Since the 2002 death of a former Gambino boss, John Gotti, the federal government has tried to permanently crush the notorious crime family by prosecuting his brother and son and rounding up scores of Gambino leaders.

The latest attack on the Gambino family – long recognized as the largest of New York City’s five traditional Mafia families – begins today, when lawyers deliver opening statements in the racketeering case against John “Junior” Gotti.

The trial is a linchpin in the government’s effort to permanently shut down the Gambino family, once a powerhouse in the gambling, loan sharking, labor union, and extortion rackets.

The government has taken steady aim with increasing success at the family since the 1985 street shooting by other mobsters of Paul Castellano, who in 1976 succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the nation’s largest Mafia family.

Prosecutors got off to a sputtering start when the elder Gotti won acquittal at three 1980s trials, earning him the nickname the “Teflon Don.”

Lately, they’ve had more success.

With surveillance, turncoats, wiretaps, and advanced electronics that lawyers say let the government turn one suspected mobster into a walking microphone, the government has monitored and pursued family members as quickly as they emerge.

Last year, 32 men were rounded up in a massive prosecution the government says involved a dozen Gambino members, including its newest top leaders, and others with ties to the family’s illegal business.

Investigators say they infiltrated the family with an undercover FBI agent who was so well accepted that he was offered membership.

Even as the government worked to dismantle new leadership, it worked to put away the old bosses.

The continuous prosecutions have resulted in a game of musical chairs among the crime family’s hierarchy.

After John Gotti was convicted in 1992, prosecutors say, Junior Gotti stepped into his father’s shoes.

When Junior Gotti pleaded guilty in a racketeering case in 1999 and began a five-year prison sentence, his uncle Peter Gotti allegedly took over the crime family.

Now, Junior Gotti is out of prison – and back on trial – while his uncle is in prison.

Junior Gotti says he no longer has anything to do with the mob; the government begs to differ.

Peter Gotti was sentenced last year to 25 years in prison for ordering a hit on Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, the once trusted underboss of John Gotti. Gravano admitted involvement in 19 murders and doomed John Gotti’s chances at the 1992 trial.

The government was allowed to pursue a second racketeering trial against Junior Gotti because the case involves different crimes.

Prosecutors say the younger Gotti ordered the kidnapping of Guardian Angels founder and radio personality Curtis Sliwa in retaliation for Mr. Sliwa’s on-air rants against his father in 1992.

Mr. Sliwa was shot in the botched early-morning attack by two assailants in a cab but escaped out a window to recover and resume his verbal attacks on the Gotti family.

He testified at Gotti’s first racketeering trial, which ended last year with a deadlocked jury.

Gotti insists he had nothing to do with the kidnapping, has left the mob and has started a new life. But prosecutors say he continued his ties even after making the claim. If convicted, Gotti could face 30 years in prison. He is out on bail but must remain in home detention.