FBI sting nets 45 alleged Mafia members

Federal officials indicted 45 alleged members of organized crime

By From Muffie Dunn CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal officials indicted 45 alleged members of New York's top five organized crime families Wednesday on charges ranging from murder to securities fraud.

All of those arrested are members or associates of the Genovese, Gambino, Colombo, Luchese and Bonanno crime families, said Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

"This is not a script for the Sopranos. This is the real thing," Lynch said, referring to the hit cable television show. "They make their money the old-fashioned way -- by lying, by cheating and by stealing."

The arrests began about 6 a.m. Wednesday. Thirty-three suspects were arrested in New York, five in Florida, and one in New Jersey, Lynch said. Three were already in jail, and two surrendered. A final suspect, Salvadore Demeo, a top Genovese soldier, remained at large, Lynch said.

The case showed that law enforcement officials made busts the old-fashioned way: by leveraging a high-level but unidentified source within the Genovese family. This witness "taped literally thousands of hours of conversation," many with Salvatore Aparo, a.k.a. "Sammy Meatballs," and Peter Dichiara, a.k.a. "Petey Red," two Genovese captains.

Nicknames of others charged include, "Joey Green Eyes," "Downtown Ronnie," "Little Allie Boy" and "Baldie."

Most of those arrested were alleged members of the Genovese family, which officials have found particularly difficult to crack. The case marked only the second time in 10 years that law enforcement has been able to penetrate the Genovese family, Lynch said.

One of several indictments in the case charged that Aparo, Dichiara and other alleged Genovese family members, tried to scam "an undercover entity" set up by the FBI called Cascade Capital International. The indictment says they fraudulently tried to obtain "money and property" from Cascade. It does not provide details on the scheme, or on Cascade.

There was no regular listing in New York City for a company by precisely that name. People returning calls to several companies listed in the toll-free directory as "Cascade Capital" said they or their companies had nothing to do with the FBI.

Lynch said some defendants engaged in a classic boiler-room strategy, inflating stock prices to attract outside investors, selling the stock at high prices, and leaving investors holding losses.

She said one gold mine stock manipulated by Genovese members reached a high of $7.50 a share before "defendants removed support" and the stock tumbled to 13 cents a share.

Global Strategies Group Inc., Amerivet Dymally Securities and First National Equity Corp. are just a few of the organizations that defendants used to defraud the public, according to one of the indictments.

Suspects also were charged with murder, racketeering, extortion, loan sharking, illegal gambling and mail fraud.

The charges include operating an illegal gambling ring at a travel agency in Coral Springs, Florida, and distributing 1,000 kilos of marijuana in Brooklyn and elsewhere. Three men were charged in the 1996 murder of a man, John Borrelli, for "dating the wrong girl," said Lynch.

The three-year investigation involved the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the New York Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

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Federal Bureau of Investigation

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