By Allan Lengel
For AOL News
Federal authorities today announced what they called the largest mob roundup in FBI history: the indictment of 127 people, including key Mafia figures from the New York, New Jersey and New England crime families, on charges ranging from murder and racketeering to gambling, extortion and loan-sharking.
About 800 law enforcement members from the FBI, Secret Service, the U.S. Labor Department and state and local law enforcement had arrested more than 110 people by late morning as part of 16 indictments filed in different jurisdictions. The indictments were aimed at all five New York crime families — the Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno and Luchese families — along with the New England La Cosa Nostra family and the New Jersey Decavalcante family.
“Today’s arrests mark an important and encouraging step forward in disrupting La Cosa Nostra operations,” Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said at a press conference this morning in Brooklyn, N.Y. “But the reality is that our battle against organized-crime enterprises is far from over.”
Authorities said the indictments resulted from years of investigations, including the use of wiretaps and cooperating witnesses.
“These cases are the cumulative results of years of investigative work, including the development of key cooperating witnesses, a trend that has definitely been tilting in law enforcement’s favor,” said Janice Fedarcyk, head of the New York FBI. “The vow of silence that is part of the oath Omerta is more myth than reality today.”
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