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Ricardo Bampa - 20/01/2011
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By David Ariosto, CNN
January 20, 2011 12:48 pm EST
New York (CNN) -- In one of the largest single-day operations against the Mafia in FBI history, federal agents fanned out across New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island on Thursday morning to arrest 127 people, authorities and sources with knowledge of the case said.
Investigators arrested people from all five prominent New York Mafia families -- the Gambino, Colombo, Bonanno, Genovese and Lucchese families, Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Some of those arrested were charged with murder conspiracy, arson, extortion, narcotics trafficking, illegal gambling, labor racketeering and murders that date back as far as 1981, sources with knowledge of the case said.
About 110 people, including several high-ranking family members, were in custody by mid-morning, a source said.
Holder described it as among the FBI's largest single-day operations ever to target the Mafia.
Television images showed several men handcuffed and hand-checked by federal agents in an apparent gymnasium in the Fort Hamilton neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Last April, 14 members of the Gambino crime family -- including Daniel Marino, who was then considered the family head -- pleaded guilty to charges that included murder, racketeering, extortion and prostitution of minors, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Manhattan.
The arrests come amid concerns about a possible resurgence of organized crime in the region despite a scattered history of defections, beginning with the acting crime boss of the Lucchese family, Alphonse D'Arco, who admitted to "cooperating with the federal government" starting in 1991.
Gambino family underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano also defected in 1991, providing testimony -- in exchange for a reduced sentence -- that ultimately led to the conviction of notorious Gambino kingpin John Gotti.
Nicknamed the "Teflon Don" because prosecutors had trouble making charges against him stick, Gotti died of throat cancer in prison in 2002.
But the notion of an organized crime revival is the subject of debate.
"Their leadership ranks have been battered by federal and local law enforcement over the years," said James B. Jacobs, a professor at the New York University School of Law. "It's very hard to see to how they could have ever reconstituted in the way they were before."
Jacobs said Thursday's raid is probably the "biggest single day's netting (of organized crime members) that I know of."
CNN's Mary Snow and Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report
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