After a fabled run as one of Boston’s last old-school mobsters, Carmen “The Cheeseman” DiNunzio, reputed boss of the New England Mafia, died Sunday at the age of 68.

The East Boston resident “passed away peacefully,” according to his obituary .

Taking his nickname from the cheese shop he ran in Boston’s North End, DiNunzio allegedly became a made member of the New England Mafia in the late 1990s and began a yearslong stint as underboss in 2004, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court.

But DiNunzio’s rise to the top was not without some hiccups. He served five years in prison after pleading guilty to bribing an undercover FBI agent who was posing as a state official — part of a 2006 conspiracy to net a lucrative Big Dig contract. DiNunzio also received a concurrent sente

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