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Chicago mafia `broken' in sting

In one of the biggest mob crackdowns in Chicago history, 14 alleged members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted on a slew of charges Monday that include 18 mob hits dating back to 1969.

The 41-page indictment details decades of extortion, illegal gambling, threats, violence, bribery, intimidation, controlling unions and murder. It promises to reveal the secrets of an organized crime ring that was first made famous by Al Capone in the 1920s.

Investigators discussed few details of the 18 previously unsolved murders, but did say that filmmaker Martin Scorsese got one detail wrong in his movie Casino.

According to the indictment, Anthony "the Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael were killed in a suburb of Chicago before they were buried in a cornfield in nearby Indiana in 1986. Scorsese's film showed the mob enforcers being buried alive after they disappeared from Las Vegas.

Among those indicted were two former police officers, one of whom arrived in court in a wheelchair. One man named in the indictment was found dead -- apparently of natural causes -- during the early morning sweep. Police found US$100,000 in cash and checks tucked away in his hotel room.

The arrests have made a "significant" impact on organized crime in the region, said Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office.

Referring to the mob as "LCN," for La Costa Nostra, Grant said, "This is the first indictment that I can recall that involved so many murders, which really gets at the heart of what LCN is, which is a bunch of murderous thugs."

Grant said this is the first time the heads of multiple crews were indicted in the same case.

James Marcello and Frank Calabrese, who are both reported to have continued to run their crews while they were in jail, were named in the indictment, as was Joseph "the Clown" Lombardo, who had not been located by law enforcement officers and was considered a fugitive.
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