In New York City, it seems, the mob’s five families still have a few cards to play.
And that was on full display when federal authorities announced charges against a grab bag of gangsters from four of the families, including top leaders, made men and associates, saying they had overseen a sophisticated scheme to rig illegal poker games and rake in millions of dollars. The victims were lured to the high-stakes tables by the presence of current and former N.B.A. luminaries, officials said.
While the mob’s outright stranglehold on a host of industries, from construction and trucking to control of the waterfront and garment center, is a thing of the past, organized crime remains alive and well, if less visible. Its presence is perhaps most vibrant in the New York City metropolitan area, according to current and former investigators.
This stubborn resilience continues, the investigators say, despite decades of aggressive prosecutions that have decimated the leadership of the five families and secured thousands of convictions — along with the recruitment of an army of willing informants.
The mob’s savvier operators long ago learned that violence — not to mention the antics of strutting crime family peacocks like the Gambino boss John Gotti — draws attention. That attracts law enforcement and lands them in prison, where moneymaking opportunities are fewer and farther between.
The indictment in the poker case charged 32 men and said 11 of them were leaders, members or associates of the Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Lucchese crime families. It was brought by several agencies, including the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, the F.B.I., the N.Y.P.D. and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which have been at the forefront of much of that work over many years.
William K. Rashbaum is a Times reporter covering municipal and political corruption, the courts and broader law enforcement topics in New York.
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