Ten suspected members or associates of the notorious Gambino crime family have been arrested and arraigned in New York, while six more were nabbed in Italy.
The defendants were charged in Brooklyn Federal Court with racketeering involving violent extortions, assaults, arson, and union-related crimes, according to the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday.
The Gambinos are one of the infamous “Five Families” of Italian mobsters who have dominated organized crime in the New York area for decades. The investigation leading to the arrests lasted for two years.
Nine of the suspects pleaded not guilty in the Brooklyn court, while one of them remains in jail in Pennsylvania and will be arraigned at a later date, according to John Marzulli, spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“As alleged, for years, the defendants committed violent extortions, assaults, arson, witness retaliation, and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
Arrests in Italy
Six suspected members or associates of the Gambino mobsters were been arrested in Palermo, Sicily.
Italian police said investigations revealed “the solidity of the existing relationship” between alleged New York and Sicilian mobsters and “American interest in the organizational affairs of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.”
The six suspects have been charged with mafia association and other related crimes.
16-Count Indictment
A 16-count indictment against the 10 U.S.-based defendants was unsealed on Wednesday.
“These defendants learned the hard way that the FBI is united with our law enforcement locally and internationally in our efforts to eradicate the insidious organized crime threat,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge James Smith.
The U.S.-based defendants included Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn,” and “Mommino,” an alleged captain in the Gambino family, the press release said.
Federal authorities accused the group of committing the crimes to dominate New York’s refuse carting and demolition industries.
Some defendants allegedly put in motion a plan to set fire to the home of a man “while his wife and children were inside” in an effort to receive extortion payments, according to a court filing.
Another defendant, seeking extortion payments, allegedly displayed a metal baseball bat as a threat of harm.
The indictment also said that some defendants are alleged to have unlawfully taken money from “one or more employee pension and welfare benefit plans” in 2020.
In the past, charges against family operatives have included murder, loan sharking, and illegal drug distribution.
In recent years, the once-dominant Italian Mafia in New York and other U.S. cities has lost part of its power, in part because of the arrest or death of many of its leaders, as well as the growing presence of criminal gangs dominated by other ethnic groups.
John Gotti, a former head of the Gambino family, earned the nickname “Teflon Don” after repeated acquittals at trials in the 1980s, but in 1992, he was sentenced to life in prison for murder, racketeering, extortion, and tax evasion. He died of cancer 10 years later while incarcerated.
Reuters and CNN Wire contributed to this report.
