Lucchese family hit with sweeping indictments 34 arrested

Authorities in New Jersey have hit the Lucchese crime family with sweeping indictments. Thirty Four reputed members and associates of the Lucchese family have been charged with racketeering and multiple other crimes as part of an ongoing operation they called “Operation Heat”. The operation stretches all the way back to 2007 mainly targeting a 2.2 billion dollar illegal gambling operation run by the Lucchese family.
Named in the indictments are the former and current leaders of the Lucchese crime family operations in New Jersey Ralph Perna and Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. Two of the Lucchese family leaders from New York were also indicted Joseph DiNapoli and Matthew Madonna. The Scarfo name is recognized by many as Nick Jr is the son of Nicodemo Scarfo who at one time was the boss of the Philadelphia mafia and is now serving a life sentence for racketeering.
Along with targeting the illegal gambling operation the investigation also turned up a link between the Lucchese family and the “Nine Trey Gangsters Set” of the Bloods street gang. The Bloods worked with the members of the Lucchese family and a crooked corrections officer to smuggle drugs and cell phones into the East Jersey State Prison. A high ranking member of the Bloods gang Edwin B. Spears formed an alliance with Michael Cetta and Joseph Perna high ranking Luchhese family members.
The illegal gambling indictments reached back to 2007 when operation heat was first launched and some Luccchese members were indicted then however the investigation continued and yielded more indictments . Scarfo was indicted with two other Lucchese family members Frank Cetta and Gary Medure. The indictments claim that DiNapoli and Madonna ran the Lucchese family gambling operations and more from New York and both Perna and Scarfo would oversee the Lucchese gambling operations and other criminal activities in New Jersey. Michael A. Cetta and Martin Tacetta were also indicted for their parts in the illegal gambling operations being run out of New Jersey , Tacetta at one time served as underboss for the Lucchese family in New Jersey and he is already serving a life sentence.