American Notes CRIME

After winning more than 30 convictions of top mobsters in the past year, federal prosecutors unveiled a new tactic last week: suing the Mafia for damages. In a unique use of federal racketeering laws, U.S. Attorney Andrew J. Maloney asked a federal judge to seize Mob-tied businesses in an attempt to break up the Bonanno crime organization, one of New York's five Mafia families. Among the alleged fronts: three hotels and a taxi company, which officials say were bought with money from the family's gambling, loan-sharking and drug networks. It was the first time a Mafia family has been treated as a legal entity.

The lawsuit requests that the Bonanno organization be barred from recruiting new "soldiers" and that the 90 current members be forbidden to associate with one another. If the court action succeeds, Maloney predicts it will "deprive the Bonanno family of the very means and ends of its operation: money."