Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

It was called "Operation Rotten Apple," and New York City police and prosecutors said today that there was indeed something rotten - in the form of a mob-run sports betting operation - in the Big Apple's wholesale produce market at Hunts Point in the Bronx. The operation uncovered a relatively modest gambling ring generating about $200,000 a year in profits, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said today at a news conference to announce the arrests of 11 members of the ring. But, Mr. Kelly said, the second in command of the betting ring was John Caggiano, an associate of the Genovese organized-crime family, who also owns and operates C&S Wholesale Produce Inc., one of the market's biggest produce wholesalers. Although the city requires wholesalers at the market to show "good character, honesty and integrity," Thomas McCormack, chairman of the city's Business Integrity Commission, said at the news conference, Mr. Caggiano's company continues to operate out of the market, despite his arrest. "They are entitled to due process," said Dan Castleman, the chief of investigations for the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau. Mr. Caggiano, who lives on Country Club Road in the Bronx, is the son-in-law of Dominick Cirillo, the former acting boss of the Genovese family, prosecutors said today. His boss in the gambling ring, prosecutors said, was Ralph Balsamo of Pelham Manor, a solider in the Genovese family who is incarcerated on unrelated federal racketeering charges. "The size of this operation is not particularly significant," Mr. Kelly said. "What concerned us was organized crime trying to get a foothold into the Hunts Point market."

Mr. Balsamo, Mr. Caggiano and six others have been indicted for enterprise corruption, a felony that can be punished by 25 years in prison. Another member of the ring, Salvatore DiPietro, has been indicted for criminal usury, and two others, Michael DiStasio and Ronald Seebeck, have been charged with promoting gambling.

The gambling ring was open to employees, customers and anyone who stopped by the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and the New York City Terminal Produce Cooperative Market in the Bronx, officials said. The two markets are distribution points for fruit and vegetables, as well as meat products, brought from all over the country and distributed throughout the city.