Mob Tied to Big NYC Construction Jobs

The AP reports:

The trucks that rolled into Staten Island left more than dirt at the site of a new NASCAR racetrack. They also brought cash for the Gambino crime family, prosecutors say.

It was all part of the cost of doing business at construction sites around the area that prosecutors say were rampant with mob corruption.

The shakedowns were outlined in a sweeping indictment this week that led to the arrests of dozens of mobsters on charges including murder, gambling, drug dealing and credit-card fraud. It was one of the largest mob crackdowns in recent memory.

The extortion in the construction industry - described mostly in the indictment by an informant who paid off the mob on jobs for his trucking, cement and excavation businesses - prove that organized crime's ties to construction are as strong as ever, observers say.

"It's still a major problem in the construction industry," said Randy Mastro, a former federal prosecutor who also targeted mob ties to construction as a deputy mayor with Rudy Giuliani. "It's like rat infestation in the city. ... Somehow they reproduce and come back."

The indictment also raises questions about the integrity of several high-profile projects in the city, in the middle of one of its busiest building booms in decades.

One of six major construction officials indicted Thursday was Anthony Delvescovo, director of tunnel operations for Schiavone Construction Co. of Secaucus, N.J. The company has dozens of government contracts worth billions, including the extension of a subway line and a new city water tunnel. A woman who answered the phone at Schiavone said the company had no comment.

Delvescovo, reputed mob associate Nicholas Calvo and union official Michael King allegedly shook down a subcontractor identified in the indictment only as "John Doe No. 4." The informant is Joseph Vollaro, the owner of Andrews Trucking and other companies, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the individual was not named in the documents.

The official said Vollaro was the key to most of the construction charges in the indictment, delivering hundreds of hours of tape-recorded conversations with many of the defendants. Delvescovo, Calvo and King extorted payments for three years from Vollaro relating to his work for Schiavone, the indictment said.

"This investigation exposed the alleged grip that the Gambino organized crime family has had over one of the largest construction markets in the United States, from small private projects to large scale public works contracts," U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General Gordon Heddell said at a news conference announcing the indictment. "This involved the trucks that move construction material and debris throughout the entire New York City region."

Schiavone has three open contracts with the city worth more than $1 billion relating to construction of water tunnels, and recently completed work on a Bronx water treatment facility.

A city agency that investigates construction fraud, the Department of Investigation, "has advised that there is no reason to terminate the contracts as things stand now," said Michael Saucier, spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Protection.

Schiavone has several contracts with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including work on the planned extension of the 7 subway line and the South Ferry station. The MTA didn't say Friday if the contracts would be reviewed.

Calvo worked for Nacirema Industries, which carted debris from ground zero in the first year after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The city's Business Integrity Commission on Thursday banned five carting companies named in the indictment from working in New York City, and said Nacirema Industries may no longer hire Calvo. The commission refused to disclose the city contracts of the businesses - including Night Hawk Enterprises, Fire Hawk Enterprises, SRD Contracting Corp., Jo-Tap Equipment Leasing and Dump Masters Inc.

The city Comptroller's office did find a $7,000 contract in 2003 for snow removal for Dump Masters.

Mario Cassarino, who controlled Jo-Tap, was one of nine people who took payoffs from a Staten Island cement supply company since 2003, the indictment said.

He was one of several people who took payoffs for work at the NASCAR track, the indictment said. International Speedway Corp. spent $100 million to buy the land and spent an additional $150 million adding more than 200 acres of industrial parkland. The project was dropped in 2006 after residents complained that the raceway would bring in too much traffic.

What would the Mob be without unions? What would unions be without the Mob?