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With 127 alleged Mob associates arrested last Thursday in what has been billed as “the biggest organized crime bust of its kind”, there are now growing fears that retribution is on the way. So-called “made men” are being blamed for cooperating with law enforcement agents. Charges included a wide gamut ranging from illegal gambling to money laundering to arson to murder.
Members of New York's five notorious crime families - Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese – were taken down last week. The entire leadership of the Colombo crime family found itself charged.
The “Mob War” fears surfaced courtesy of the New York Post over the weekend.
“I think they’re going to kill people, because the guys running around making the tapes were made members of the family,” a high-ranking source close to the investigation told The Post.
“I’ve heard that people are looking to retaliate.”
Whether that happens are not remains to be seen.
“I think people in the Colombo family are very much in shock over what happened,” the source said. “That Colombo leadership is a dangerous bunch — they’re reckless killers, and sometimes it doesn’t take much for them to decide someone has to go.”
Past high profile mob busts in recent years have failed to cause much of a disruption in operations. Some say that Attorney General Eric Holder’s appearance in Brooklyn during the Thursday press conference will have a greater impact.
Famed defense attorney Stuart Slotnick told Gambling911.com’s Jenny Woo last week that plea deals will be harder to come by this go-around.
“We can expect that even lower level defendants may have a tougher time getting the plea-bargain that they want. As a clarification, he (Holder) wants his U.S. Attorneys focusing on organized crime then cracking down on it with great strength.”
Made Men Turn Rats
Before gangsters are promoted within the Mafia - turning them into 'made men' - they take an oath called 'omerta', which swears them to silence about the family business, the Daily Mail out of London points out.
Anyone who breaks the vow of omerta is deemed a 'rat'.
In the wake of these arrests, the Genovese family appears to have emerged as the most powerful of the crime organizations.
But the New York Post source warns not to underestimate the torn apart Colombo clan.
'That Colombo leadership is a dangerous bunch — they’re reckless killers, and sometimes it doesn’t take much for them to decide someone has to go,' said the New York Post source.
One time FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone told the Daily Mail that the Mafia is not as powerful as it once was since new members are often out for themselves, with individuals looking to cooperate in an effort to get reduced sentences.
“There have never been so many informants as in the past 10 years, they talk big, but they can’t do the time,' said Pistone, who almost became a 'made man' within the Bonanno family in 1976.
A connection to Internet gambling has been made. Among those arrested were Brian Cohen, who allegedly ran the Luccheses' online gambling arm.
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- Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com
