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MANCHESTER, Conn., May 2 (UPI) -- FBI agents searched the Connecticut home of a mobster known as Robert "Bobby the Cook" Gentile on Monday, looking for evidence related to a 1990 Boston art heist. The mob boss, currently awaiting trial on federal firearms charges, is believed to have intimate knowledge of the 1990 Boston art theft that saw 13 paintings worth more than $500 million stolen from the city's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
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It's the third time federal agents have searched Gentile's home for evidence related to the museum heist.
"If they didn't find them in the first two searches, how could they find them this time?" A. Ryan McGuigan, Gentile's lawyer, asked the Boston Globe.
An FBI spokesperson told NBC News that agents were "conducting court-authorized activity" at Gentile's home, but declined to confirm the nature of the search or offer further details.
According to the Hartford Courant, agents could be seen searching inside the residence and digging outside near the base of a chimney.
Gentile and his lawyer continue to deny any knowledge of the heist, and say federal prosecutors are using trumped up gun charges to squeeze him for details he doesn't have.
However, Gentile is alleged to have bragged about knowledge of the heist while serving time in prison on gun and drug charges. He is also accused of trying and failing to negotiate a reduced sentence for a mob associate, promising the return of two stolen Gardner artworks.
Among the artworks stolen were a number of paintings and drawings by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Edgar Degas and Johannes Vermeer.
