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New York Mafia boss arrested
31/05/2007 08:08 - (SA)
New York - The reputed head of the Genovese crime family has been charged with extortion and loan sharking, as the federal government began a fresh crackdown on what it describes as the most dangerous of the city's five organised crime families.
Danny Leo, alias "The Lion", was held without bail after he was arrested on Wednesday on charges of conspiring with others to extort the owner of a livery car business and an illegal gambling business from 2002 until last November.
The government can prove at trial that Leo is "the current boss of the Genovese crime family, perhaps the largest and most violent crime family that exists", Assistant US Attorney Eric Snyder said. As the family's boss, Leo commanded more than 200 members, prosecutors say.
Snyder said the government expected to rewrite the four-page indictment to charge Leo, 65, with racketeering. He said the evidence included proof gathered by a co-operating witness and by a victim who agreed to wear a microphone to record conversations.
The charges are unsubstantiated, said Leo's lawyer, Peter Tsapatsaris. He argued that his client should be freed on bail or limited to home detention because he had only one arrest in his background - in 1980.
However, US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan ordered Leo held without bail after concluding that he was a danger to the community and a threat to engage in or to direct violence.
The indictment accused Leo of threatening the livery car business owner with physical harm if he did not promptly repay loans. It also accused him of threatening to harm two brothers who owned an illegal gambling business in East Harlem if they did not repay loans.
Leo could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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