‘Nicky the Wig,’ ‘Tony the Cripple’ and dozens more suspected mobsters arrested

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Ralph A. Santaniello is led to a cruiser on Thursday. Five alleged associates of the New York-based Genovese crime family have been arrested on extortion-related charges in Mass.

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Federal authorities announced Thursday that they have charged 46 reputed members of east coast mafia families of La Cosa Nostra in a sweeping racketeering indictment with details seemingly lifted straight out of an old mafia movie. The arrests include senior members of the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese, Bonanno and other organized crime families — an illegal enterprise that stretched from Springfield, Mass. to southern Florida, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. If convicted, some of the suspected mobsters could spend 20 years in prison.

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The alleged mobsters are accused of using violence, threats and arson to protect and expand a vast array of illegal business dealings — trafficking guns, illegal gambling, heath care and credit card fraud, selling untaxed cigarettes and old-fashioned extortion. To hide from the authorities they used code phrases and held secret meetings at highway rest stops and in restaurants, although the release from the U.S. Attorney’s office indicates several incriminating conversations were caught on wiretaps

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