Dozens sought in mob raids in US, Italy

Source: AP

NEW YORK --American and Italian authorities arrested dozens of people Thursday in a takedown of what they called a trans-Atlantic drug trafficking operation run by the Mafia.

The operation, code-named "Old Bridge," was centered on New York and the Sicilian capital of Palermo, targeting Mafia figures who were strengthening contacts between mob groups in Italy and the United States.

A federal grand jury in New York also accused 62 people of ties to the Gambino crime family and offenses including murders, drug trafficking, robberies, extortion, and other crimes dating back to the 1970s.

The sprawling indictment covers gangland killings from the days when the crime family was run by Paul Castellano, who was assassinated in 1985. Some of the charges allege more recent crimes including credit fraud conspiracies and theft of union benefits.



Read more: http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/482430.html

or did someone in the target group get too far out of line, and this is the punishment?

The tinfoil is staying in the drawer on this one. I no longer trust anyone involved in the "War on Drugs" or the "War on Terror". Blech.

This trans-Atlantic drug cartel must be just a shadow of its former self.

Makes it easy to round them all up now that someone else is running the show.

somebody has been muscling in on Turkey's traffic.

Source: Associated Press

NEW YORK - Authorities arrested dozens of people Thursday in a sweeping Mafia takedown aimed at closing the book on decades-old gangland killings and other crimes and knocking out what's left of the once-mighty Gambino family.

A federal indictment in Brooklyn named 62 people, including the three highest-ranking members of the Gambino clan and the brother and nephew of the late John Gotti, the notorious boss who ran the family in its heyday. State prosecutors separately charged 26 others with running a gambling ring that took nearly $10 million in bets on professional and college sports.

The New York raids coincided with an Italian operation, code-named "Old Bridge" and centered on the Sicilian capital of Palermo, targeting Mafia figures who were strengthening contacts between mob groups in Italy and the United States.

Authorities said the investigations, though technically unconnected, signaled an international attempt to disrupt Sicilian ties to the Gambino family, which has been decimated by prosecutions since Gotti's fall. The U.S. investigation ensnared whatever members of the Gambinos hierarchy were still at liberty and will bring "closure to crimes from the past," U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said, including the slaying of a court officer, drug trafficking, robberies, extortion at a failed NASCAR track and other crimes dating to the 1970s.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080208/ap_on_re_us/mafia_arrests;_ylt=AkbT4EO.6FIDFlWQHsutmtdvzwcF

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Wish we could see the Bush - Cheney crime families taken away for crimes against our constitution, treaties, etc.

After over 80 years our hotshot supercops are still going after the Mob. The Mob that they've wiretapped, followed, infiltrated and whose every member they know as intimately as they know their own families.

But still it takes them over 80 years to get these guys. And they're not finished.

So, ummm... how long is it going to take to get these crazed Arabs they say are out there somewhere?

(This is the sort of question that makes me crazy.)

according to this time frame, it will take the US government/law enforcement two centuries to find Osama bin Laden.

in the _Bush regime?

Mafia crime would be almost helpless against the horrendous force these jerks command using the resources of the government they have stolen, the U.S. soldiers to slaughter and terrorize helpless, blameless citizens who have NEVER been engaged in any action harmful to anyone in the States.

The truly Evil Empire, by stealing our government, can also put on a contemptible display of preaching at the rest of the world, posturing, condemning, overturning governments, just because there is no one country or group of countries which can stop it.

So we can all occupy ourselves watching profiles on tv of Mafia figures of the past, watching nightly views of convicts in their prisons, focusing on criminals who get involved in barbaric but reletively SMALL crimes, while a huge crime organization is running our country.

You just know that some Repuke somewhere has connections to these 'wise guys'. That's one reason the mob has survived this long. JFK was just the beginning. Can't wait to hear some rat squeal out on a few more of the real gangsters on the hill.

Just another smokescreen to re-focus the public eye on something else.

Quote:
NEW YORK - Authorities arrested dozens of people Thursday in a sweeping Mafia takedown aimed at closing the book on decades-old gangland killings and other crimes and knocking out what's left of the once-mighty Gambino family. end quote.

Neocons, beware!

Tony Soprano to Paulie Walnuts .... "Go over there and talk to those morons. Tell them we haven't forgot about the Jimmy Hoffa dirt-nap. Tell them they are pushing a little hard".