A reputed mobster allegedly involved in the 1978 Lufthansa heist portrayed in the mafia biopic "Goodfellas" was cleared all charges related to the crime Thursday.

Reuters reports 80-year-old Vincent Asaro walked free out of Brooklyn federal court after a jury found him not guilty of murder, extortion and other crimes. Prosecutors accused Asaro of waiting in a decoy car with gangster, Jimmy Burke, while a group of masked associates robbed the Lufthansa terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport, stealing $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels.

The famous heist was represented in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas," in which actor Robert De Niro played a character inspired by Burke, widely suspected to be the mastermind of the crime.

According to the New York Times, Asaro pumped his fist in the air as the jury cleared him on the first count of a racketing charge, and then on second and third counts of extortion. He later emerged from the courthouse, shouting "Free!" at reporters.

The verdict likely came as a shock to prosecutors, hoping to land their first major conviction in the unsolved case. No reputed members of the mafia had ever been found guilty of the crime.

Asaro was accused of being a third-generation member of the Bonanno crime family. In addition to his connection to the robbery, he was also charged with strangling a suspected police informant to death, and soliciting the murder of a relative.

The case heavily relied upon the witness accounts of other former mafia members, most notably Asaro's cousin, Gaspare Valenti, who claimed to be one of the robbers in the infamous heist and whose intel led to Asaro's arrest one year ago.

The defense argued that Valenti could not be trusted, calling him an "experienced liar."

Asaro said he was also shocked at the verdict. As he prepared to leave he told reporters, "Don't believe everything you see in the movies," but also added, "Don't let them see the body in the trunk."