Behind the Massive Mobster Roundup

The final tally for Thursday’s mob bust: 127 people charged, 119 arrested, five already in prison, 3 on the lam. The early-morning arrests were the result of 16 separate indictments, which list such names as Meatball, Baby Shanks, Tony Bagels, and Jack the Whack, and detail internal power struggles, revenge killings, and control of a concrete and cement worker’s union, among other things. Most of the charges, however, are over various scams, like a Colombo member’s under-reporting income from an Italian festival in New York. Jeffrey Lichtman, an attorney who defended John Gotti Jr., said the simultaneous indictments were a “pretty package” with a lot of old charges. Though the mob’s power is generally considered to be waning, Attorney General Eric Holder said it was still a “menace to our nation” and “a major threat to the economic well-being of the country.”