73 Alleged Mob Members Indicted in N.Y.

Prosecutors charged 73 members of the Genovese organized crime family in a major crackdown on the mob Wednesday with scores of offenses, including a plot to rob a $6-million payroll from the New York Times Co.

Police praised an undercover detective they declined to identify who risked his life by infiltrating the group for 27 months and who contributed to the success of the massive investigation.

Barry Mawn, assistant FBI director in charge of the bureau’s New York field office, said the police officer managed to attend the mob’s weekly meetings and assume a cloak of legitimacy by appearing to make money through the sale of illegal cigarettes and other crimes.

Court papers revealed that the detective also received numerous vehicles from mob members who believed he was going to dismantle them and sell the auto parts, which would allow owners to claim they were stolen and file false insurance claims.

“The Genovese family--the largest, the most powerful and the most secretive organized crime group--has been dealt yet another severe blow,” Mawn said.

“It has been infiltrated in one of the most successful and significant undercover operations in law enforcement history,” he added. “We have been able, once again, to look at the mob from the inside as well as from the outside.”

U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White, whose office brought the prosecutions, stressed that the indictments were designed to send a message as New Yorkers try to return to normality after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

“We will permit no such return to business as usual for members of organized crime,” she pledged.

The indictments provided a revealing glimpse of the grist of the mob’s moneymaking machinery: racketeering, illegal gambling, fraud, the sale of stolen property, embezzlement, gun trafficking, loan-sharking and other crimes.

Court papers also stressed how the Genovese family operated through traditional mob hierarchy and culture--how it worked through divisions known as “crews” or “regimes” headed by a “caporegime” and consisted of “made members”--sometimes known as “soldiers,” “wiseguys” and “good fellows.”

The indictments included three capos, seven soldiers and numerous associates of the family with nicknames such as Pete the Jeweler, Chinatown, Johnny Cash, Baby Carmine, Sallie Boy, Crackers, Blackie, Hot Dog, Boobie and Johnny T.

Government lawyers charged that two of the crime family’s crews joined forces in a plan, which never came to fruition because of a cooperating witness, to rob the New York Times plant in Queens where the credit union often cashes the checks of employees.

The robbery was to have taken place with the help of a Times employee and a former New York City police officer who retired from the force. Prosecutors charged that both men were Genovese family associates.

The indictment alleged that family members committed labor racketeering by embezzling contributions owed by an employer to the welfare and benefit funds of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

The scope of the crime family’s activities not only included credit card fraud and bank fraud. Prosecutors charged it also trafficked in counterfeit Tommy Hilfiger, Seiko, Cartier and Rolex watches in addition to bogus handbags and sunglasses bearing the trademark of Gucci, Calvin Klein, Versace and other brands.

White charged that the Genovese family made more than $14 million illegally from 1998 to 2001 and used intimidation to get what it wanted.

The indictments Wednesday were the second this year against the organized crime group. Police and the FBI, conducting raids in New York, Pennsylvania and Nevada, arrested 33 alleged Genovese family members in April.