By Joe Valiquette
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — An extortion scheme involving debris removal from the World Trade Center construction site is among charges contained in an eight count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday against members and associates of the Colombo organized crime family.
FBI agents arrested Theodore Persico Jr., 46, whose father once served as the acting boss of the family and Thomas Petrizzo, 76, a soldier in the family, and six other defendants early Tuesday, Brooklyn US Attorney Benton Campbell said.
All Around Trucking, alleged to be a Colombo controlled company, obtained debris removal subcontracts at the WTC construction site and the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant on the Brooklyn/Queens border from Testa Corporation, a demolition contractor headquartered in Massachusetts, prosecutors said.
Persico and others agreed that in exchange for obtaining debris removal subcontracts at those sites, All Around Trucking would kickback some of its profits as a bribe to a Testa foreman. Court papers say the foreman was paid $25 for every truckload of debris removed by All Around Trucking.
The indictment also charges that when Testa Corporation fell behind in its payments to All Around Trucking, Colombo family associates threatened Testa employees, prosecutors said.
James Bombinio, a Colombo family associate, was heard on government tapes telling another defendant that the Testa employees were "shakin' in their boots over us," prosecutors said.
Among other crimes charged in the indictment is the embezzlement from the welfare and pension plans of Local 282 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
"The mob's aim is to make money, and the means is almost always violence or the threat of violence," FBI Assistant Director Joseph Demarest said, "Our goal continues to be the elimination of the 'mob tax.'"
All but one of the defendants face 20 years in jail if convicted, US Attorney Campbell said.
