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They include Martin Taccetta, 64, the former head of the “Jersey Crew” (above, right) who already is serving a state prison sentence of life plus 10- years for racketeering and extortion. Taccetta, who years ago was cleared of charges in connection with a 1984 golf-club beating death of a Mafia-connected contractor, pleaded guilty to first-degree racketeering yesterday.
Others pleading guilty in Morristown yesterday include Joseph M. Perna, 45, of Wyckoff, who also pleaded guilty to racketeering along with his father, 69-year-old Ralph V. Perna — the top capo of the New Jersey faction of the Lucchese family — and brother, John, 38, both of Essex County.
Charges were pending against a third son, Ralph M. Perna, 43 (above, left), also of Essex County.
“The sons, led by Joseph, managed day-to-day gambling operations for the criminal enterprise, under their father’s oversight,” acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman said.
Then there’s Matthew Madonna, 80, of Seldon, NY, and 72-year-old Clifton resident John Mangrella.
Charges are also pending against a second ruling member, Joseph DiNapoli, 79, of Scarsdale, who Hoffman said “controlled the family’s gambling operations and other criminal activities from New York” along with Madonna.
“Operation Heat” uncovered “an international criminal gambling enterprise that transacted billions of dollars in wagers, primarily on sporting events, and relied on extortion and violence to collect debts,” the attorney general said.
“The investigation also uncovered a scheme in which a former New Jersey corrections officer and a high-ranking member of the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the Bloods street gang entered into an alliance with the Lucchese crime family to smuggle drugs and pre-paid cell phones into East Jersey State Prison,” he said.
“[T]raditional organized crime remains a corrosive presence in the U.S. and continues to reap huge profits through criminal enterprises such as the international gambling operation we uncovered, which handled $2.2 billion in sports wagers in just 15 months,” Hoffman said.
“These mob bosses bet that they could get away with their old tricks in New Jersey, and I’m pleased to say that they lost their bets,” he added.
Assistant Attorney General Christopher Romanyshyn, deputy director of the state Division of Criminal Justice, took the guilty pleas for the Division’s Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.
The gambling operation received and processed the wagers using password-protected websites and a Costa Rican “wire room” where bets were recorded and results tallied.
It employed agents or “package holders,” each of whom brought in bets from a group of gamblers.
Of hundreds — or even thousands — of gamblers, one high roller wagered more than $2 million in a two-month period.
“The illicit proceeds were divided by the package holders and the members they worked under, such as the Pernas and Tacetta, who in turn made ‘tribute’ payments to the New York bosses, including Madonna and DiNapoli,” Hoffman said. “Collection operations at times took the form of threats or acts of violence.”
The prison smuggling scheme allegedly involved East Jersey State Prison inmate Edwin B. Spears and a former corrections officer there, Michael T. Bruinton.
Spears, an admitted “five-star general” in the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the Bloods, “formed an alliance with Joseph Perna and another defendant from the Lucchese crime family, now deceased, to smuggle drugs and cell phones into East Jersey State Prison through Bruinton,” Hoffman said.
Joseph Perna also “sought assistance from Spears to stop an individual associated with the Bloods from extorting money from a man with ties to the Lucchese family,” he said. “The charges are pending against Spears and Bruinton.”
According to Hoffman:
Assistant Attorney General Romanyshyn and former Assistant Attorney General Mark Eliades presented the case to the state grand jury.
Deputy Chief of Detectives Christopher Donohue and Detective Patrick Sole of the Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau were lead detectives, under the supervision of Chief of Detectives Paul Morris.
Sgt. Noelle Holl was the principal detective for the financial portion of the case.
Hoffman also credited former Acting Supervising State Investigator James Sweeney and tDetectives Sgt. Audrey Young, Ho Chul Shin, Lt. Brian Bruton, Mario Estrada, Richard DaSilva, and John Delesio, as well as the New Jersey State Police Intelligence Section for their assistance.
He also thanked Auditor Thaedra Chebra of the Division of Taxation’s Office of Criminal Investigation, NYPD Detective Andrew Varga and members of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who provided assistance.
PHOTO: Courtesy philly.com
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