Thirty-two people were charged today in connection with a long-running federal investigation into continued Mafia control of the private garbage-hauling industry.
“The indictments show the ongoing threat posed by mob families and their criminal associates,” said George Venizelos, the FBI’s chief in New York. “In addition to the violence that often accompanies their schemes, the economic impact amounts to a mob tax on goods and services. The arrests – the culmination of a long and thorough investigation – also show the ongoing determination of the FBI to diminishing the influence of La Cosa Nostra.”
MOBSTER GOT BIG BREAK WHEN FACING PRISON IN 2012
In early-morning raids across the metro area, 30 people were busted on a range of charges including racketeering, extortion, loansharking and fraud. Two more people are scheduled to surrender to authorities by Friday.
Among those charged are soldiers and associates of three of New York’s five Mafia families: Genovese, Gambino and Luchese.
The investigation and arrests were the result of a joint operation among the FBI and police in New York City and the suburbs. One of the men charged is Carmine Franco, a trash company owner who was forced out of the business in New Jersey because of mob ties.
According to documents filed by federal prosecutors, the wiseguys are charged with taking over – sometimes by force – legitimate trash-hauling companies and operating them as mob fronts. The mobsters themselves, the feds said, were unable to operate carting companies because of strict regs in New York and New Jersey enacted to keep the Mafia out of the private garbage business.
“Organized crime still wraps its tentacles around industries it has fed off for decades, but law enforcement continues to pry loose its grip,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said. “Here, as described in the indictments, organized crime insinuated itself into the waste-disposal industry throughout a vast swath of counties in New York and New Jersey, and the tactics they used to exert and maintain their control come right out of the Mafia playbook – extortion, intimidation, and threats of violence.”
The arrests began about 5 a.m. and echoed a similar January mob sweep – that included more than 100 arrests – two years ago.
josh.margolin@nypost.com