Racketeering Conviction In Hartford, CT

Racketeering Conviction In Hartford, CT

  March 02, 2010    Dapper_Don

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Family Patriarch Carlo Gambino via Wikipedia

Raul "Sonny" Suner has pleaded guilty in Hartford, CT to a racketeering conspiracy charge for his role in an illegal gambling operation as reported by The Associated Press:

Authorities say Suner repeatedly struck a bookmaker with a baseball bat when the man could not satisfy a debt. On another occasion, prosecutors said Suner threatened the same bookmaker with a knife and wiped blood on the man's jacket. Suner faces up to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced on May 21.

Last January Suner's co-defendant Phillip J. Bauco pleaded guilty.  The two men were indicted last June, and at that time Edmund H. Mahonet reported for the Hartford Courant:

Suner and Bauco claimed that they had Gambino family backing and that the New York gangsters had authorized Suner to run illegal sports betting operations in New Haven and Bridgeport, according to the indictment. The U.S. attorney's office said the two used "threats, violence and intimidation" to persuade bookmakers and gamblers to work and bet with them. When mobsters take over bookmaking operations, they customarily collect a percentage of the profits, ostensibly in return for providing protection and assistance with collecting debts from losing bettors.