NEWS: At Least 31 Mobsters Arrested After Undercover Operation

The alleged acting boss of the Gambino Family, Arnold Squitieri, was arrested along with at least 30 associates in the largest FBI sting in recent memory. An FBI mole infiltrated the organization over a period of years, and this is the culmination of an in-depth investigation. Squitieri is alleged to have taken control of the Gambino Crime Family after John Gotti was arrested. Squitieri and his compatriots faces multiple charges of racketeering along with conspiracy and assault. He allegedly planned criminal activities in a nursing home, at the bed side of a sick friend.




This is another blow to the Gambino family, who used to hold most of the east coast in an iron grip. They have been steadily losing influence for some time, and this may prove to be the final nail in the family's coffin. Their monetary reserves are dwindling as they are forced to spend more and more on court fees, fines, and lawyers.

msnbc.msn.com...


[edit on 9-3-2005 by Banshee]

You are taking this issue out of context....

The FBI and other government agencies going after criminals in the US has nothing to do with any world order, or any evil plan....

This is just ridiculous....

They need to remove all armed, organized opposition, and that means crime families, inner city gangs, white supremacists, constitutional defenders, militia, and dissenting groups of all kinds.

This sentence sounds like one those standardized test questions use to measure abstract thought. Clearly lumping all these categories together is illogical and either a misunderstanding of the distinctions between these groups, a willful effort to mislead, or the possession of knowledge that requires some substantiation.

Frankly, the largest group who would disarm all Americans are the Democrats and currently they have been neutered, at least for the next four years.

ATSNN Tutorial

[edit on 05/3/9 by GradyPhilpott]

That sentence is no longer part of the article. It has been modified to accomodate the strict requirements of the submission guidelines. Also gone is the crack about colonel mustard and the candle stick...

There is a connection between those groups though, Grady. They are all a threat to overwhelming government control, and corporate dominance of the globe. That is where the similarity ends, admittedly.

There is no doubt in my mind that criminals like the Gambino organization, like Matthew Hale and other white supremacists, all pose a threat to the US citizens. However...

The inference I made (and later removed) about the NWO was based on the fact that in order to control America absolutely, all other armed, organized elements must be eliminated. It's not ludicrous to connect those dots, it's ludicrous to completely ignore them.

Whether or not this series of arrests, or the arrest of Hale, are related to the NWO takeover is a matter of opinion. The arrests probably did no harm to average American citizens, and in fact may have made them safer.

I think you, Grady and Muadibb, presume a great deal too much about the motivations behind these arrests, and the motivation I had in bringing this story to ATS. I'm willing to consider any theories surrounding the events, are you?

Now I'm intrigued. What on earth did you say in the original copy WyrdeOne? ...I kknow you're an astoundingly good writer, can't imagine how you managed to offend these good gentlemen...?

This is an interesting story - and I would like to pursue investigations of the role organized crime now plays in "legitimate" business. The partnerships have been made all over the world between crime, business and government - I suspect we're moving into payback time about now.



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Yeah, apparently my grammar just started to suck, out of the blue. :LOL:

But seriously, it was paragraph construction and perhaps unfounded claims about the relationship between the investigation into Hale and these events. I also made a crack about Colonel Mustard and the candle stick in the opening paragraph...

Another mobster was assaulted in a Bloomingdales, with a candlestick, and was apparently beaten quite badly. Bad joke, I know.

I can't imagine what I said to precipitate so many negative votes, maybe we've got more organized criminals on ATS than previously thought! :LOL:

Maybe John Gotti read my post from prison and contracted a down voting pattern. heh More likely Sammy the Bull is actually Skeptic Overlord, and he's starting to remember me from back in Brooklyn. :LOL:

Just kidding SO, just kidding Sammy. Don't kill me. I know karate!

(My shotty knows karate too! A stance called Walking Buckshot Unzips the Sky)

ahhh..I crack myself up.

You know once in a while is a big break down on mafia in the US, has somebody notice that not matter what, the FBI has not been able to eradicate them?

Mafia is big business and they are involved in almost everything that has to do with money making.

They had become very successful about business. Sometimes I wonder how high the mafia really goes and how much power they really hold.

marg
It would surprise many people to know how many different criminal organizations are in competition with each other. The Italians were almost wiped out by the Yakuza, they lost most of their business (in NY at least), and ended up relegating their activities to vice and extortion of local businesses. They still do gambling, but the Russians claimed a lot of that activity back in the late 90's and enforce it with a particularly ruthless efficiency. The Cubans pretty much run everything in Florida, which used to be prime territory for the Italians, and the street gangs once employed (grudgingly) by the Italians now run the prisons as they see fit.

The federal government probably takes advantage of the competition between groups to encourage rats and collaborators.

I know for a while the US gov. was in tight with the Italians, but that relationship soured after JFK got his messy haircut...

When my husband was growing up in New York it was the Italians the ones in charge, he said that things used to be so bad with the street gangs and in the schools that to keep him away from joining gangs he was force to attend a Catholic school run by nuns, he said he hate it.

marg
I don't know about that. I lived in NY before, during, and after the period of unrest (the power vaccumm), and it was bad, no doubt. But... I think New Yorkers have it worse now than they ever did under the Italians. I'd rather deal with a wise guy in a three piece than a crack head hiding behind a dumpster with a broken bottle, or a hitman wearing neatly pressed blues and a shiny plastic hat.

Anyone who has lived in Vegas will echo this sentiment, as it used to be a lot better when the mob was fully in control. Nobody groped the waitresses (more than once ) and nobody stole from the casinos or sold drugs outside them on the street. There wasn't the same sort of violence and depravity, it was..much more civilized. If a guy acted out and ran his mouth or offended the guests, he would be escorted to the back room for a polite chat. If he didn't act right, he was forcibly introduced to a one room resting place beneath the sand of the desert.

Crime was under control, because crime was in control. Now Vegas is supposed to be a family fun destination, but it's one of the nastiest places in America. There's so much drug activity, especially coke and meth, and there's so much robbery it beggars imagination.

Sad to say, I miss the mob... They're better than the alternative..you know, lesser of two evils?

The same would be true of NY too, if it weren't for Fuhrer Bloomberg and his stormtroopers in blue. Giulianni was bad enough, but this guy's the antichrist. They're corporate gangsters, no better, and in many ways worse than their predecessors.

They're no less violent, no less efficient, but they disarm the public with the appearance of legality. Corporate thugs are absolutely everywhere in America, they're sneakier and hard to trap. They use the law against their enemies, they legislate to please, they sell judges and districts like kids trade baseball cards. Things haven't gotten any better, they're just different.

Wyrdeone.... there is no connection between the FBI, the cops and other federal agencies going after criminals because they want to take over the world........humm, what is it exactly these agencies are supposed to do again?.... Aren't they supposed to go after criminals?..... and Grady is right, the actual party that has been trying to disarm US citizens are Democrats....and liberals aren't too far behind. At least those that think that citizens shouldn't be able to own legal guns.



[edit on 9-3-2005 by Muaddib]

Muadibb
Of course they're supposed to go after criminals. What you forget is, they're also supposed to go after corporate criminals and political criminals. Those bastards routinely get let off the hook, while ordinary street thugs are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

I have no problem with locking criminals up, quite the opposite. I think we should lock THEM ALL up. Not just the ones who walk the street, but the ones who perch in boardrooms and golden towers.

That is my question, how high the mafia power, influence and money goes and move around in the elite circles.

Money is a power think and can be use for good and evil, and can buy many things, including less scrupulous politicians.

marg
In answer to your question about the power of the mafia: I don't know for sure. The general consensus seems to be that the Italians are waning in power. That could be a smokescreen to protect their illicit activities, I suppose. The truth, like always, is probably a great deal more complicated than is initially apparent.

These sorts of massive arrests are becoming fewer and farther between. One can only assume that means there are fewer members, less money being made. Of course, the fact that these arrests centered on one family might implicate another family...

I suppose not even time will tell on this one. It's pretty much always going to be speculation on the part of interested parties unless some more evidence surfaces.

It's possible also that the whole thing was a setup by the government. They could just have the mole lie, and say they did this, they did that, I swear to God, yadda yadda. It's an old play, well used, no less effective for it's age. I find that scenario the least likely, but it certainly is possible.

This is an interesting story - and I would like to pursue investigations of the role organized crime now plays in "legitimate" business. The partnerships have been made all over the world between crime, business and government - I suspect we're moving into payback time about now.

In the Northeast, you might start with waste management and streets, road and highway repair. You may have noted that street repair is often antithetical to effective traffic flow. Federal, state and local funding for road repair amounts to big bucks and unions have long had connections with organized crime.


[edit on 05/3/9 by GradyPhilpott]

Trash removal was a specialty of the mob for a long time, it had a sort of tongue in cheek meaning that wasn't lost on those who employed these guys...

They still make a lot of money on it. It was part of the mob's plan to legitimize their cash flow and diversify their investment.

Unions definitely have been influenced in the past, but nowadays they seem so complacent, so indolant and servile. I would be genuinely surprised to find that the Italian mob still maintains dense connections to unionized labor. It seems as though the unions follow another boss these days. I could be completely wrong, mind you, just my semi-educated opinion.

I have some connections to the union, specifically the teamsters. They are only really concerned with working as little as possible, and getting paid as much as possible. That's not to say they're not corrupt, or mob influenced, just that their motivations are pretty transparent for the most part. They want fair (ridiculous) wages, regimented inefficiency, and power to negotiate with corporate controllers. The mob used to assist in this, but as their power waned, so did their influence.

The days of yore saw mobsters staying in the White House and flying across the country in presidential choppers. Those days, I believe, are over.

GradyPhilpott gets from me on this one. The Democratic Party would be the first to be disarmed. It would be nice to know how far up the food chain the corruption goes. With the sums of money that such groups usually bring in from their malinged efforts, it would find its way to the top pretty fast. I would guess that the enforcers of laws on the city and state level would be the first in line to subvert. I say this because any criminal enterprise needs protecton for their mission to grow and how better of a way to ensure this by paying off the police. I do not have a source to back this next statement up,, but the last time I looked, the police on the city and state level did make much compared to their Fed. counterparts. It would be relatively easy to find and fund the bad apples in the bunch and with them in the criminals pockets, they would be well on their way to enjoy the spoils of their non-conforming behavior. Money is and has always been the #1 means of getting what you want accomplished.