A Lucchese crime family crew running an extensive illegal gambling and loan sharking operation in Bronx and Westchester County has been dismantled.
According to reports 61-year-old Dominick Capelli a made man in the Lucchese family and nine mafia associates were indicted and arrested. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the year-long investigation dubbed “Operation The Vig Is Up” was the largest such operation into a Cosa Nostra families activities by the state attorney general. He said, “Investigators utilized wiretaps, covert surveillance cameras, a car bug, undercover police officers and hidden cameras.” The New York Mafia crew offered gamblers a place not only to bet but to also take out loans to cover their losses.
“State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman”
All ten defendants have been hit with first-degree usury and first-degree promoting gambling charges while Capelli and two of his co-defendants face additional charges of running an illegal online gambling operation called bxbets. According to authorities, the bookmaking racket took in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in wagers.
The NY mafia crew used the gambling operation to funnel victims into the loan sharking scheme charging them weekly loan rates that averaged out to 200% interest per year. During the year-long probe into the loan-sharking operation, authorities identified more than four dozen victims. The racket generated more than $1 million dollars in revenue for the mafia.
According to Schneiderman debtors were required to make weekly payments on their exorbitant high “vig” loans. The victims directly paid individual defendants or dropped off payments at two local businesses McKiernan’s Lawton Street Tavern and The Glass Room. The Lucchese family crew could all be facing up to 25 years behind bars or more if convicted. Yet another indication that illegal gambling and loan-sharking are still highly lucrative rackets for the American Mafia.
