Yesterday was a busy day for crime fighters

Sixteen people were arrested yesterday in New York and Italy on charges related to Mafia activities, as part of a coordinated, two-year operation between US and Italian authorities (and Batman, probably) that targeted members of New York’s notorious Gambino crime family and some of its Sicilian associates.

Background: The Gambinos, one of the Five Families that have dominated the Mafia in the New York area for decades, had a stranglehold on construction in the city at the height of their power, in the 1980s and 1990s, through their control of unions and the concrete business, Bloomberg reports.

And it appears their methods are still alive and kicking. The defendants – with nicknames right out of The Sopranos like Joe Brooklyn, Vinny Slick, Uncle Ciccio, and Fifi – allegedly “committed violent extortions, assaults, arson, witness retaliation, and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries,” per officials.

Some examples:

• Two of the suspects allegedly coordinated a “violent hammer assault” on an demolition company employee with whom they had a financial dispute, then circulated pictures of the attack to others in the industry.
• The defendants also allegedly schemed to embezzle from unions and employee benefit plans, in addition to conspiring to rig bids for demolition projects in New York City.

🦸 In other crime-fighting news: Yesterday, US prosecutors charged three people with running a high-end brothel network in Boston and eastern Virginia. Their customers allegedly included elected officials, military officers, and government contractors with security clearances.