Mafia Round-Up: Gambino Leadership Arrested In NYC and Surrounding Areas

February 7, 2008 · Filed Under Crime, Legal News, U.S. News

From WNBC:

The entire hierarchy of the Gambino organized crime family is being rounded up Thursday morning in what law enforcement officials are calling the biggest mafia bust in more than 20 years, WNBC.com has learned.

Investigators said powerful capos and dozens of its members and associates are being arrested Thursday morning by teams of federal, state and local investigators.

The Gambino family was once headed by John Gotti until his incarceration and subsequent death behind bars from cancer.

Gotti’s reckless disregard for the old time rules and rituals that made the mafia such a successful organization, really spelled the beginning of the end for the American mafia.

Whatever “honor” these thugs once had is long gone. Murder is no longer a last resort, but instead a first option. They routinely deal drugs which would have been unthinkable just a couple of decades ago due to the extremely stiff prison sentences it can bring.

Probably the biggest problem the Gambino family and the mafia in general has faced in recent years is the failure of its members to honor the “code of silence.” Meaning you don’t rat other people out just to save your own skin.

John Gotti was convicted in 1992 on federal racketeering charges. It was during that trial that Gotti’s close associate Sammy “the Bull” Gravano became a witness for the government.

Even though Gravano had personally committed some 20+ murders on behalf of the family, he received full immunity from the government. Over the last decade, law enforcement has been able to turn the screws on mafia members and systematically dismantle the organization.

This latest string of arrests of the top leadership (such as it is) for murder, racketeering, and conspiracy means that the few people left of any consequence are probably looking at life sentences in a super max prison.

-Chris Jones