Anybody know if Crea is still active? You never seem to hear about him. Is it just that he is low key but still running the day to operations?

Course he is you kiddin me? He's the boss of course he is. He's just very low key, not the type that makes headlines or looks for them

Interesting to know. Hes a compelling figure to me given the fact he is in his 60's and only did a six year bid. Guys like him and Leo who are heavyweights but have only done minimal time must be smart. Like Tony said "give the feds a reason ill do a dime for j walking".

He's one of the lucky ones. Crea's a smart guy, definitely more about the dollar than cracking heads. Because of that he's stabalized the Lucchese's when they were once ready to fall apart in the nineties. But not even he can escape the Feds. I'll give him a few more years until he gets pinched for something

Which is a joke. The rico law is a joke. How is that constitutional? The feds should be required to show more than just rats and pictures as evidence. FBI (forever bothering italians) are at it again with this Ligambi thing. The guy beats the case (mistrial same thing) and they wont let the poor guy go home and be with his family?

Not the way it works Vinnie. It's easy to hate the Feds and worship these guys but let's remember they rob, cheat, and steal for a living. Is there more gray area? Of course there is, but we can't deny what they are: criminals. I personally think the FBI have gotten sleazy in their tactics, which is why they've lost a few recent cases with low lifes trying to save their own skins. But once they target somebody these days, they'll very nearly always get them. Crea is probably one of them.

Worship got nothing to do with it. Tbey pinched him for running a betting machine operation and sports book. No violence; no extortion, no assault, no murder. They didnt get the conviction, so, if they are going to retry him, they should let him at least go home. They let alot worse people who get mistrials go home before retrial, and most of the time, they dont even retry the person due to the lack of resources.

[b][/b]

Is that a quote from the book about Pleasant Ave. ?

No I just said it myself. Good book?

Frankly, if RICO did not exist, there would be a lot more crime, many more murders and a lot of innocent people would be taken advantage of. It was a brilliantly devised piece of legislation and if you have any questions about the mechanics of it, feel free to PM me.

I do, however, agree with you on the issue of the feds using questionable evidence and testimony to obtain RICO convictions. It is a shame in many cases.

I believe the first time the RICO Act was successfully applied in court was in conjunction with the Watergate Hearings.

I personally think the Ligambi trial in Philly is mostly a joke. I dont doubt for a second that Ligambi and the rest of the philly guys have commited the crimes they were charged with plenty of times. BUT they dont have enough good evidence to get the jury to convict them or they would of all been found guilty. I was really surprised Ligambi lasted that long as boss and they were watching him for over a decade and they couldnt get anything else on him.