Probe of Crime Family Yields Indictment of 32 Members

A three-year investigation of a powerful New York organized crime family has resulted in the indictment of 32 of its members and associates on charges including murder, extortion, racketeering, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and the operation of an illegal gambling business, law enforcement officials announced yesterday.

The defendants, who are allegedly affiliated with the reputed Genovese organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra, include an acting boss, three leaders, and five made members.

The Genovese family, which operates in the Bronx, Harlem, and Westchester, conducted its business for more than a decade on the streets and in business establishments including restaurants, a funeral home, a jewelry store, and a bakery, law enforcement officials said.

"The viciousness and breadth of the charges in this indictment demonstrate that the corruption and violence of this organization spread into all of our communities," U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said yesterday.

While in federal prison for extortion, the family's acting boss, Liborio "Barney" Bellomo, ordered the 1998 murder of a Genovese soldier, Ralph Coppola, the 42-count indictment charges. Bellomo used his defense attorney, Peter Peluso, to convey the directive to Genovese leaders, officials said. Should federal authorities decide to seek it, Bellomo could face the death penalty if convicted.

Peluso helped the crime family "avoid law enforcement scrutiny," Mr. Garcia said, by "shuttling important messages and directives to and from Genovese family members in and out of prison."

Law enforcement officials also announced the unsealing of Peluso's July 2005 guilty plea to participating in a number of crimes involving the Genovese family, such as racketeering, extortion, and obstruction of justice. Peluso will cooperate with the prosecution.

Federal, state, and city law enforcement officials employed "court-authorized electronic surveillance and the use of inside sources" to arrest the 32 alleged Genovese players, an FBI assistant director, Mark Mershon, said. As of yesterday afternoon, Mr. Garcia said 30 of 32 the defendants were in custody.

The charges in the indictment include murder, witness tampering - in one case the testimony related to an assault in which part of a victim's ear was bitten off - running an illegal large-scale bookmaking and sports betting operation, loan sharking, money laundering, running a cocaine distribution business, firearms trafficking, extorting competitors and associates in the carting industry, and using and threatening violence to force victims to pay debts, rent commercial property to family members, and stop recruiting customers away from a family member's company.

Law enforcement officials fatally shot one of the alleged managers of the Genovese cocaine distribution network in December, the indictment says. When two New York State troopers tried to arrest the manager, Michael Londonio, in his Bronx home, he shot at them and they returned deadly fire, the indictment states.

Although the arrests do not bring down the entire Genovese family, Mr. Mershon said, "this delivers an absolute body blow" to its operation.