Absorbing story of how the FBI developed a new mode of attack on the New Jersey crime family--and then failed to make its case in court. Rudolph covers organized crime for Newark's Star-Ledger. Once the FBI had admitted, during the mid-70's, that there was such a thing as the mafia, it began insinuating undercover agents into crime families, especially--in the mid-80's--into the Lucchese family, which had a lock on New Jersey rackets such as loan- sharking, gambling, fraud, extortion, and drug-dealing.
Masterminded by FBI agent Dennis Marchalonis, the government operation was carried on with such enormous secrecy--it had been decided to make a case against an entire crime family and wipe it out all at once, a historic decision--that FBI agents might find themselves under surveillance by two or three other legal agencies.
Absorbing story of how the FBI developed a new mode of attack on the New Jersey crime family--and then failed to make its case in court. Rudolph covers organized crime for Newark's Star-Ledger. Once the FBI had admitted, during the mid-70's, that there was such a thing as the mafia, it began insinuating undercover agents into crime families, especially--in the mid-80's--into the Lucchese family, which had a lock on New Jersey rackets such as loan- sharking, gambling, fraud, extortion, and drug-dealing.