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American Morning

FBI Arrests 45 Alleged Mob Members

Aired April 26, 2001 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Federal agents have arrested 45 reputed gangsters following the three-year undercover investigation into organized crime. Now, among those arrested were 33 alleged members of New York's Genovese crime family. The charges range from murder to stock fraud.

Reporter Michelle Charlesworth of CNN affiliate WABC in New York has details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE CHARLESWORTH, WABC REPORTER (voice-over): This was the early morning roundup as alleged mob bosses, underbosses and so-called captains were arrested. Their operations allegedly spanned from New York to Boca Raton, Florida, to the Bahamas.

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY: Make no mistake about it. This is not a script for "The Sopranos," this is the real thing. This investigation has revealed the primary goal of organized crime remains to make money. And they make their money the old-fashioned way: by lying, by cheating and by stealing.

CHARLESWORTH: The indictments named 45 alleged crime members for charges that range from racketeering, to fraud, to murder.

LYNCH: Three defendants are also charged today in the 1996 murder of Gambino associate John Borrelli, who was killed for dating the wrong girl -- the former girlfriend of a Colombo associate.

CHARLESWORTH: Stock fraud is another charge -- that crime families inflated OREX (ph) stock. The public paid out $6.8 million at a high of $7.50 per share. Two months later, it dropped to 13 cents and is now at 5 cents.

(on camera): And then there was extortion. This deli supply company in Queens was allegedly having to pay $25,000 per year to protect them from a rival business across town.

DEP. COMM. JOSEPH DUNNE, NEW YORK POLICE: Every time they get a new member, they're weaker. They don't have the strength they once had. They don't have the aura they once had. There's no code of silence there. They'll be stacked two deep trying to talk to us about what they know. CHARLESWORTH: Out of the 45 men named in the sweeping indictment, one was found in New Jersey, 32 in New York. Three were operating already in jail, two surrendered and one, Salvador Demeo, is a fugitive still at large, and five were in Florida.

DUNNE: They don't grow old in Florida, they grow old in jail. And that's where these guys are going to go, and it's going to continue that way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUFFER: And that was Michelle Charlesworth reporting from CNN affiliate WABC in New York.

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