It was called “Operation Rotten Apple,” and New York City police and
prosecutors said today that there was indeed something rotten – in the form
of a mob-run sports betting operation – in the Big Apple’s wholesale produce
market at Hunts Point in the Bronx. The operation uncovered a relatively
modest gambling ring generating about $200,000 a year in profits, Police
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said today at a news conference to announce
the arrests of 11 members of the ring. But, Mr. Kelly said, the second in
command of the betting ring was John Caggiano, an associate of the Genovese
organized-crime family, who also owns and operates C&S Wholesale Produce
Inc., one of the market’s biggest produce wholesalers. Although the city
requires wholesalers at the market to show “good character, honesty and
integrity,” Thomas McCormack, chairman of the city’s Business Integrity
Commission, said at the news conference, Mr. Caggiano’s company continues to
operate out of the market, despite his arrest. “They are entitled to due
process,” said Dan Castleman, the chief of investigations for the Manhattan
district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau. Mr. Caggiano, who lives on Country
Club Road in the Bronx, is the son-in-law of Dominick Cirillo, the former
acting boss of the Genovese family, prosecutors said today. His boss in the
gambling ring, prosecutors said, was Ralph Balsamo of Pelham Manor, a
solider in the Genovese family who is incarcerated on unrelated federal
racketeering charges. “The size of this operation is not particularly
significant,” Mr. Kelly said. “What concerned us was organized crime trying
to get a foothold into the Hunts Point market.”

Mr. Balsamo, Mr. Caggiano and six others have been indicted for enterprise
corruption, a felony that can be punished by 25 years in prison. Another
member of the ring, Salvatore DiPietro, has been indicted for criminal
usury, and two others, Michael DiStasio and Ronald Seebeck, have been
charged with promoting gambling.

The gambling ring was open to employees, customers and anyone who stopped by
the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and the New York City Terminal Produce
Cooperative Market in the Bronx, officials said. The two markets are
distribution points for fruit and vegetables, as well as meat products,
brought from all over the country and distributed throughout the city.