Gambling bust nabs Gambino crime family-controlled ring

Gambling bust nabs 14 Islanders in Gambino crime family-controlled ring
By Staten Island Advance

By JOHN ANNESE and FRANK DONNELLY

Talk about predatory lending - authorities say they've busted a mob-run loansharking and gambling operation that forced its debtors to keep on betting the numbers as a condition of borrowing cash.

Yesterday, the state attorney general's office and the NYPD arrested 37 people - 14 of them from Staten Island - in connection with a Gambino crime family-controlled ring that brought in millions of dollars.

VIEW CHARTS OF THE ARRESTED (Courtesy Attorney General Schneiderman's office)

Authorities dubbed their investigation "Operation Flat Rate," and focused on three interconnected criminal enterprises - two illegal sports-gambling operations run through off-shore wire rooms, and a "policy operation" wherein people placed wagers on daily New York Lottery results, authorities allege.

The sports-betting operations generated millions of dollars' worth of wagers on college and professional sports, as well as horse races, said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The "policy" piece of the conspiracy brought in more than $40,000 a week, with bets placed on the New York Lottery's "Numbers" and "Win 4" games in an illegal playing-the-numbers scheme, according to court papers.

And once the bettors started losing, many were forced to keep pressing their luck - some loansharking victims were required to keep placing wagers on the numbers under the terms of their loans, said authorities.

Officials said the arrests were based on wire taps, GPS tracking, bugs inside key locations and surveillance throughout the streets of the Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey. Some suspects conducted business on street corners in hopes of escaping detection, said authorities.

The ring used several websites for bettors to place wagers, while members of the conspiracy occasionally met on the Island - including, according to court papers, "in the vicinity of Angelina's Restaurant on Staten Island" on Sept. 11, 2010, and at Mike's Diner on Hylan Boulevard on July 28, 2010.

Authorities put several Islanders at the top of the three enterprises, including purported Gambino soldiers or "made men" Vincent Romano, 74, and James Outerie, 57, and purported Gambino associates or "non-made members" Louis Peteroy, 64; Frank Esposito, 56; Christopher Sorrentino, 53, and Nicolas Fulciniti, 41

Romano and Anthony Crapanzo, 49, of Barnegat, N.J., each took the helm of a sports bookmaking operation, while Louis Lombardo, 41, a reputed non-made Gambino member from Brooklyn, served as the bank for the policy arm of the ring, authorities allege.

Another Islander, Michelle Valente, 35, was charged with conspiracy in connection with the policy operation.

The other borough residents accused in the scheme are Steven Fusco, 51; Arthur Lento, 46; David Franzese, 32; Bernadette Impliazzo, 50; Joseph Casazza, 28; Mark Sini, 35; and Nicholas Disbrow, 30.

The suspects were rounded up yesterday in a series of early-morning raids and ushered into Brooklyn state Supreme Court for arraignment.

"These arrests cripple a network of criminal enterprises and the organized crime family they supported," Schneiderman said in a statement.

Said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, "Illegal gambling rings not only promote addiction and burden families with debt from usurious loans, but the proceeds from gambling and loansharking are used to fuel organized crime and support harmful criminal enterprises."

Nearly all the suspects were charged with enterprise corruption, which carries a maximum penalty of eight and a-third to 25 years, said authorities. Esposito and Sorrentino were also accused of extorting victims to collect weekly interest payments.