In a major takedown Thursday, federal agents arrested dozens of gangsters across four of the five Mafia families — including Philadelphia mob boss Joseph Merlino — on a mixed bag of racketeering charges from loan sharking and leg breaking to health insurance fraud and gun running that could land them in prison for up to 20 years each, authorities said.
FBI investigators swooped down on 46 wiseguys during early morning raids in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts and Connecticut, law enforcement sources said.
Merlino was taken into custody at his summer home in Florida, where he enjoys spending “quality” time, one source mused.
Many of the defendants were soldiers and associates from the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese and Bonnano families, according to the federal indictment unsealed Thursday morning.
Several of the mobsters listed in the indictment have colorful names like Nicholas “Nicky The Wig” Vuolo, Anthony “Tony The Cripple” Cassetta, John “Tugboat” Togino, Eugene “Rooster” O’Nofrio, John “Johnny Joe” Spirito and Pasquale “Patsy” Parrello.
They were all charged with arson, gambling, racketeering and extortion and many of the mob goons will appear before a federal judge in Manhattan federal court Thursday afternoon.
Dubbed the “East Coast LCN Enterprise,” low-level wiseguys carried out their nefarious scheme to “enrich” themselves and the leaders of the various mob families through violence, loansharking and extortion as well as health care and credit card fraud, court papers state. They also allegedly sold illegal firearms and operated illicit gambling parlors.
“To protect and expand the enterprise’s business and criminal operations, members and associates of the enterprise assaulted, threatened to assault, and destroyed the property of persons who engaged in activity that jeopardized [their businesses],” the indictment says.
Merlino, O’Nofrio and Parrello “supervised and controlled members of the Enterprise engaged in illegal schemes, including those that were the objects of the conspiracy,” the documents state.
The bosses and their underlings would try to routinely fly under the radar of law enforcement by using coded language to set up meetings, which were arranged in out of the way places such as rest stops along highways, the papers state.
As for Parrello, he allegedly ordered his goons to beat up a panhandler who was hassling customers outside of his Italian restaurant in The Bronx in 2011.
Parrello told Anthony Zinzi, who is also charged in the indictment, to “break his knees,” court papers say.
Associates found the bum and assaulted him with “glass jars, sharp objects and steel-tipped boots, causing bodily harm,” the indictment says.
That same year, Mark Maiuzzo and Zinzi torched a rival bookmaker’s car for running an illegal gambling club near theirs in Yonkers, according to court papers.
Some of the goons are charged with raking in health care reimbursements for paying crooked doctors kickbacks to prescribe patients “necessary and expensive” prescriptions for “expensive compound cream,” the indictment charges.
The mobsters also bought and sold at least 17 weapons, authorities said.
Sixteen of the defendants were also charged with running a cigarette smuggling business that had a street value of more than $3 million.
http://nypost.com/2016/08/04/fbi-arrests-dozens-of-mobsters-around-nyc/
FBI investigators swooped down on 46 wiseguys during early morning raids in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts and Connecticut, law enforcement sources said.
Merlino was taken into custody at his summer home in Florida, where he enjoys spending “quality” time, one source mused.
Many of the defendants were soldiers and associates from the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese and Bonnano families, according to the federal indictment unsealed Thursday morning.
Several of the mobsters listed in the indictment have colorful names like Nicholas “Nicky The Wig” Vuolo, Anthony “Tony The Cripple” Cassetta, John “Tugboat” Togino, Eugene “Rooster” O’Nofrio, John “Johnny Joe” Spirito and Pasquale “Patsy” Parrello.
They were all charged with arson, gambling, racketeering and extortion and many of the mob goons will appear before a federal judge in Manhattan federal court Thursday afternoon.
Dubbed the “East Coast LCN Enterprise,” low-level wiseguys carried out their nefarious scheme to “enrich” themselves and the leaders of the various mob families through violence, loansharking and extortion as well as health care and credit card fraud, court papers state. They also allegedly sold illegal firearms and operated illicit gambling parlors.
“To protect and expand the enterprise’s business and criminal operations, members and associates of the enterprise assaulted, threatened to assault, and destroyed the property of persons who engaged in activity that jeopardized [their businesses],” the indictment says.
Merlino, O’Nofrio and Parrello “supervised and controlled members of the Enterprise engaged in illegal schemes, including those that were the objects of the conspiracy,” the documents state.
The bosses and their underlings would try to routinely fly under the radar of law enforcement by using coded language to set up meetings, which were arranged in out of the way places such as rest stops along highways, the papers state.
As for Parrello, he allegedly ordered his goons to beat up a panhandler who was hassling customers outside of his Italian restaurant in The Bronx in 2011.
Parrello told Anthony Zinzi, who is also charged in the indictment, to “break his knees,” court papers say.
Associates found the bum and assaulted him with “glass jars, sharp objects and steel-tipped boots, causing bodily harm,” the indictment says.
That same year, Mark Maiuzzo and Zinzi torched a rival bookmaker’s car for running an illegal gambling club near theirs in Yonkers, according to court papers.
Some of the goons are charged with raking in health care reimbursements for paying crooked doctors kickbacks to prescribe patients “necessary and expensive” prescriptions for “expensive compound cream,” the indictment charges.
The mobsters also bought and sold at least 17 weapons, authorities said.
Sixteen of the defendants were also charged with running a cigarette smuggling business that had a street value of more than $3 million.
http://nypost.com/2016/08/04/fbi-arrests-dozens-of-mobsters-around-nyc/
