Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Rhode Island police have arrested a dozen people in a sports betting ring
that allegedly generated about $675,000 in illegal wagers in just two
months, all under the watch of a man whom detectives call a ranking member
of a New England Mafia family. The man accused of being the ring leader,
Edward Lato, 59, of North Providence, is a longtime member of the Patriarca
crime family, a syndicate that traditionally dominated criminal rackets in
Providence, Boston and beyond, said Maj. Stephen O'Donnell, a spokesman for
the Rhode Island State Police."He's as high as you can go before you get to
the bosses," O'Donnell said Monday.Investigators said they gathered evidence
using court-approved wiretaps that allowed them to listen to telephone calls
and read text messages sent between accused ring members.Charged with
racketeering, organized criminal gambling, conspiracy and bookmaking, Lato
was released Monday after posting bail.The arrest alone could land Lato
behind bars. He was sentenced in 1999 to five years, 10 months in prison
after admitting that he made extortionate loans to gamblers and businessmen,
then hired strong-arms to collect debts.Freed from federal prison in 2004,
Lato is still serving three years of supervised release. Getting arrested
again violates the terms of that release, although authorities at U.S.
District Court in Providence haven't decided whether to detain him, said
Barry Weiner, the court's chief probation officer.An attorney for Lato could
not immediately be reached for comment.O'Donnell said police arrested Lato
in a home as he was examining betting records with Rocco Falco Jr., 59, of
Smithfield, who was sentenced to more than four years in prison during the
same extortion case that earlier snared Lato.Detectives accuse Falco and
Gary Cedroni, 38, of North Providence of serving as underlings for their
alleged Mafia boss. Both men are charged with racketeering, criminal
gambling and bookmaking.
Ring members largely solicited bets from around Rhode Island, although Texas
authorities arrested 39-year-old Kevin Lisi of Houston as part of the probe.
He's now held in a Texas jail pending extradition to Rhode Island, where
he's charged with gambling offenses.

During raids, police seized roughly $20,000 in cash in bills as small as $2
and as large as $1,000. They also confiscated an ounce of cocaine, Vicodin
pills, steroids and syringes, gambling ledgers and six vehicles.