVecchio with cash, stolen jewellery, drink and prostitutes in exchange for the confidential information.

Mr DeVecchio, prosecutors said, tipped Scarpa off about future arrests and helped him plan the murders of four mob rivals or potential informers.

Scarpa died in 1994 in a Minnesota prison after contracting Aids from a blood transfusion seven years before. The government’s star witness was Linda Schiro, Scarpa’s “moll” and mother of his son.

On the witness stand, she described how she sat next to Scarpa at the kitchen table many times as he planned murders with Mr DeVecchio - including the 1990 killing of her son’s best friend.

But the case collapsed dramatically when two veteran crime reporters published details of a decade-old interview captured on tape that flatly contradicted her testimony.

Tom Robbins and Jerry Capeci said Ms Schiro specifically cleared Mr DeVecchio of involvement in three of the murders in the tape-recorded conversations, which were made for a book that was never written.

Breaking his pledge only to publish the interview in book form, Mr Robbins went public with her earlier statements on a website, Village Voice. “The threat of a life sentence trumps a promise,” he said.

The questions raised about Ms Schiro’s testimony also cast doubt on her claim that Scarpa helped the FBI find the bodies of three missing civil rights workers in the famous 1960s case that inspired the 1988 film “Mississippi Burning”.

Ms Schiro had testified that Scarpa kidnapped a Ku Klux Klan member and put a gun in his mouth to force him to reveal where the three victims had been buried. In the film, the case is cracked by a fictional black FBI agent.

With the credibility of their star witness in tatters, prosecutors felt they could not proceed.

Judge Gustin Reichbach threw out all charges against Mr DeVecchio and ordered the return of his one million dollars bail.

But he blasted the FBI for allowing Mr DeVecchio to court a known killer as an informant for well over a decade.

“In the face of the obvious menace posed by organised crime, the FBI was willing ... to make a deal with the devil,” he told the hushed Brooklyn courtroom.

“At best, the FBI engaged in a policy of self-deception, not wanting to know the true facts about this informant-murderer whom they chose to employ.”

The collapse of the high-profile trial was a humiliating blow to Charles Hynes, the long-time Brooklyn district attorney who once called the case “the most stunning example of official corruption I have ever seen”.

Mr DeVecchio said he planned to return to his home in Florida to ride his Harley Davison motorcycle and enjoy his retirement.

“After almost two years, this nightmare is over,” he said. “I’ll never forgive the Brooklyn DA’s office for irresponsibly pursuing this case. My question is: ‘Where do I go to get back my reputation?’”

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