DA nears sting of gambling ring run by Gambino mobsters in Brooklyn, Staten Island
The two-year investigation is focusing on a high-tech operation that used text-messaging, BlackBerrys and other sophisticated devices, and stretched from New York to Aruba to Costa Rica.
Prosecutors used extensive wiretaps and surveillance and issued dozens of search warrants in the last month alone, sources said.
Among the high-ranking Gambino mobsters named are Pietro Inzerillo and Joseph Lanni, who operate the Web site www.touchdownbets.com, law enforcement sources and documents in Brooklyn Supreme Court show.
"These are made guys, major [players] in the Gambino family," a law enforcement source said. Investigators are also looking at www.nysportswager.com and www.bet1010.com.
Prosecutors are seeking nearly $20 million in assets from the reputed mobsters affiliated with all three.
Alfredo (Dark Al) Correa and Gerard Bruzzese control nysportswager.com, the largest of the three sites, the documents show.
Correa's lawyer denied the charges.
"I don't think he's connected to the mob and he denies the allegations," lawyer Joseph Mure said.
The documents are filled with phone recordings and taped conversations of mobsters at coffee shops and restaurants in Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge and Staten Island using betting codes and tough mob-talk.
"I told him make me an offer," Anthony Falco, who operated www.bet1010.com, said to his father, Lewis Falco, about a gambler who apparently owed money.
"Yeah, he wants the big bucks, tell him to go f--- himself," the elder Falco responded.
A shocked Anthony Falco last night denied the accusations.
Bruzzese, on one of the tapes, was caught schooling a young bookmaker on collecting a payment.
"The first rule I got to teach you is that when somebody has money for you, go get it....You're all excited, but that's how they're supposed to pay. I got guys who lose $15,000 and they pay me in full no problem."
The investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office and the NYPD's Organized Crime Investigative Division began in early 2008, court papers show.
No charges have been filed but sources say arrests could come anytime in the next few weeks, apparently timed around the Super Bowl.
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