NEW YORK -- The FBI Wednesday smashed a $1 million loansharking ring and disclosed a mob blood feud, arresting a reputed high-ranking Bonanno mobster, his brother and son and charging them with racketeering and murder conspiracy, officials said.
FBI agents and police also arrested six other reputed mobsters and associates, charging them with loansharking, racketeering and credit card fraud in a ring that sold counterfeit credit cards in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., officials said.
Authorities said they expect a 10th suspect to turn himself in Thursday.
The loansharking ring preyed primarily on Fulton Fish Market laborers in lower Manhattan, charging them exorbitant interest rates, said FBI Assistant Director James Fox.
'The violations included among other things, loaning varying sums of money, as little as $100 to as much as $30,000 at an interest rate as high as 150 percent a year,' he said, noting the ring had about $1 million in outstanding loans.
'If the borrowers ever were late or defaulted on the loans, they were threatened with physical beatings and occasionally with death,' Fox said. 'And the complaint alleges that the defendants had arrangements to hire contract hitmen for as little $2,000 a killing.'
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court detailed a blood feud between reputed Bonanno crew capo Joseph John 'Junior' Chilli, 56, his son and brother and two other men, described as associates of both the Bonanno and Genovese crime families.
The complaint charged 'Junior' Chilli, his brother, Gerald Francis Chilli, and son, Joseph John 'Little Joe' Chilli III, conspired to kill two men they believed murdered Gerald's son, Joseph Gerard Chilli, Fox said. Gerald Chilli, 55, and 'Little Joe' Chilli, 33, were both Bonanno family soldiers, he said.
'To avenge his murder, the defendants ordered the murder of Anthony O'Connor Jr. and Anthony 'The Elf' Bonaventura,' the complaint said.
O'Connor was shot five times on Jan. 23, 1984, at Dotties Bar on Manhattan's Upper East Side by an unidentified Bonanno associate but survived, the complaint said. Bonaventura disappeared and law enforcement officials have been unable to locate him.
'Little Joe' Chilli told a confidential FBI informant that 'The Chilli family intends to kill both Anthony O'Connor Jr. and his father, Anthony O'Connor Sr.,' the complaint said,
He also said his uncle Gerald Chilli 'wants to take off everybody' in his 'desire to execute the O'Connor and Bonaventura families,' the complaint said.
The uncle, who was arrested Wednesday in Hollywood, Fla., also wanted to murder two other associates of O'Connor and Bonaventura suspected of helping kill his son, the complaint said.
One of the loansharking defendants, reputed Bonanno soldier Joseph Salvatore 'The Kid' D'Amico, 34, told an FBI informant that before Joseph Gerard Chilli was killed, he was 'bangin' guys left and right' and 'whacking guys out for nothing,' using slang for killing, the complaint said.
The Chilli family was friendly with Constabile 'Gus Farace, the Bonanno associate suspected of killing an undercover federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent Feb. 28, Fox said.
But he said the arrests and preceding five-year investigation had nothing to do with the investigation into the killing of DEA Special Agent Everett Hatcher.
'There's really no connection between this complaint, these arrests, and the murder of Everett Hatcher,' he said, adding, 'Farace is considered an associate of the Bonanno family and specifically the Chilli crew.'
He declined to say whether anything about the Hatcher killing had been learned from the loansharking investigation.
Also arrested in the joint operation by the FBI, city police, secret service, and U.S. Attorney's office were reputed Bonanno associates James Joseph Munson, 58, of Manhattan; Joseph Macaluso, 39, of Middletown, N.J.; Joseph Giddio, 63, of Staten Island; Robert Gangi, 34, and Alan Taglianetti, 37, both of Brooklyn.
Reputed Bonanno assciate Sidney Lubin, 65, of Queens, was expected to turn himself in Thursday, Fox said.
