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Major Manhattan Newspapers Raided by NYPD in Union Probe

By Michael P. Ventura | November 17, 2009 2:55pm | Updated on November 17, 2009 4:11pm
The offices of the New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News and El Diario (not pictured) were raided by police on Tuesday.
The offices of the New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News and El Diario (not pictured) were raided by police on Tuesday.
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Jim Scott/DNAinfo

MANHATTAN — The NYPD raided the offices of the New York Times, the Daily News, the New York Post and El Diario on Tuesday as part of an investigation into corruption at the union that delivers newspapers across Manhattan and the tri-state area.

The Manhattan district attorney's office was searching for documents related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, the Times reported. Officers served a warrant at the papers printing plant in College Point, Queens, according to the paper.

Officials also searched the offices of the News on W. 33rd Street, the Post on Avenue of the Americas and of El Diario in Downtown Brooklyn, the Times said.

No one was arrested. The searches were just to acquire union documents, sources told the Times.

Calls to the newspapers' offices and to the union by the Associated Press were not returned.

“The search warrants were executed today as part of an ongoing investigation,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, according to the Times.

The probe involves whether union bosses made promotions based on favoritism rather than on seniority rules.

The 1,600-member union wields considerable power over news companies that rely on their drivers to deliver hundreds of thousands of papers each day, and allegations of connections to organized crime are not new, according to the AP.

More than a decade ago, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau charged that the union was under mob control.