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'Organized Crime' Also Worried U.S. on Ports Deal NewsMax.com Wires NEW YORK -- Justice Department lawyers warned eight months ago that a nefarious element had infiltrated important East Coast ports, but they weren't talking about terrorists or Arab shipping companies. They were talking about the Mafia. In a civil suit filed in July, prosecutors in Brooklyn accused the International Longshoremen's Association, the 65,000-member union that supplies labor to ports from Florida to Maine, of being a "vehicle for organized crime" on the waterfront. Packed with tales of corruption, embezzling and extortion, the complaint accused union executives of being associates of the Genovese and Gambino crime families. The U.S. Attorney's office asked a judge to seize control of the union, remove its officers and "put an end to the conspiracy among union officials, organized crime figures and others that has plagued some of the nation's most important ports for decades." Story Continues Below
The charges, assailed by the union as unjust and untrue, are inching toward trial amid heightened concern over port security. Most of the furor has revolved around the purchase of several U.S. shipping terminal operations by a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Critics say Dubai Ports World's Middle East ownership makes it ripe for infiltration by terrorists. But some port security experts say America already has a fifth column, of sorts, at work on its docks: gangsters who have made the piers friendly territory for drug smugglers and cargo thieves. "Do we really think that terrorists aren't going to exploit this situation?" asked New York Sen. Michael Balboni, chairman of the state Senate's Homeland Security Committee. Even without the direct help of American mobsters, terrorists could still use gangland networks to their advantage, said Joseph King, a former special agent for the U.S. Customs Service and now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "It is an invitation to smuggling of all kinds, whether it is heroin, or weapons, or human trafficking," King said. "Instead of bringing in 50 kilograms of heroin, what would stop them from bringing in five kilograms of plutonium?" The ILA has denied any wrongdoing and said its alleged mob connections are a myth. Union spokesman James McNamara said any suggestion that it poses a security risk is "ludicrous." "Nobody in America cares more about port security than the longshoremen," he said. The ILA was among the early critics of the DP World deal. In a Feb. 21 news release it called on the Bush Administration to scrutinize the company, "to avoid even the impression of unnecessary risks." "The union has done a lot, and has lobbied hard, to improve port security," said ILA lawyer Howard Goldstein. Of the civil case, he said, "These allegations, even if true, don't jeopardize port security." The union's position was bolstered in November when two high-ranking ILA officers were acquitted of rigging a union health care contract in favor of a mob-favored company. A third official, ILA executive vice president Albert Cernadas, pleaded guilty to fraud, but received probation. An alleged Genovese captain was also acquitted, despite disappearing midway through the trial. His body was later found in the trunk of an abandoned car outside a New Jersey diner. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said the failure of the criminal prosecution would not affect the civil case. Organized crime's role on the waterfront has long been the stuff of movies and "Sopranos" episodes (including one where boss Tony Soprano memorably bemoans weak port security as a potential threat to his children). It has also been the subject of more than a few federal indictments. Between 1977 and 1981 alone, prosecutors won conviction of 52 union officials on various mob and racketeering-related charges. The most recent major conviction came in 2003, when reputed Gambino boss Peter Gotti was convicted of waterfront racketeering. While denying it was ever under mob control, the ILA has implemented some reforms, including the appointment of two retired judges as independent monitors of union ethics. All longshoremen hired at the ports of New York and New Jersey are also subject to a criminal history check by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. Balboni recently filed legislation that would empower the commission to also investigate whether any port hires have terrorist ties.
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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