62 Memebers of Gambino Family Mafia Taken down by New York Authorities

NEW YORK - Authorities carried out one of the largest Mafia takedowns in recent memory Thursday when they charged dozens of reputed members of the Gambino crime family with gangland crimes spanning three decades, including the brutal slaying of a court officer and extortion at a failed NASCAR track.

The charges deal another crippling blow to the once-mighty Gambino family, already decimated by prosecutions since its heyday under notorious boss John Gotti.

A federal indictment in Brooklyn named 62 defendants, including the three highest-ranking members of the Gambino family along with the brother and nephew of the late Gotti. Authorities said a separate state investigation had resulted in charges against 26 others.

The New York case coincided with a series of raids in Italy targeting alleged members of Mafia families who control drug trafficking between the two sides of the Atlantic. Authorities said the investigations, though technically unconnected, signaled an international attempt to disrupt Gambino ties to Sicilian counterparts.

At a news conference with federal and state officials in Brooklyn, U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said the U.S. investigation had ensnared whatever members of the Gambinos hierarchy were still at liberty and would bring "closure to crimes from the past."

The investigation's scope shows the mob "still exists in the city and the state of New York," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. "We like to think that it's a vestige of the past. It's not."

Most of the suspects were in custody following a series of raids on Thursday, including the reputed acting boss of the Gambino family, John "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico. He is accused of playing a lead role in a broad racketeering conspiracy.

Most of the charges were outlined in a sprawling federal indictment encompassing gangland killings from the era when the Gambino crime family was run by Paul Castellano, who was assassinated in 1985. A separate state indictment accuses the Gambinos of operating a gambling ring in Queens that took nearly $10 million in bets on professional and college sports.

District Attorney Richard Brown said the Gambinos had substituted "the traditional wire room and street corner bookie who penciled in wagers in a little black book with offshore based Internet Web sites and toll-free numbers through which they were able to manage numerous gambling accounts."

Three of the seven murders alleged in the federal indictment involved victims who weren't criminals. It accused reputed Gambino soldier Charles Carneglia with involvement in five killings over three decades, including that of Albert Gelb, a state court officer who was gunned down in 1976.

"It's a fallacy to think organized crime murders occur within the closed shop," said Mark Mershon, head of the FBI's New York office.

Prosecutors have long claimed that Gelb was assassinated in retaliation for making an off-duty arrest of Carneglia after he spotted him in a restaurant wearing a gun. Previous attempts to prosecute Gambino associates for the killing, including Carneglia's brother, ended in failure.

At the time, Gelb worked for Brown, then a judge. At the news conference, Brown recalled how of the officer had walked him to his car one night and "that was the last time I saw him. ... So I have a strong interest in this particular case."

The most recent alleged crimes date back only a few years, and include charges related to drug dealing, credit fraud conspiracies and theft of union benefits. The indictment also alleges that Gambino associates extorted people in the construction industry, embezzled from labor unions and engaged in illegal loansharking and bookmaking.

Many of the charges relate to the activities of a Staten Island cement business, whose owner was identified in the indictment only as "John Doe No. 4." Prosecutors allege that mob figures extorted the owner for money and jobs, and interfered with several of his business ventures, including the proposed NASCAR track on Staten Island.

In 2006, the cement business was forced to pay extortion to reputed mobsters to prepare the race track site for construction, court papers said. The project was abandoned before the track could be built.

As part of the scheme, mobsters allegedly forced John Doe No. 4 to give $9,000 to two workers affiliated with International Speedway Corp., builder of the race track. A company spokesman said on Thursday that the men have since quit their jobs, and that the indictment "is not directed at ISC, any of its subsidiaries, or any of its current employees."

Defense attorney Joseph Corozzo Jr., represented his father, alleged Gambino consigliere Joseph Corozzo, at an arraignment. The elder Corozzo pleaded not guilty to multiple racketeering counts including cocaine trafficking.

"He's never been involved in drugs," the son said outside court.

New York's Gambino family has been the subject of a steady stream of government indictments and prosecutions since Gotti, the so-called "Dapper Don," was sentenced to life in prison in 1992. He died in 2002.

One acting boss after another has gone to prison, including Gotti's son, John Gotti Jr., who was not named in this most recent indictment. A number of other top Gambino figures mentioned in the new indictment have previously served prison time in cases that dated to the era when the family was led by Gotti, with some released in just the past few years.

Among the 29 people sought in Italy were members of clans linked to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the Sicilian Mafia boss arrested in November, Italian officials said. When Lo Piccolo was arrested, investigators warned that as part of his attempt to become Cosa Nostra's next "boss of bosses," he had been working to mend ties with U.S.-Italian clans such as the Gambino crime family.

"We have cut short a dangerous connection that would have been the basis for new illegal trafficking," Palermo Prosecutor Francesco Messineo said.

Named in arrest warrants issued by U.S. authorities were key members of the Gambino family, including Domenico Cefalu and Frank Cali, described as the main contact between Cosa Nostra in Sicily and the United States, authorities said.