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From the Los Angeles Times

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Officials arrest 110 accused of mob activities

Raids targeting alleged members of the major East Coast crime families underscore the futility of federal efforts to wipe out the Mafia.

by Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

January 21, 2011

Reporting from New York

It was Christmastime on the icy shores of New Jersey, and "The Bull," a heavy in the Genovese crime family, was looking for his holiday bonus, authorities said. Longshoremen knew better than to argue when The Bull came calling, because nobody who wanted to live argued with the mob.

If they did, they might end up like the two men in the Shamrock Bar in Queens: shot dead after quarreling with a mobster over a spilled drink.

On Thursday, law enforcement officials announced the arrests of the alleged perpetrators of the Christmas shakedowns and the Shamrock Bar killer, along with more than 100 other suspected organized crime members in the biggest mob bust in recent history.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. came to Brooklyn — where 12 of the 16 indictments were unsealed — to announce the operation. The details seemed ripped from the pages of Prohibition-era tabloids: men with nicknames like "Lumpy," "Mush," "The Claw," "Jello," "Meatball," and "Jack the Whack"; and allegations of extortionate extensions of credit to gamblers in a mob-organized baccarat game and beatings to force debtors to repay loan sharks.

For all the official crowing over the huge roundup, the case also underscored the futility of federal efforts to wipe out the mob. The ethnic Italian Mafia, which seemed to have receded in public profile save for "The Sopranos" and "Godfather" reruns, nevertheless remains a "major threat," Holder said.

Janice Fedarcyk, head of the New York FBI office, said that even as law enforcement arrests bosses and underbosses, there are always others coming up through the ranks. "Just as the retirement or resignation of a corporate CEO does not spell the end of the company, neither does the incarceration of a mob boss or other key executive mean the dissolution of their family," she said.

Holder said 800 agents and officers from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency and local police made the arrests in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Florida, and that one man was arrested in Italy. He described some of the crimes as "classic mob hits" to get rid of perceived rivals, and some as standard mob activities such as racketeering and illegal gambling.

"Others involve truly senseless murders," Holder said, referring to the 1981 shooting at the Shamrock Bar in the New York borough of Queens.

Of the 127 charged, 110 were in custody early Thursday, many of them having been surprised at home. Fedarcyk said none put up resistance, and as they shuffled, handcuffed, into a processing center in Brooklyn under the glare of TV cameras, bellies sagging over wrinkled jeans and sweat pants, they bore little resemblance to the intimidating characters described in court papers.

The raids targeted the major East Coast crime families: Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Decavalcante and Luchese, in addition to the New England Cosa Nostra. Collectively, they are known as the Mafia and are an offshoot of the Italian Mafia, having emerged in the United States from the flood of Italian immigrants in the early 1900s. Over the decades, prosecutors say, the families have sought to control a variety of illegal activities, such as drug trafficking, as well as corrupting legitimate industries, such as construction. Bosses set the rules, which associates and foot soldiers obey under penalty of death, or at least a good beating.

"The Bull" is Albert Cernadas, described in court papers as an associate of the Genovese crime family and a Longshoremen's Assn. local union leader who used his position to shake down members for their Christmas bonuses. According to the indictment, Cernadas and other Genovese associates who also worked the docks demanded anything from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars from colleagues each holiday season to bolster Genovese family coffers.

Those who resisted were threatened with violence or the loss of their jobs, according to court documents, which say the shakedowns had been going on since 1982. "Simply put, these defendants preyed upon their co-workers' vulnerability and fear for their physical safety and job security," the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey said in court documents.

The Shamrock Bar killings occurred in 1981, but prosecutors say they have witnesses to the altercation, which they say began when a young Gambino family associate became enraged after someone spilled a drink on his suit. He was thrown out of the bar, but he is accused of returning with two friends who opened fire on the bar's owners, killing both. Bartolomeo Vernace, a Gambino leader charged in that case, was acquitted on state charges in the case in 2002, but officials said the federal case is stronger and includes a witness who will testify that Vernace, also known as "Pepe," was one of the gunmen.

Fedarcyk said the FBI "used every tool" in their toolbox during the investigation, including informants and secretly recorded tapes, some of which were featured in the thousands of pages of court documents that accompanied Thursday's announcement.

"You've been watching … too many movies," a debt collector for Vernace tells someone identified as John Doe, who is worried for his safety after falling behind on repaying a $70,000 loan. "I'm, uh, I, you know. I'm afraid I'm going to get hurt," John Doe tells the collector, who at times laughs off his worries but also warns him that if he does not pay back the loan, his creditors could either walk away and lose the money, "or ... kill you. That's the bottom line."

In another transcript, an alleged Gambino associate named Anthony Scibelli, charged with extortion and racketeering, expresses astonishment that someone has tried to cross the mob. "Are you kidding? What do they think — that this is make-believe?"

In addition to recordings, Fedarcyk said informants were key to many of the cases. "The vow of silence is more myth than reality today," she said, referring to insiders who turned on their mob associates in violation of one of the cardinal rules of organized crime.

Fedarcyk said the arrests had made a "serious dent" in mob activity, and she and Holder said the goal remained to eradicate organized crime. "How much time that is going to take, I can't predict, but that is certainly the goal that we have," Holder said.

But David Shapiro, an assistant professor at New York's John Jay College of Criminal justice and a former FBI agent and prosecutor, said it was too soon to know whether the latest arrests would seriously undermine the major mob groups. "You have a disparate group of individuals that are lumped under organized crime arrests … and you list the big-name families," he said. "But what does it mean? Are these guys the brains behind us paying more money for things we get? I'm not sure."

Len Levitt, a former longtime police reporter who has written extensively on the mob, said the fact that none of the suspects was well-known outside of mob circles may be a sign "the mob is not what it used to be. "The mob keeps coming back despite all these arrests. Yet at the same time nobody who knows who these guys are," he said, contrasting them with such notorious past bosses as Carlo Gambino and John Gotti.

Levitt attributed that in part to competition from new organized crime gangs from Asia, Mexico and elsewhere. "They just don't have the same monopoly," he said of the Italian mobster families.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, in a veiled jab at movies and TV shows that cast mobsters in a likeable light, said the charges involving the dockworkers in particular showed the reality. "Actual longshoremen in this case, with real mortgages and real families, were forced to kick back to corrupt officials … between $500 and $5,000 each from their annual Christmas bonus if they hoped to rise above entry-level jobs," he said. "For Hollywood, the mob is just good material for the big screen. But in real life, the mob commits real murder and actual extortion."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-new-york-mob-20110121,0,7093017,print.story

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More attention urged for border agent's killing in Arizona

After the massive response to the Tucson shootings, Nogales is frustrated about lack of progress on another violent death.

by Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

January 20, 2011

Reporting from Nogales, Ariz.

It was shortly after 11 p.m. one night in December when an elite unit of the U.S. Border Patrol, making its way through the inky darkness of Peck Canyon, ran into a pack of heavily armed men.

A gunfight broke out, and when it was over, Agent Brian Terry, a three-year veteran of the force, was dead. Four Mexicans were taken into custody, one of them shot in the abdomen and back. By daybreak, a massive sweep was underway in search of a fifth suspect who had disappeared into the night.

The agent's death happened in the wake of a wave of robberies, rapes and assaults — most unreported, police say, because they are directed at illegal migrants and drug runners.

Yet more than a month after Terry's death, prosecutors still have filed no homicide charges against the unidentified men in custody, nor have they caught the fifth suspect, who may have been the triggerman.

After the massive law enforcement response to the Jan. 8 shootings of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, there is frustration here that Terry's death has not taken the same priority.

"Obviously, Congresswoman Giffords, we like her a lot, but all of this investigation of a guy who's deranged and he's in custody — what are they doing about Agent Terry's death?" said Susan Clarke Morales, who said she has regular, often frightening, encounters with strangers who traverse Calabasas Canyon outside of Nogales.

Here in the in the desolate hills stretching from the Mexican border, the battle between the law-abiding and the lawless, the vulnerable and the predatory, continues unabated.

While they mourn the deaths in the Tucson shooting, many feel their plight is easily overlooked, and rarely attracts much attention.

A memorial service for Terry, 40, is scheduled for Friday in Tucson, and his mother, Josephine Terry, said she hopes agents will be able to tell her what happened to her son, and who was responsible.

"He told me that nobody knows how bad it is out there. Nobody has a clue," she said.

A former U.S. Marine and police department veteran in Michigan, Terry's dream, his mother said, was to serve with the special tactical unit that authorities say was on the track of a "rip crew" preying on migrants and drug runners in the hills west of Nogales.

That he was keenly aware of the peril became apparent after his death. On his desk was a message he wrote to himself titled: "If Today Be the Day." Josephine said her son read it regularly before he set off for work.

"If you seek to do battle with me this day, you will receive the best that I am capable of giving. It may not be enough, but it will be everything I have to give, and it will be impressive," it said.

"I have kept myself in peak physical condition, schooled myself in martial arts, and have become proficient in the application of combat tactics. You may defeat me, but you would be lucky to escape with your life. You may kill me, but I am willing to die if necessary. I have been close enough to it on enough occasions that it no longer concerns me. But I do fear the loss of my honor, and would rather die fighting than to have it said that I was without courage…"

Josephine Terry began crying softly as she read it.

Terry's death was only the latest in a series of attacks aimed at border agents here. Most frequently, they face large, baseball-size stones hurled across the border. But on Sept. 5, border agents were shot at in Bellota Canyon, not far from where Agent Alexander Kirpnick was shot to death while attempting to arrest some drug smugglers in 1998.

Lawlessness has increased in the remote canyon country as federal authorities have successfully sealed off much of the area inside Arizona's border towns.

Nogales, a bustling produce-shipping town of about 20,000, had only one homicide last year, while across the border in Nogales, Mexico, with a population of more than 160,000, there were seven murders and three kidnappings in a single three-day period. Two heads were found stuffed between the bars of a cemetery fence.

The relative security in the border towns has forced migrants and drug smugglers into the remote canyons, where the unarmed are victimized and backcountry residents find themselves increasingly fearful of going outside unarmed.

Morales, who manages the local movie theater in Nogales, said she never leaves her front porch without a .357 Magnum tucked in her purse. Several months ago, she was driving out toward the highway from her remote ranch house in the canyons northwest of here when a man carrying a large water jug leaped into her car as she slowed to avoid hitting him.

Not long before, two "scary-looking" men covered in tattoos came to her front porch looking for water, and then simply sat staring at her, ignoring her repeated requests to go away. "You have to go to the bathroom and hide, and hope they don't know you're calling the Border Patrol," she said.

Dan Bell, a rancher whose pasture land runs west of Nogales toward Pena Blanco Canyon, not long ago ran into a group of men armed with an AK-47 assault weapon and a conventional rifle. Though it was his own pasture land, Bell did what he always does in those cases: averted his eyes and and drove on.

In March, his friend Robert Krentz, a rancher in nearby Cochise County, was shot to death shortly after reporting that he had spotted a possible illegal immigrant on his land. Footprints led back toward the Mexican border.

"We always thought somebody was going to get hurt, or even killed. We just thought, as far as ranchers, that it wouldn't happen to us. That all changed in March with what happened to Rob," Bell said.

"I can tell you that since the murder of Rob, we have seen an increase in the number of Border Patrol people and National Guard getting out here. There's an increase in technology coming to the border," Bell said. "But with that, as they become more effective, the people that are doing bad things are getting more violent. The desperation is increasing."

Giffords was a strong proponent of promoting border security, and after Krentz's murder, she announced the deployment of more National Guard troops and $600 million in extra border security funding approved by Congress.

"Residents in my district are fed up. They are tired of the break-ins, thefts, threats of violence and trash caused by the smuggling of drugs and people across their land every day," Giffords said.

A new road is being plowed along the border fence near Bell's ranch that will enable agents to mount more effective patrols.

In fact, the 212,000 apprehensions of illegal migrants in the Tucson sector are only about a third of what they were in 2000, said Border Patrol spokesman Mario Escalante, though drug seizures are up: In 2009, a record 1.2 million pounds of marijuana were seized in the sector.

"We've seen a large decrease in our activities in this sector over the last 10 years, and that's largely due to the more personnel we've added, more infrastructure, more technology, all these resources properly combined and intelligently deployed have allowed us to make a difference," he said.

Still, while residents of Nogales say they feel confident and safe, citizens outside the city live with almost constant worry.

Despite the improvements in border security, the battle has gone on so long that there is a grim sense that it will never end.

"It's a cat and mouse game that we're playing here on a daily basis," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.

"The border is secure, but the border is not sealed, because you cannot seal the border," he said. "I don't care what party comes in, Republicans, Democrats, it'll be the same thing. They'll say they can secure the border, and when the time comes, they will find out that they cannot stop everything."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-border-agent-death-20110121,0,1140599,print.story

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South Korean forces storm hijacked ship, free hostages

Commandos board the Samho Jewelry and kill eight Somali pirates.

by John M. Glionna

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 21, 2011

Reporting from Seoul

South Korean special forces launched a dramatic high-seas rescue of 21 seamen hijacked by pirates last week aboard their South-Korean-operated freighter in a top-secret operation that killed eight Somali abductors, officials here announced Friday.

The skipper of the South Korea chemical carrier Samho Jewelry was also shot in the stomach during the melee in the Arabian Sea but his wounds were not life-threatening, officials said. Five pirates were captured in the predawn military raid.

"Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Col. Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. "During the operation, our forces killed some Somali pirates and all of the hostages were confirmed alive."

The cargo ship's crew consisted of eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 citizens from Myanmar, officials said.

The rescue off the African coast was good news for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who has been under fire for his perceived weak responses to two attacks by North Korea last year -- a March torpedoing of a southern war ship that killed 46 crewmen and the north's November artillery shelling of a southern-controlled island that killed four people.

"We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future," Lee said in a brief televised statement, thanking unnamed countries for their help in the raid.

Military commandos boarded the Samho Jewelry under the cover of darkness, with teams moving systematically through the vessel, compartment by compartment, according to a press release from the South Korean Ministry of National Defense.

The captain was shot by a pirate as rescuers met with gunfire. "This operation demonstrated our government's strong will to never negotiate with pirates," said South Korean Lt. Gen. Lee Seong-ho.

Officials said the top-secret mission had been planned for a week. "Despite the difficult situation with limited information, and pirates and hostages mixed in a group, with meticulous planning and practice they minimized the damage and successfully carried out the plan," the government release said of the rescuers.

The 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry, which was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka when it was attacked, is the second vessel from South Korea-based Samho Shipping to be hijacked in the past several months.

Somali pirates in November freed the supertanker Samho Dream and its 24 crewmember following seven months of captivity.

Piracy is common off the Somali coast, where rag-tag crews armed with semi-automatic weapons in high-speed boats overcome lumbering tankers whose crews are loath to engage in gun play.

Most companies settle the abductions by paying steep ransoms. Rescues are rare because of the risk to hostages, who are often kept below deck in safe rooms called citadels, vulnerable to be injured or killed by hijackers until their rescuers can reach them.

While rare, such rescues do take place. In April 2009, U.S. Navy snipers killed three pirates who had hijacked the Maersk Alabama, setting off with the American captain after abandoning the larger ship.

The South Korean rescue Friday, which took place about 750 miles northeast of Somalia, followed a brief gun battle three days earlier between the South Korean destroyer Choi Young and a group of pirates, officials said.

The destroyer, which had been tracking the Samho Jewelry, saw several pirates leave the South Korean vessel to hijack a Mongolian boat nearby. Using a fast boat and a helicopter, the South Korean military rescued the Mongolian ship, killing several pirates. Three South Korean soldiers suffered minor injuries.

"Three of our soldiers suffered light scratches on their bodies as they were fired upon by pirates on Tuesday," Lee said. "Our Lynx helicopter immediately returned fire and several pirates fell into the waters. We believe they are dead."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-south-korea-rescue-20110122,0,6829628,print.story

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$80,000 offered for leads in shooting of school officer near El Camino High

Los Angeles officials announced Thursday that they will be offering an $80,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the gunman who wounded a school police officer in Woodland Hills, sparking a massive hunt that shut down a seven-square-mile swath of the west San Fernando Valley and left more than 9,000 students locked for hours in their classrooms.

The officer, eight-year Los Angeles school police veteran Jeff Stenroos, was shot in the 5500 block of Manton Avenue adjacent to El Camino Real High School on Wednesday morning by a white man in his 40s with a thin build and graying hair pulled into a ponytail.

A composite sketch of the man was released Thursday afternoon and investigators said they believe someone in the area of the shooting will recognize him and urged them to contact police.

"We suspect he is a local," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said of the gunman.

Officials also introduced the Good Samaritan who helped the fallen officer by using his police radio to make an "officer needs help" call to emergency dispatchers. Michael Brodey, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, also assisted Stenroos as they waited for help to arrive.

"What I did yesterday is just what I'm trained to do," said Brodey. He said that training aided him in helping other victims in emergencies, including giving a choking woman in a restaurant the Heimlich maneuver and providing first aid to a worker who had been struck by a vehicle on Mulholland Drive.

At the urging of police, Brodey did not elaborate on what he saw and heard before, during or after the shooting or describe what brought him to the area.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Truck driver pleads guilty to hauling tons of marijuana smuggled into U.S. in tunnel

A 29-year-old Oceanside man pleaded guilty Thursday to hauling nearly 20,000 pounds of marijuana to distribution locations in California after the pot was smuggled into the U.S. through a narcotics tunnel.

Carlos Cunningham admitted in federal court in San Diego to driving truckloads of pot from a warehouse in San Diego near the tunnel's opening. He faces a mandatory prison sentence of at least 10 years.

The tunnel was discovered Nov. 2. Federal agents seized 28,782 pounds of marijuana inside the warehouse. Mexican authorities seized 9,878 pounds of marijuana at the tunnel's entrance inside a home in Tijuana.

Driving a tractor-trailer, Cunningham made multiple stops throughout Southern California, authorities said. Cunningham was arrested at the Temecula checkpoint along Interstate 15 while driving north to make deliveries.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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From the New York Times

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Report Says Militants in Pearl Killing Still at Large

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Nine years after the American reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and killed by operatives of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, more than a dozen of the militants involved in his murder remain at large, a testament to the lack of will by Pakistani authorities to prosecute the cases, according to a report released Thursday.

Some of the 14 men who are known to have played a role in the death of Mr. Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, committed other terrorist acts in Pakistan, including an attack on a hotel in Karachi in which 11 French engineers were killed, and the attempted assassination of the former president, Pervez Musharraf, the report says.

A senior Pakistani law enforcement official who was closely involved in the Pearl case and worked with American investigators confirmed in an interview on Thursday that the 14 men had not been prosecuted.

The Pakistani official, who declined to be named because he said he had received death threats from the militants, said there was “sufficient evidence to link them to Pearl's case.”

“This is a $1 million question as to where their people are and why they weren't arrested or tried in this case,” the law enforcement official said. All of the 14 men had committed “major acts of terrorism” in the four or five years after the Pearl killing, the official said.

The murder of Mr. Pearl has been extensively documented and discussed as an emblem of the post-9/11 era. A movie, “A Mighty Heart,” with Angelina Jolie, popularized the case.

But unanswered questions persisted, gaps that the new report, based on investigative work by students and faculty at the journalism program of Georgetown University and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, tries to fill.

Mr. Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi on Jan. 23, 2002, as he was pursuing a story about Islamic extremism. He was beheaded in early February.

A British Pakistani, Ahmed Omar Sheikh, and three others were convicted and sentenced to death by a Pakistani court in July 2002. The four men remain in prison in Pakistan.

They were involved in the plot to abduct Mr. Pearl but were not responsible for his actual murder in a compound deep in the slums of Karachi, the report says.

In 2007, the Qaeda operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is awaiting trial in connection with the 9/11 attacks, confessed to killing Mr. Pearl, according to a transcript of a hearing released by American officials. Mr. Mohammed has not been indicted for the murder, the report says.

A comparison of a photograph of the veins in the hand that beheaded Mr. Pearl shown in a video of his death and a photograph of the veins in Mr. Mohammed's hand taken at the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prison showed that Mr. Mohammed had indeed killed Mr. Pearl, the report concluded.

The killing of Mr. Pearl melded operatives of Al Qaeda with technically proficient Pakistani militant groups, a combination that turned out to be the beginning of a lethal alliance that grew stronger and has tormented Pakistan ever since, the report says.

“The murder was the first known operation in which Pakistani militants collaborated with Al Qaeda,” it says.

One of the groups involved in Mr. Pearl's murder, Lashkar-e-Janghvi, became a crucial player in the Punjabi Taliban, a confederation of groups now holed up with Al Qaeda in the tribal area of North Waziristan. Those groups are now major targets of attacks by American drone aircraft.

Lashkar-e-Janghvi masterminded the assault on the Pakistan Army headquarters in 2009 that deeply embarrassed the Pakistani military. The attack was run by a wing of Lashkar-e-Janghvi named after Amjad Farooqi, who was identified by Pakistani authorities as one of Mr. Pearl's kidnappers. Mr. Farooqi was killed in a shootout in southern Pakistan in 2004.

Among the 14 men who remain free, the report names Abdul Hayee. In 2003, Mr. Hayee was arrested for killing six Shiites, members of the minority Islam sect in Pakistan. He was acquitted and lives in Punjab Province, according to a Pakistani police official interviewed for the report.

Another militant, Mohammad Sohail, who worked with Mr. Farooqi on the Pearl abduction, was sentenced to death in 2003 for his role in the 2002 bombing in Karachi that killed the French engineers, the report says. He was acquitted on appeal in 2009, and is now free, it says.

Another militant, Malik Tassadaq Hussain, who the report says took photos of Mr. Pearl that were distributed in an e-mail during his captivity, was arrested in 2004 but never charged. He was later charged for an attack on a police van and acquitted in 2007, the report says.

A Pakistani lawyer, Ahmer Bilal Soofi, who has studied Pakistan's anti-terrorism laws, said that the laws were deeply flawed and that many cases were thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Police officers were rarely given enough time or resources to carry out proper investigations, he said.

“An investigating officer just throws whatever evidence he has in court,” Mr. Soofi said. “His superior lauds him and says we've taken the case to court. But in the process they have compromised the case.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/world/asia/21pearl.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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As U.S. Patients Await Organ Transplants, Potential Donors Struggle for Visas

The clock is ticking for Dr. Gabriel Danovitch's patient. Dr. Danovitch, a transplant surgeon at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, is treating an immigrant from Mexico in his 40s whose kidneys have failed. The patient is a good candidate for a transplant and has a donor, his brother.

But there is a big problem: His brother is a Mexican citizen whose application for a visa to come to the United States was not granted.

Physicians who perform transplants say patients who need organ donations from a family member or other close match outside the United States face hurdles that are often hard to surmount. Difficulties in obtaining visas leave many potential donors frustrated and force their sick relatives in the United States to wait months or even years on a list for organs like a liver or kidney.

In other cases, poor families cannot afford to pay for the donors to travel to the United States and undergo organ-removal operations that can require hospital stays of up to three weeks. In some states, Medicaid does not cover any of a donor's expenses, and private insurance policies vary greatly in how much they will cover.

Getting organ donations is always difficult, but medical authorities say the problems have gotten worse for immigrants with the tightening of visa policies after the terrorist attacks in 2001. And with the slowdown in the economy, some states have been cutting back financial aid to transplant patients and donors.

“If there is someone living and willing and compatible, it's concerning that, because of so much protection, they end up not being able to help a desperate person in need,” said Bryan Stewart, a spokesman for One Legacy, a nonprofit organization that deals with organ and tissue donations in the seven-county greater Los Angeles area.

Dr. Giselle Guerra, medical director of the Living Kidney Donor Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has similar concerns. “I wish I could get rid of all the bureaucratic red tape, and it would be nice for every donor to fit the criteria so we can stop adding to the waiting list,” she said.

More than 110,000 people were waiting for an organ as of Wednesday, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a private nonprofit organization that manages the nation's organ transplant system under contract with the federal government.

Over 60,000 of those on the list are black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, Pacific Islander or describe themselves as multiracial, according to the organ sharing network. Of those, 6,229 are resident aliens in the United States, compared with close to 1,900 resident aliens in 2000. Illegal immigrants are prohibited from the list.

“When patients need a transplant, most of the time, the first people they turn to is their families,” said Dr. Juan Carlos Caicedo, a transplant surgeon and director of the Hispanic Transplant Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. “It becomes complicated when their families are not in the U.S., which in a lot of instances, that is the case.”

The State Department does not have a medical visa category, and people traveling to the United States have to qualify for the B-1/B-2 visa, more commonly known as the tourist visa.

“Our embassies and consulates around the world do their best to assist visa applicants who are dealing with life or death situations in order to expedite their cases,” a department official wrote in an e-mail.

An individual applying for a visa for a medical reason can fill out a form requesting that the application be expedited.

But some doctors say that they have contacted State Department officials on behalf of patients and even that has not sped up the process.

“When I call the consulates or embassies, they're not very cooperative,” Dr. Guerra said. “We try to be as concise as possible, but also explaining the urgency in the letters that we write, but it just continues to be a waiting game.”

Dr. Linda Chen, a transplant surgeon at the Miller School of Medicine, said that for about the last five years, the State Department has required foreign donor candidates to get preliminary testing done in their home country.

Blood-collection tubes are mailed to the candidates, and the filled tubes are mailed back for testing. If the donor has the same blood type, there is a possibility that he or she could be a match with the patient, and the State Department will take that into consideration, Dr. Chen said.

“But even with blood work,” Dr. Chen said, “they don't give people visas sometimes.”

Dr. Chen said she writes letters on a monthly basis. But she cannot do that for patients whose donor relatives are in Cuba.

“Since the U.S. does not have a relationship with Cuba, we cannot help them by writing a letter or sending tests over,” Dr. Chen said.

If patients cannot get a donor into the United States, their names go on the organ network's list to receive an organ from someone who has died. Waiting times for patients vary, and among the factors is a person's state of residence. Patients in New York, for example, wait an average of seven to nine years, while people in Florida wait three to five years.

The No. 1 transplanted organ is the kidney. When one is needed but not readily available, patients must go through dialysis. Medicare spent $9.2 billion in 2009 on dialysis patients, according to an annual Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report due to Congress in March. Martha Escamilla-Arias, a social worker at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said that in most cases dialysis cost the State of Illinois more than a kidney transplant in the long run.

“In Illinois, two and a half years of dialysis pays for one kidney transplant,” Ms. Escamilla-Arias said. “Some people are in dialysis for five to seven years, and if things were easier for foreign donors, it would help.”

Jean Viera, 34, a Cuban immigrant on the organ network's list, has been going through dialysis for six years.

His left arm is disfigured with two purplish raised scars where he is connected to a dialysis machine.

“I wish I did not have to go through this,” Mr. Viera said. “This is just not the best way to live.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/us/21transplants.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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2 Miami Officers Killed in Shootout

Two police officers and a murder suspect died in a shootout in Miami on Thursday while the authorities were trying to serve a homicide warrant, officials said.

One of the police officers, Roger Castillo, a 21-year veteran, died at the scene in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood, Lt. Rosanna Cordero-Stutz of the Miami-Dade Police Department said. The other officer, Amanda Haworth, 44, died during surgery Thursday afternoon, the police said.

Mayor Carlos Alvarez said the officers, part of the criminal unit of the department's warrant division, had been serving a first-degree murder warrant on Johnny Simms, 22. Officers at the scene killed Mr. Simms, who was armed with a handgun, the police said.

The unit works with the United States Marshals Service and other law enforcement agencies in South Florida.

“They go after the worst of the worst,” Mr. Alvarez said. The suspect, he said, “chose to shoot it out with police.”

Mr. Alvarez, a former director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said that he had known both slain officers and that he was taking the shooting very personally.

“They've been in the department a lot of years,” he said. “They're professionals working in a very professional, elite unit. Their sole mission is to protect our community in going after career criminals — violent career criminals.”

A third police officer, Deidree Beecher, was being treated at a hospital for a knee injury.

Several people were being questioned, but no arrests have been made, the police said. After the shootings, part of Interstate 95 was closed nearby. Local schools were put on lockdown as officers searched the area for suspects.

In a statement posted on its Web site Thursday, the president of the Miami Police Benevolent Association, John Rivera, said: “Today, our community lost two more heroes. Our hearts ache for their families and their loved ones who are dealing with incomprehensible grief, loss and shock.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/us/21miami.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

Myth of the Hero Gunslinger

But before the Tucson tragedy fades into tired talking points, it's worth dissecting the crime scene once more to see how this idea fared in actual battle.

First, one bit of throat-clearing: I'm a third-generation Westerner, and grew up around guns, hunters of all possible fauna, and Second Amendment enthusiasts who wore camouflage nine months out of the year. Generally, I don't have a problem with any of that.

Back to Tucson. On the day of the shooting, a young man named Joseph Zamudio was leaving a drugstore when he saw the chaos at the Safeway parking lot. Zamudio was armed, carrying his 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol. Heroically, he rushed to the scene, fingering his weapon, ready to fire.

Now, in the view of the more-guns proponents, Zamudio might have been able to prevent any carnage, or maybe even gotten off a shot before someone was killed.

“When everyone is carrying a firearm, nobody is going to be a victim,” said Arizona state representative Jack Harper, after a gunman had claimed 19 victims.

“I wish there had been one more gun in Tucson,” said an Arizona Congressman, Rep. Trent Franks, implying like Harper that if only someone had been armed at the scene, Jared Lee Loughner would not have been able to unload his rapid-fire Glock on innocent people.

In fact, several people were armed. So, what actually happened? As Zamudio said in numerous interviews, he never got a shot off at the gunman, but he nearly harmed the wrong person — one of those trying to control Loughner.

He saw people wrestling, including one man with the gun. “I kind of assumed he was the shooter,” said Zamudio in an interview with MSNBC. Then, “everyone said, ‘no, no — it's this guy,'” said Zamudio.

To his credit, he ultimately helped subdue Loughner. But suppose, in those few seconds of confusion, he had fired at the wrong man and killed a hero? “I was very lucky,” Zamudio said.

It defies logic, as this case shows once again, that an average citizen with a gun is going to disarm a crazed killer. For one thing, these kinds of shootings happen far too suddenly for even the quickest marksman to get a draw. For another, your typical gun hobbyist lacks training in how to react in a violent scrum.

I don't think these are reasons to disarm the citizenry. That's never going to happen, nor should it. But the Tucson shootings should discredit the canard that we need more guns at school, in the workplace, even in Congress. Yes, Congress. The Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert has proposed a bill to allow fellow members to carry firearms into the Capitol Building.

Gohmert has enough trouble carrying a coherent thought onto the House floor. God forbid he would try to bring a Glock to work. By his reasoning, the Middle East would be better off if every nation in the region had nuclear weapons.

At least two recent studies show that more guns equals more carnage to innocents. One survey by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that guns did not protect those who had them from being shot in an assault — just the opposite. Epidemiologists at Penn looked at hundreds of muggings and assaults. What they found was that those with guns were four times more likely to be shot when confronted by an armed assailant than those without guns. The unarmed person, in other words, is safer.

Other studies have found that states with the highest rates of gun ownership have much greater gun death rates than those where only a small percentage of the population is armed. So, Hawaii, where only 9.7 percent of residents own guns, has the lowest gun death rate in the country, while Louisiana, where 45 percent of the public is armed, has the highest.

Arizona, where people can carry guns into bars and almost anyone can get a concealed weapons permit, is one of the top 10 states for gun ownership and death rates by firearms. And in the wake of the shootings, some lawmakers want to flood public areas with even more lethal weapons.

Tuesday of this week was the first day of classes at Arizona State University, and William Jenkins, who teaches photography at the school, did not bring his weapon to campus. For the moment, it's still illegal for professors to pack heat while they talk Dante and quantum physics.

But that may soon change. Arizona legislators have been pushing a plan to allow college faculty and students to carry concealed weapons at school.

“That's insane,” Jenkins told me. “On Mondays I give a lecture to 120 people. I can't imagine students coming into class with firearms. If something happened, it would be mayhem.”

He's right. Jenkins is a lifelong gun owner and he carries a concealed weapon, by permit. He also carries a modicum of common sense. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/myth-of-the-hero-gunslinger/?pagemode=print

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From Google News

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Kennedy's famous 'Ask not' speech remembered on 50th anniversary

by BRETT ZONGKER

Associated Press

Caroline Kennedy told the Associated Press that she has been thinking over her father's oft-quoted inaugural speech from Jan. 20, 1961, when he proclaimed that Americans "shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

"I think he really expanded and redefined our idea of what it means to be a citizen -- that everybody has something to contribute and everybody has something to give back to this country that's given us so much," Caroline Kennedy said.

Kennedy joined members of her father's administration, civil rights activists, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and members of the first class of the Peace Corps -- which John F. Kennedy established -- on Thursday at the Capitol to mark the 35th president's legacy.

Speaking at a ceremony in the rotunda, Vice President Joe Biden said Kennedy's cause was to bring America back "to what it should be."

"His call to service literally, not figuratively, still resounds from generation to generation," Biden said.

The celebrations come as the Kennedy power in Washington has faded. For the first time in 63 years, no one with the Kennedy name is serving in elected office. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island left the U.S. House this month.

Caroline Kennedy said she wouldn't be surprised if someone in her family returned to national politics -- but that it probably wouldn't be her.

Instead, she is announcing a new "Ask Not" public service campaign with comedian Jimmy Fallon aimed at youths as part of a series of events to reconnect the Kennedy legacy with a new generation.

The spots featuring Fallon will air on Viacom, Comcast and CBS TV channels to promote the new Web site www.jfk50.org.

Also Thursday, members of the Kennedy family gathered in Washington at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. At the gala, President Barack Obama said Kennedy's "soaring vision" captured the country's potential.

"He knew that we, as a people, can do great things, we can reach great heights, we can rise to any challenge, so long as we're willing to ask what we can do for our country," he said.

Obama, 49, who was born seven months after Kennedy's inauguration, said much of his knowledge of the late president "came from a mother and grandparents who adored him" and his later relationships with Kennedy family members.

"We are the heirs to this president who showed us what's possible," Obama said. "Because of that vision, I can stand here tonight as president of the United States."

http://www.freep.com/article/20110121/NEWS07/101210386/1322/Kennedys-famous-Ask-not-speech-remembered-on-50th-anniversary

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Winter Storms and Extreme Cold

While the danger from winter weather varies across the country, nearly all Americans, regardless of where they live, are likely to face some type of severe winter weather at some point in their lives. That could mean snow or subfreezing temperatures, as well as strong winds or even ice or heavy rain storms. One of the primary concerns is the winter weather's ability to knock out heat, power and communications services to your home or office, sometimes for days at a time. The National Weather Service refers to winter storms as the “Deceptive Killers” because most deaths are indirectly related to the storm. Instead, people die in traffic accidents on icy roads and of hypothermia from prolonged exposure to cold. It is important to be prepared for winter weather before it strikes.

Step 1: Get a Kit

• Get an Emergency Supply Kit which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries.
• Thoroughly check and update your family's Emergency Supply Kit before winter approaches and add the following supplies in preparation for winter weather:
  • Rock salt to melt ice on walkways
  • Sand to improve traction
  • Snow shovels and other snow removal equipment.
  • Also include adequate clothing and blankets to keep you warm.

Step 2: Make a Plan

Prepare Your Family

• Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency.
• Plan places where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.
• It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.
• You may also want to inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one.
• Take a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class from your local Citizen Corps chapter. Keep your training current.

Step 3: Be Informed

Prepare Your Home

• Make sure your home is well insulated and that you have weather stripping around your doors and windowsills to keep the warm air inside.
• Insulate pipes with insulation or newspapers and plastic and allow faucets to drip a little during cold weather to avoid freezing.
• Learn how to shut off water valves (in case a pipe bursts).
• Keep fire extinguishers on hand, and make sure everyone in your house knows how to use them. House fires pose an additional risk as more people turn to alternate heating sources without taking the necessary safety precautions.
• Know ahead of time what you should do to help elderly or disabled friends, neighbors or employees.
• Hire a contractor to check the structural stability of the roof to sustain unusually heavy weight from the accumulation of snow - or water, if drains on flat roofs do not work.
• If you have a car, fill the gas tank in case you have to leave. In addition, check or have a mechanic check the following items on your car:
  • Antifreeze levels - ensure they are sufficient to avoid freezing.
  • Battery and ignition system - should be in top condition and battery terminals should be clean.
  • Brakes - check for wear and fluid levels.
  • Exhaust system - check for leaks and crimped pipes and repair or replace as necessary. Carbon monoxide is deadly and usually gives no warning.
  • Fuel and air filters - replace and keep water out of the system by using additives and maintaining a full tank of gas.
  • Heater and defroster - ensure they work properly.
  • Lights and flashing hazard lights - check for serviceability.
  • Oil - check for level and weight. Heavier oils congeal more at low temperatures and do not lubricate as well.
  • Thermostat - ensure it works properly.
  • Tires - make sure the tires have adequate tread. All-weather radials are usually adequate for most winter conditions. However, some jurisdictions require that to drive on their roads, vehicles must be equipped with chains or snow tires with studs.
  • Windshield wiper equipment - repair any problems and maintain proper washer fluid level.

Familiarize yourself with the terms that are used to identify winter weather

• Freezing Rain creates a coating of ice on roads and walkways.
• Sleet is rain that turns to ice pellets before reaching the ground. Sleet also causes roads to freeze and become slippery.
• Winter Weather Advisory means cold, ice and snow are expected.
• Winter Storm Watch means severe weather such as heavy snow or ice is possible in the next day or two.
• Winter Storm Warning means severe winter conditions have begun or will begin very soon.
• Blizzard Warning means heavy snow and strong winds will produce a blinding snow, near zero visibility, deep drifts and life-threatening wind chill.
• Frost/Freeze Warning means below freezing temperatures are expected.
• When a Winter Storm WATCH is issued
  • Listen to NOAA Weather Radio, local radio, and television stations, or cable television such as The Weather Channel for further updates.
  • Be alert to changing weather conditions.
  • Avoid unnecessary travel
• When a Winter Storm WARNING is issued
  • Stay indoors during the storm.
  • If you must go outside, several layers of lightweight clothing will keep you warmer than a single heavy coat. Gloves (or mittens) and a hat will prevent loss of body heat. Cover your mouth to protect your lungs.
  • Walk carefully on snowy, icy, walkways.
  • If the pipes freeze, remove any insulation or layers of newspapers and wrap pipes in rags. Completely open all faucets and pour hot water over the pipes, starting where they were most exposed to the cold (or where the cold was most likely to penetrate).
  • Maintain ventilation when using kerosene heaters to avoid build-up of toxic fumes. Refuel kerosene heaters outside and keep them at least three feet from flammable objects.
  • Avoid traveling by car in a storm, but if you must...
  • Carry an Emergency Supply Kit in the trunk.
    • Keep your car's gas tank full for emergency use and to keep the fuel line from freezing.
    • Let someone know your destination, your route, and when you expect to arrive. If your car gets stuck along the way, help can be sent along your predetermined route.
    • Eat regularly and drink ample fluids, but avoid caffeine and alcohol.
    • Conserve fuel, if necessary, by keeping your residence cooler than normal. Temporarily close off heat to some rooms.

Listen to Local Officials

Learn about the emergency plans that have been established in your area by your state and local government. In any emergency, always listen to the instructions given by local emergency management officials. For further information on how to plan and prepare for winter storms as well as what to do during and after a winter storm, visit: Federal Emergency Management Agency, NOAA Watch, or American Red Cross.

http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/winter.html

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From the Department of Justice

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Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Press Conference on Organized Crime Arrests

Good morning, and thank you all for being here.

Today I'm joined by several key leaders, and partners, in our work to combat organized crime – Janice Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's New York Division; Daniel Petrole, Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor; Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division; Loretta Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Paul Fishman, United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey; Peter F. Neronha, United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island; and Ray Kelly, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department.

We are pleased to announce an important step forward in our nation's ongoing fight against the organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra – the mafia.

Today, more than 800 federal, state and local law enforcement officials have arrested over 110 individuals, including dozens of La Cosa Nostra members and associates. In total, 127 people have been charged in 16 indictments unsealed today in four districts in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

This is one of the largest single-day operations against the mafia in the FBI's history, both in terms of the number of defendants arrested and charged, and the scope of the criminal activity alleged. Defendants from numerous La Cosa Nostra families have been charged, including defendants from all five New York-based families: the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese families.

We have charged mob associates and mob bosses alike, including the former boss of La Cosa Nostra operations in New England; the Street Boss, Acting Underboss, and Consigliere of the Colombo family; and the Gambino family Consigliere and a member of that family's ruling panel.

Their alleged crimes include numerous violent and illegal acts – from murder and narcotics trafficking to extortion, illegal gambling, arson, loan sharking, and labor racketeering.

Some allegations involve classic mob hits to eliminate perceived rivals. Others involve senseless murders. In one instance, a victim allegedly was shot and killed during a botched robbery attempt. And two other murder victims allegedly were shot dead in a public bar, because of a dispute over a spilled drink.

Other charged criminal activity reflects the mafia's continued influence in various economic sectors, and its alleged schemes to steal money by preying on vulnerable Americans. One fraud scheme carried out by the Colombo crime family allegedly defrauded consumers with poor credit histories out of one-time payments that the consumers believed they were making to secure loans. Other charges allege that the crime families' extorted money from various labor union members, including some belonging to the International Longshoremen's Association, and a concrete union in New York.

Today's arrests mark an important, and encouraging, step forward in disrupting La Cosa Nostra's operations. But our battle against organized crime enterprises is far from over. This is an ongoing effort and it must, and will, remain a top priority. Members and associates of La Cosa Nostra are among the most dangerous criminals in our country. The very oath of allegiance sworn by these mafia members during their initiation ceremony binds them to a life of crime.

As we've seen for decades, criminal mafia operations can negatively impact our economy – not only through a wide array of fraud schemes but also through the illegal imposition of mob “taxes” at our ports, in our construction industries, and on our small businesses. In some cases, La Cosa Nostra members and associates allegedly seek to corrupt legitimate businesses and those who have sworn to uphold the public trust. And many of them are lethal. Time and again, they have shown a willingness to kill – to make money, to eliminate rivals, and to silence witnesses.

Today's successful arrests – across multiple cities and involving multiple mafia families – send a clear message that, in our fight against organized crime, the Justice Department is targeting federal resources and working with our state and local law enforcement partners like never before. We are committed – and determined – to eradicate these criminal enterprises once and for all and to bring their members to justice.

As part of our commitment to battling organized crime, the Justice Department's Criminal Division has announced that it is working to merge its historic Organized Crime and Racketeering Section with its Gang Unit – a move that will bring together an elite group of prosecutors with extensive knowledge and experience in combating criminal enterprises.

In addition, due to the continued threat that these criminal organizations pose, in September of last year I issued an order directing the Department's Criminal Division, our U.S. Attorneys' Offices, and the FBI to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to effectively combat these domestic organized crime groups, as well as international criminal organizations that threaten our nation's security. I want to thank my colleagues in the Criminal Division, in our U.S. Attorneys' Offices, and in the FBI for their outstanding efforts – and their commitment to collaboration.

Today's actions are a reflection – and a direct result – of that renewed commitment. I am grateful to, and proud of, all of the investigators, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and agency partners involved in today's take-down. This investigation and prosecution reflects unprecedented collaboration among four U.S. Attorneys' Offices, the Department's Criminal Division, and the FBI. Thank you all, and congratulations on a job well done.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2011/ag-speech-110120.html

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From the FBI

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Mafia Takedown

Largest Coordinated Arrest in FBI History

01/20/11

Early this morning FBI agents and partner law enforcement officers began arresting nearly 130 members of the Mafia in New York C ity and other East Coast cities charged in the largest nationally coordinated organized crime takedown in the Bureau's history.

Members of New York's infamous Five Families—the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Luchese crime organizations—were rounded up along with members of the New Jersery-based DeCavalcante family and New England Mafia to face charges including murder, drug trafficking, arson, loan sharking, illegal gambling, witness tampering, labor racketeering, and extortion. In one case involving the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) at the Ports of New York and New Jersey, the alleged extortion has been going on for years.

More than 30 of the subjects indicted were “made” members of the Mafia (see graphic), including several high-ranking family members. The arrests, predominantly in New York, are expected to seriously disrupt some of the crime families' operations.

"The notion that today's mob families are more genteel and less violent than in the past is put to lie by the charges contained in the indictments unsealed today,” said Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of our New York Field Office. “Even more of a myth is the notion that the mob is a thing of the past; that La Cosa Nostra is a shadow of its former self.”

The Mafia—also known as La Cosa Nostra (LCN)—may have taken on a diminished criminal role in some areas of the country, but in New York, the Five Families are still “extremely strong and viable,” said Dave Shafer, an assistant special agent in charge who supervises FBI organized crime investigations in New York.

Today's operation began before dawn. Some 500 FBI personnel—along with about 200 local, state, and other federal law enforcement officers—took part, including key agencies such as the New York Police Department and the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. By 11 a.m., more than 110 of the 127 subjects charged had been taken into custody.

The idea for a nationally coordinated LCN takedown originated at the Department of Justice last summer, said Shafer, a veteran organized crime investigator. “We have done big LCN takedowns before, but never one this big.”

Among those charged:

• Luigi Manocchio, 83, the former boss of the New England LCN;
• Andrew Russo, 76, street boss of the Colombo family;
• Benjamin Castellazzo, 73, acting underboss of the Colombo family;
• Richard Fusco, 74, consigliere of the Colombo family;
• Joseph Corozzo, 69, consigliere of the Gambino family; and
• Bartolomeo Vernace, 61, a member of the Gambino family administration.

The LCN operates in many U.S. cities and routinely engages in threats and violence to extort victims, eliminate rivals, and obstruct justice. In the union case involving the ILA, court documents allege that the Genovese family has engaged in a multi-decade conspiracy to influence and control the unions and businesses on the New York-area piers.

“If there's money to be made,” said Diego Rodriguez, special agent in charge of the FBI's New York criminal division, “LCN will do it.” He noted that today's Mafia has adapted to the times. “They are still involved in gambling and loan sharking, for example, but in the old days the local shoemaker took the betting slips. Now it's offshore online gambling and money laundering. If you investigate LCN in New York,” Rodriguez added, “it's a target-rich environment.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/january/mafia_012011/mafia_012011

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