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from www.nypost.com – The feds dealt a major blow to New York’s five Mafia crime families today by arresting more than 100 suspected mobsters across the region on charges including murder and extortion in one of the “largest mob round-ups in FBI history,” authorities said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said most of the arrests were made early this morning in Brooklyn, but also throughout the city, Long Island, in New Jersey and across New England.
The FBI confirmed today that law enforcement authorities arrested 110 organized crime figures — of the 127 that will be charged — in the New York-area in sweeping action focusing primarily on the Colombo and Gambino crime families.
The takedown was the result of multiple investigations, authorities said.
Federal probes aided by mob turncoats have decimated the families’ ranks in recent years and have resulted in lengthy prison terms for several leaders.
US Attorney Eric Holder, during a news conference in Brooklyn, said the arrests will “disrupt” the Mafia.
“We are committed — and determined — to eradicate” organized crime, said Holder.
When describing who was targeted, a source told the Post “basically the whole administration of the Colombo family,” referring to the ranking leaders of the organization.
Included in the arrests were four of the Colombo crime family’s New York-based captains, as well as one Colombo captain based in Florida, a source said.
“Early this morning, FBI Agents along with our law enforcement partners began arresting over 100 organized crime members for various criminal charges,” said FBI spokesman Diego Rodriguez.
Luigi Manocchio [pictured], the reputed head of New England’s Patriarca crime family, was arrested Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the U.S. attorney’s office in Providence said.
A newly unsealed indictment accused him of collecting protection payments from strip club-owners.
Also busted was Thomas Iafrate, who worked as a bookkeeper for strip clubs and set aside money for Manocchio, prosecutors said.
The takedown followed a lengthy probe that was orchestrated by the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn focusing on mainstay crimes of organized crime: racketeering, gambling, extortion and other alleged crimes including murder.
Among those charged in the sweep was Bartolomeo Vernace, a Gambino captain, who was arrested for an April 1981 mob double-hit, Joseph “Jo Jo” Corazzo, consigliere of the Gambino crime family, and associate John Cipolla.
Authorities believe that Vernace is responsible for the murder of John D’Agnese, a Queens bartender, and Richard Godkin, in the three-decades-old case.
FBI agents, NYPD officers and State Police joined US Marshals and the US Department of Labor to carry out the raids across the tri-state area.
Today’s raids hit the Colombo family hard, given that its top ranks were already in tatters after a series of previous federal investigations.
Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York division, said the years-long probe was aided by court-sanctioned wiretaps and cooperation from former wiseguys.
“The vow of silence that is part of the oath of ’omerta’ is more myth than reality today,” she said.
Last week, Colombo underboss John “Sonny” Fanzese was sentenced to eight years in federal prison on racketeering charges for shaking down the Hustler and Penthouse strip joints in Manhattan.
Franzese, 93, is in very poor health and would be available for release at the earliest when he turns 100.
The Colombo family’s acting boss, Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli currently sits in a federal detention center awaiting his own racketeering trial in Brooklyn federal court.