NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Federal authorities in Brooklyn said the Bonanno and Genovese crime families were running a grand gambling operation across Nassau County and Queens.
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Two indictments unsealed Tuesday charged nine people, including a Nassau County detective, with crimes such as racketeering, illegal gambling, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Nicknames of the defendants included “Joe Fish," "Sal the Shoemaker" and "Joe Box."
According to the indictment, the crime family defendants joined forces to operate six betting parlors.
The Gran Caffe coffee shop in Lynbrook regularly served customers, but prosecutors said it was as a backdrop for one of the joint gambling sites.
Federal officials said the operation also involved secret parlors at the La Nazionale Soccer Club and the Glendale Sports Club in Queens. While Sal's Shoe Repair in Merrick, owned by "Sal the Shoemaker" Rubino, was another legitimate business that served as a lucrative gambling den.
The families also made money through an online gambling setup, according to prosecutors. In addition to threatening to "break" a better's face, Carmelo Polito, an alleged acting captain in the Genovese crime family, also instructed another person to deliver the following message to the debtor: "Tell him I'm going to put him under the f------- bridge."
"Today's arrests of members from two La Cosa Nostra crime families demonstrate that the Mafia continues to pollute our communities with illegal gambling, extortion and violence while using our financial system in service to their criminal schemes," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.
Court papers accused Nassau County detective Hector Rosario of collecting from the Bonanno crime family for staging raids on competing betting operations.
He called the Rosario's alleged conduct "shameful."
A lawyer for Rosario did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about Rosario and the charges against him, which include obstructing a grand jury investigation and lying to the FBI.
While the heyday of organized crime is long past in New York — and many types of gambling that were once the exclusive domain of the Mafia are now legal in the state — Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said the indictments were proof that "organized crime is alive and well in our communities."
She said the organized crime families were alleged to have operated secret underground gambling parlors since 2012, "generating substantial amounts of money in back rooms while families unknowingly shopped and ate mere feet away."
Michael Driscoll, head of New York's FBI office, said members of the five organized crime families "demonstrate every day they are not averse to working together to further their illicit schemes, using the same tired methods to squeeze money from their victims."
"Our active investigations show the Mafia refuses to learn from history," Driscoll added, "and accept that at some point they will face justice for their crimes."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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