The FBI has announced that they have arrested 46 members of the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese and Bonanno families. Also arrested were some members of a Philadelphia crime family. The arrests took place in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida. The busts involved many different crimes, including racketeering, extortion, arson, making extortionate extensions of credit, operating illegal gambling businesses, health care fraud, credit card fraud, selling untaxed cigarettes, firearms trafficking and assault.
In a second indictment unsealed in Massachusetts on Thursday, two of the defendants were accused of working for the Genovese family and charged in a separate extortion scheme, along with three other members of the family.
The New York defendants, with nicknames such as “Rooster,” “Tony the Cripple” and “Mustache Pat,” used violence, threats and the destruction of property to intimidate their neighborhoods, according to authorities.
In one instance, several defendants attacked an individual they believed was panhandling outside a restaurant owned by one of the mobsters, using glass jars and steel-tipped boots, prosecutors said. In another incident, some defendants set fire to a car parked outside a rival gambling club.
The various schemes extended from New York to Costa Rica, including running sports gambling rings, selling untaxed cigarettes and making fake credit cards, the indictment said.
#Breaking more than 40 mobsters from Genovese, Gambino, Luchese, and Bonanno LCN crime families. arrested this AM@NYPDnews@SDNYnews#mob