"Thirty-nine of the defendants charged were taken into custody today. During the arrests, law enforcement officers recovered, among other items, three handguns, a shotgun, gambling paraphernalia, and more than $30,000 in cash."

There are some who'll dismiss what I'm about to post as being a fanboy but these indictments scream of personal vendetta by the Feds.
I'd LOVE to see the dollars and resources spent on this 'widespread racketeering'.

Let's look at the quote above from the federal press release.
46 people arrested and a TOTAL of THREE handguns and ONE shotgun 'recovered'.
Ask yourselves what that number would've been if it was a raid on the bloods, crisp, Latin Kings, 'insert name here' Mexican/columbiam drug cartel?
Personally I'd think it'd be at least 5.

$30,0000. Cash. Wow. Seems like a lot huh? FORTY SIX ARRESTED and a GRAND TOTAL of $30k is seized. What a conspiracy.
Agian. Imagine the dollars recovered against a drug cartel.
Do we think it'd be more or less, than fucking 30k...

Gambling paraphernalia? Really? That's worth noting? What, deck of cards? Sports sheet? What a joke.

I'm not saying crimes weren't commited.
But God knows how many years and GOD KNOWS how many millions were spent because Patsy Parillo told some guys to give a kicking to a guy who was hassling female patrons outside his restaurant. Or to give a guy a scare because they gambled, lost and owed them serious coin.
And because a guys name is Joey Merlino and he's a trophy.
But hey, they got 4 guns off the street.

What a joke.

Compare what would've been resulted if this was a two year multimillion dollar investigation against a drug cartel, or the crops, or the bloods, Latin Kings, hells angels, pagens etc etc.

A fucking damn site more than four guns, a betting sheet and an assault against a drunken abusive hobo.

And that's not fanboy shit. It's simply obviously ridiculous allocation of policing resources. When compared with obvious alternatives.

The Mafia gets headlines. That's ALL this achieved.