MANHATTAN (CN) - Federal officials arrested five men Monday on gambling charges, including Anthony Croce, whom they describe as the "Acting Captain" or "Capo" of the Luchese crime family. The five others indicted with Croce are accused of "kicking up" profits from a sports gambling operation. One man remains at large.
Charged with Croce were Michael Prelli, Gary Medure, George Miller, Mario Santucci and Michael Barbieri. Miller remains at large.
In the recently unsealed complaint, an FBI agent says information on the alleged gambling ring was collected from wiretaps, including taps of cell phones, and from confidential informants. Many of the bets were on football games.
The 9-page complete is replete with transcriptions from the wiretaps. Medure is quoted as telling one confidential informant: "I gave them both 25 dime limits [$25,000] ... and the guy from Boston, he only gets $1,000 a game ... Know what I'm saying? Let him bet any way he wants, a thousand a game. This way he makes five bets on a game. He only got five thousand and we got five ways to beat him. I don't want him to get into us like last year."
Medure allegedly ended that conversation: "If he doesn't want to pay, God bless him. Merry Christmas."
The U.S. Attorney's Office also announced the arrests of three other men, on drug charges. Accused of conspiring to distribute at least half a kilo of cocaine are Joseph Prelli, Anthony Pena and James DePasquale. They were all arrested on Monday, prosecutors said.
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