Gambling Sting Nabs NJ Councilman and Lucchese Crime Family Ties
A New Jersey councilman and 39 others were charged with various gambling and money laundering crimes related to the Lucchese crime family.
Key Facts:
- Prospect Park New Jersey Councilman Arnand Shah was charged with various gambling-related offenses
- He was named as a central figure in the organized crime investigation
- The three-term councilman is up for reelection but faces 20 years in prison if convicted
- More than three dozen others were also arrested in the sprawling gambling-related conspiracy
This week, a long-running poker and sports betting racket was broken up in Prospect Park, New Jersey. A more than two-year investigation led to 39 arrests, including one of the local town council members.
The group was accused of bringing in more than three million dollars, some of which was kicked up to mafia bosses as both tribute and protection money.
Anand Shah, a three-term council member in the bucolic little town, was named as one of the co-conspirators and accused of running and managing much of the illegal bookmaking and poker operations.
A dozen search warrants were executed, including four at underground poker clubs in Totowa, Woodland Park, Hanover, and Garfield.
Two of these were operating behind open and functioning restaurants in smaller towns, and several other businesses had illegal gambling machines.
These same businesses were then charged with laundering money and concealing the true origins of the proceeds from the illicit poker, slot machine games, and a primarily online but still illegal bookmaking operation.
Mr. Shah was also charged with other crimes, including racketeering and loan sharking, as well as money laundering and tax charges as well as maintaining a gambling establishment, and wrongful credit practices, for allegedly charging 50% interest on loans made to gamblers.
Municipal leaders, including Mayor Mohamed Khairullah and even New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, have been adamant in calling for the Borough Council president to resign. The embattled politician has not yet made a public statement.
Lucchese Family Also Added in the Mix
While the charges would have been bad enough on their own, the case has drawn national attention due to the arrest of George Zappola, aka Georgie Neck, a reputed senior member of the Lucchese crime family and a member of its ruling panel.
Romanticized versions of organized crime have been the subject of countless movies and television shows, often set right here in the Garden State, but the reality isn’t romantic or cinematic.– Matthew Platkin/New Jersey, Attorney General, New Jersey Attorney General’s Office Press Release
Mr Zappola was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 1996 for seven murders he committed while acting captain of a Brooklyn offshoot of the Lucchese family but was released in 2014.
He has maintained a mostly low profile, though the FBI knew he had been in contact with Lucchese’s acting boss, Mike Desantis, and other high-ranking family members.
This new indictment charges that he, along with a Lucchese captain, Joseph “Big Joe” Perna, and two soldiers, John Perna and Wayne Cross, oversaw the gambling operation, settled disputes and helped collect gambling debts.
The confluence of a well-known local politician being arrested as part of the same indictment as one of the most famous members of one of New York’s original five families caused a media firestorm.
Not just in Northern New Jersey or even New York, where Frank Zappola was almost a household name throughout the late eighties and early nineties, but across the globe.
While all of these codefendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, we feel that this case is just getting started. As plea deals are hammered out, more serious accusations may start to fly.
