organized crime news stories on Newser

Logging a $15B Racket for Organized Crime

Kevin Spak — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:46:05 CDT

Ah, those classic gangster rackets: drugs, prostitution, gambling, and, of course, wood. Illegal logging has become a major endeavor for organized crime, raking in as much as $15 billion a year, according to a new report from the World Bank. Scofflaws with chainsaws are running wild in places such as...

NYC Mob Boss Found Dead in Canada

Rob Quinn — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:54:35 CST

The criminal career of former New York City mob boss Salvatore Montagna came to an end in a frigid river in suburban Montreal yesterday. The body of the 40-year-old former chief of the Bonanno crime family, known as "Sal the Ironworker," was found after a witness said they heard gunshots...

Missing Olympus Billions Tied to Yakuza Crime Gangs

Rob Quinn — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:46:00 CST

To make a serious financial scandal much, much worse, simply quadruple the sums involved and add gangsters. Investigators probing the shady accounting at Japanese camera maker Olympus believe that in addition to the $1.4 billion the firm paid in merger fees to mask losses, some $4.9 billion is...

Mobster Whitey Bulger Busted After 16 Years

Rob Quinn — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:53:20 CDT

Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger has been arrested after 16 years as a fugitive, during which time the FBI was sometimes accused of not trying hard enough to find its former informant, the AP reports. The former leader of the Winter Hill Gang went on the run in 1995...

Feds Bust Philly Mob Boss, 12 Others

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:55:05 CDT

A real-life Sopranos (or Godfather, depending on your generation) in Philly: Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi, the reputed boss of the Philadelphia mob, has been arrested along with a dozen others believed to be connected to the mob. Federal authorities busted the group, and prosecutors charged them with conspiracy, extortion, illegal...

Mobster Found Hiding in Idaho Town

Rob Quinn — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:02:29 CST

Stunned residents of the small Idaho town of Marsing have just learned that the man they knew as Jay Shaw was actually Enrico Ponzo, a fugitive mobster from Boston. Ponzo, who had been on the lam for 17 years, was arrested this week for a long list of charges including...

To Flee Mob, Italian Museum Seeks Asylum in Germany

Rob Quinn — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:37:55 CST

The director of a Naples museum is urging Germany to grant asylum to the museum and its staff seeking to flee the mob. Antonio Manfredi says the contemporary art museum has been plagued by vandalism and threats from the local Mafia. The museum has put on exhibitions dealing with social...

Kosovo PM Linked to Organ Trafficking

Rob Quinn — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 02:39:24 CST

Kosovo Liberation Army leaders—including Prime Minister Hashim Thaci—ran a Mafia-style crime ring that trafficked in drugs and harvested organs, according to a Council of Europe probe. The human rights watchdog's 2-year inquiry found that men under Thaci's command shot civilians after the 1999 Kosovo war so their kidneys...

Gangsters Busted in Biggest-Ever Medicare Fraud

Rob Quinn — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:40:00 CDT

Investigators say they have smashed an Armenian crime ring responsible for "the largest Medicare fraud scheme ever perpetrated by a single criminal enterprise." A multi-state probe dubbed "Diagnosis Dollars" has resulted in the indictment of 73 members and associates of the ring, including 52 arrested in raids around the country...