More arrested in longshoremen mob shakedowns
Federal agents arrested three more reputed mobsters and piled on dozens more charges as part of the largest Mafia roundup in the history of the New York/New Jersey area.
A 103-count superseding indictment was unsealed in Newark federal court where previously charged defendants Stephen Depiro, a Genovese soldier, and three Genovese family associates were charged with murder, extortion, theft and other crimes, some of which date back 30 years.
Federal prosecutors said they dismantled organizations that had run wild for decades -- stealing everything from electronics to cigarettes, carrying out hits and extorting honest businessmen who paid up so they wouldn‘t have their kneecaps broken or businesses destroyed.
Nearly 130 members and associates of seven Mafia organizations -- including the New Jersey-based Decavalcante Crime Family -- were originally charged.
A 103-count superseding indictment was unsealed in Newark federal court where previously charged defendants Stephen Depiro, a Genovese soldier, and three Genovese family associates were charged with murder, extortion, theft and other crimes, some of which date back 30 years.
Federal prosecutors said they dismantled organizations that had run wild for decades -- stealing everything from electronics to cigarettes, carrying out hits and extorting honest businessmen who paid up so they wouldn‘t have their kneecaps broken or businesses destroyed.
Nearly 130 members and associates of seven Mafia organizations -- including the New Jersey-based Decavalcante Crime Family -- were originally charged.
In New Jersey, 15 mobsters and associates were charged with taking over several unions and extorting its members, including taking the annual Christmas bonuses that longshoremen at Port Newark and Port Elizabeth receive from shipping companies at Christmas. In one case, the government said, two men were killed in a bar after an argument over a spilled drink.
Depiro ran the Christmas rip-off, and conspired with associate Nunzio LaGrasso, vice-president of ILA Local 1478 in Newark, to extort the union’s members, one indictment says.
Crime-family members also shook down a concrete contractor working on Liberty View Harbor in Jersey City, threatening to seriously hurt him and his business if he didn‘t pay up, the government says. The same was done to other businessmen in Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey, the indictments allege.
Depiro ran the Christmas rip-off, and conspired with associate Nunzio LaGrasso, vice-president of ILA Local 1478 in Newark, to extort the union’s members, one indictment says.
Crime-family members also shook down a concrete contractor working on Liberty View Harbor in Jersey City, threatening to seriously hurt him and his business if he didn‘t pay up, the government says. The same was done to other businessmen in Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey, the indictments allege.
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