A local elected official is among nearly 40 people charged with racketeering and other crimes connected to an illegal gambling ring run by members of the Lucchese organized crime family, New Jersey’s attorney general said on Friday.
Those charged with being part of the ring, which prosecutors say used international gambling sites and shell corporations to hide its profits, included high-ranking Lucchese family members, according to Matthew J. Platkin, the attorney general.
“Organized crime in 2025 may look different than it did 50 years ago,” Mr. Platkin said at a news conference, “especially thanks to the online component, and some of the language may have changed, but it’s the same old story: criminals motivated by greed and power who think they are above the law.”
The elected official, Anand Shah, a member of the Prospect Park borough council, managed both illegal poker games and an online sports book tied to the crime family, prosecutors said. He faces racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and other charges.
Mr. Shah could not be reached for comment on Friday. Prospect Park’s mayor, Mohamed T. Khairullah, said in a statement posted on social media that he was committed to transparency and ethics in the borough government and that the crimes Mr. Shah is accused of were “unrelated to his duties in municipal government.”
At the news conference, Mr. Platkin said he was aware of the public’s distrust in New Jersey officials and institutions.
“The arrest of a sitting council member only adds fuel to that fire,” he said.
Thirty-five of the 39 people charged in the case were arrested in a sweeping takedown that began in early on Wednesday, said Theresa L. Hilton, the director of the Division of Criminal Justice in the attorney general’s office.
The New Jersey State Police searched poker clubs in Totowa, Garfield and Woodland Park, as well as a business in Paterson, that prosecutors said had been used to store gambling machines. Two of the clubs were run from the back of restaurants.
Mr. Platkin hailed the searches and arrests as a result of a two-year investigation and an “incredible amount of planning” in coordination with the State Police and the F.B.I.
The illegal games netted more than $3 million in revenue, prosecutors said.
“This was not a backyard betting pool, this was a highly structured, highly profitable criminal enterprise run by people who believed they were above the law,” Ms. Hilton said.
Those charged included Joseph R. Perna, 56, a reputed Lucchese captain known as Big Joe, and George J. Zappola, 65, whom prosecutors believe is a member of the crime family’s so-called ruling panel.
Two reputed Lucchese soldiers, John G. Perna, 47, and Wayne D. Cross, 75, were also charged. Together, Mr. Platkin said, the four men oversaw the gambling ring and received a cut of its proceeds.
A lawyer representing Mr. Zappola, Marco A. Laracca, declined to comment on the charges. Lawyers for Mr. Cross and John Perna did not respond to requests for comment. Joseph Perna could not immediately be reached.
All 39 defendants were charged with first-degree racketeering, second-degree conspiracy various other crimes. Two defendants were also accused of engaging in “a continuous series of retail thefts” at businesses that included Home Depot. Prosecutors said in a statement that the men had stolen more than $22,000 in merchandise from Home Depot and had used it to “flip” properties as a way of laundering money.
“Romanticized versions of organized crime have been the subject of countless movies and television shows, often set right here in the Garden State,” Mr. Platkin said at the news conference. “But the reality of organized crime isn’t romantic or cinematic.”
Jack Begg contributed research.
Alyce McFadden is a reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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