From the NY Post:Manhattan prosecutors today announced a big blow against the Bonanno crime family: the indictment on enterprise corruption charges of seven crew members, including jailed Donnie Brasco-era gangster and alleged underboss Nicholas "Nicky" Santora.
Two leaders of Teamsters Local 917, which handles liquor store and parking lot employees, were additionally indicted for allegedly helping the Bonannos gain loansharking and book-making footholds among members.
They are the local's president, Nicholas Bernhard, and shop steward Scott O'Neill, of Howard Beach.
Investigators had pulled an illegal, loaded gun from under the pillow of Bernhard's Congers, NY, bed when search warrants were executed on the suspects in February, a source told The Post.
Additional illegal firearms had been seized at that time from Bernhard's home and from that of alleged soldier Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, including a Tech-9 pulled from a stash of guns in Santoro's Staten Island house.
"Many mistakenly believe that the mob has disappeared entirely except when you watch HBO," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., told reporters.
"Whatever name it's called, the Mafia, La Cosa Nostra, the Mob, this indictment demonstrates that organized crime is still operating in New York City and still has its hooks in the labor movement," Vance said in announcing the fruits of a two-year joint investigation by his office and the NYPD Organized Crime Control Bureau and Organized Crime Investigation Unit.
The top enterprise corruption charge against the nine men includes pattern acts involving the traditional mob mainstays: loansharking, offshore gambling, extortion, union corruption and weapons possession.
But in a nod to more modern tastes, the gangsters allegedly also dabbled in the distribution of Viagra, Cialis and the suburban party drug Oxycodone.
The Sunset Diner in Greenpoint and the Jackson Hole Diner in Queens were favorite meeting spots, a source said.
