Fourteen suspected members of the New York mafia, including an old boss and his octogenarian lieutenant, were indicted Tuesday by the American justice, accused of having infiltrated a union as in the heyday of the mafia, which remains active although weakened .
“Everything in this investigation shows that history repeats itself.
The bowels of the crime families in New York are alive and well, ”
said FBI New York official Michael Driscoll in a press release after the crackdown.
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Among the fourteen people charged, thirteen of whom were actually arrested in New York and New Jersey, are Andrew "Mush" Russo, 87, and "Benji" Castellazzo, 83, qualified respectively as "official boss" and first lieutenant within the Colombo, one of the five great families of the Italian-American mafia in the northeast of the United States, along with the Bonanno, the Gambino, the Genovese and the Lucchese.
The two men, who were to appear Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court to rule on their detention, had already pleaded guilty in 2012 with other members of their criminal organization, to racketeering and illegal betting. Andrew Russo, already convicted seven times, was released from prison in 2013. This time, members of the Colombo family are accused by the Brooklyn federal prosecutor's office of multiple offenses, including racketeering and extortion, while 'they were trying to infiltrate and take control of a Queens-based union, including getting their hands on its health benefits fund.
"I would put him on the ground in front of his wife and children (...) I would put a bullet in front of his wife and children",
said in particular, on June 21, one of the accused in a conversation intercepted by the police. justice, about an executive of this union racketed for years. The New York mafia has suffered several hard knocks in recent years, between arrests, fratricidal struggles and competition from other criminal organizations, but its clans are still considered active. On March 14, 2019, the leader of the Gambino clan, Francesco "Frank" Cali, was shot and killed outside his home on Staten Island, New York.