A federal judge, rejecting the government's plea for a stiffer sentence, said former New England Mafia boss Raymond "Junior" Patriarca would spend no more than eight years in prison for racketeering.

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Federal prosecutors had asked that Patriarca be given a 25-year term because they said he sanctioned murders and drug trafficking as head of the underworld in New England during the 1980s.But U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf discounted the government's contention that Patriarca had personally approved gangland slayings.

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