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Mob Reaches 'New Low' With Charges of Peddling Underage Hookers

By Eric Lipman

Yesterday, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced (with the aid of a user-friendly chart) that 14 members of the once mighty Gambino crime family had been charged with some crimes not traditionally in the mafia bailiwick. Specifically, recruiting prostitutes, some of whom were as young as 15, at strip clubs and delivering them to customers. The rest of the litany of bad acts recited in the indictment are standard cosa nostra fare, according to CNN, ranging from "murder to OxyContin trafficking to defrauding high-end restaurants with inflated invoices for meat orders." No big whoop. But the indictment was also notable for another reason. One of the defendants charged is a woman, Suzanne Porcelli, who was charged with four counts related to the sex trafficking operation. Ladies being deeply involved in mob business is unusual, according to Joe Coffey, formerly of the NYPD's organized crime unit: "The mob as we know it historically holds very few things sacred, but they do hold women and children sacred," said Coffey. "Women have been girlfriends and wives and mothers but never has there been any case where a female becomes an influential person in mob operations, because...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on April 21, 2010 (boomark / email).