Feds Take Down Alleged Mafia Gambling Operations Posing as Shoe Repair and Cafe

Sal's Shoe Repair in Merrick, New York, did more than repair worn heels and soles.

The Genovese organized crime family operated an illegal gambling operation out of the store, generating “substantial revenue” that was then laundered through money transfers, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said.

Nine alleged members and associates of the Genovese and Bonanno organized crime families were indicted Tuesday on racketeering and illegal gambling charges for operating gaming parlors at other apparently legitimate establishments in Queens and Long Island, including a coffee bar and the La Nazionale football club.

Salvatore Rubino, 58, known as “Sal the Shoemaker,” was among those arrested, prosecutors said.

A Nassau County police detective, Hector Rosario, is also among the defendants. He allegedly accepted money from the Bonanno family in exchange for an offer to organize police raids on competing gaming establishments, according to the indictment. He is accused of obstructing a grand jury investigation and lying to the FBI.

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“The current members of the five families demonstrate every day that they are not opposed to working together to pursue their illicit schemes, using the same hackneyed methods to extract money from their victims. Soliciting “The alleged assistance of a member of law enforcement also demonstrates that they are willing to do everything they can to hide their illegal behavior,” FBI Deputy Director Michael Driscoll said in a statement. .

Beginning in May 2012, the Genovese and Bonanno families jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling operation in Lynbrook, New York, called Gran Caffe. Profits made from this and other gambling sites generated substantial revenue, which was then laundered through money transfers to defendants and “kicking” crime family leaders, it says. the indictment.

“Today's arrests of members of two La Cosa Nostra crime families demonstrate that the Mafia continues to pollute our communities with illegal gambling, extortion and violence while using our financial system to serve their criminal schemes,” said the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. York Breon Peace said in a statement.

Among those charged are Anthony “Little Anthony” Pipitone, a captain and soldier in the Bonanno family, and Carmelo “Carmine” Polito, an acting captain in the Genovese family, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors detail a call Polito made in October 2019 to an associate asking him to deliver a message to a debtor: “Tell him I'm going to put him under the bridge.”

Feds Take Down Alleged Mafia Gambling Operations Posing as Shoe Repair, Cafe originally appeared on abcnews.go.com