[6][2] Alite was affiliated with the Gambino crime family but was ineligible to become a "made man" in the organization due to his non-Italian heritage.

[7] In the 1980s and 1990s, he was an enforcer and hitman for a Queens-based drug gang headed by John Angelo "Junior" Gotti which allegedly distributed eight kilograms of cocaine per month.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Ted Otto described Alite as "a hybrid gangster… an exception to the rule".

[8] On December 20, 1988, Alite lured cocaine dealer George Grosso to the White Horse Tavern in Queens, persuaded him to get into a car under the pretence of driving to another bar, and then shot him three times in the head.

Alite was dispatched to Atlantic City to search for DiBono but failed to locate the mobster, who was ultimately killed by Charles Carneglia in an underground parking lot at the World Trade Center later that year.

[14][15][16] In the mid-1990s, Alite relocated to the Philadelphia area, where he owned homes in the suburbs of Cherry Hill and Voorhees Township.

Infighting in the Philadelphia Mafia between rival factions led by John Stanfa and Joey Merlino left the organization in disarray and allowed Alite to take control of the lucrative valet parking business on Delaware Avenue, as well as in South Jersey and Atlantic City, within a year of moving to the area.

[17] Aside from being a source of legitimate income, Alite used his valet parking businesses as a means of laundering money he was making from drug dealing, gambling and loansharking.

[17] Alite later led a crew in Tampa, Florida that extorted rival valet businesses, and reported to Gambino capo Ronald "Ronnie One-Arm" Trucchio.

[21][1] In January 2008, Alite pleaded guilty to racketeering charges that included two murders, four murder conspiracies, at least eight shootings, and two attempted shootings as well as armed home invasions and armed robberies in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida, stemming from his alleged involvement in a Gambino crew in Tampa, Florida.

[22] Alite agreed to testify in the trial of Gambino family enforcer Charles Carneglia, who was found guilty of four murders and is now serving a life sentence.

[23] Alite was also a government witness in the unsuccessful racketeering trial against John Gotti Jr.[24] Prosecutors indicted Gotti for racketeering and murder conspiracy charges, stemming from an alleged drug trafficking ring in Florida, and the murders of George Grosso in 1988, Louis DiBono in 1990 and Bruce John Gotterup in 1991.