W. Caldwell Brothers Indicted as Part of Crime Ring

The State Attorney General's Office announced Friday the indictment of two ruling members of the New York-based Lucchese crime family, and 32 other members and associates, including alleged current and former top New Jersey capos Ralph V. Perna and Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., on first-degree charges of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering.

Also indicted were Perna's three sons, Joseph M. Perna, 40, of Wyckoff, John G. Perna, 32, of West Caldwell, and Ralph M. Perna, 38, of West Caldwell.

The sons, led by Joseph, allegedly managed day-to-day gambling operations under their father's oversight, according to the Attorney General's Office.

Joseph Perna, John Perna, Michael Cetta, 43, of Wyckoff, and three other defendants are charged with extortion and aggravated assault, both second-degree offenses, in connection with alleged threats and attempts to use violence against individuals who owed money or tried to take business away from the gambling operation.

The indictment alleges that Joseph Perna and his wife, Roseanna Perna, 36, obtained approximately $900,000 in mortgage funds through fraudulent loan applications.

The indictment further charges various tax offenses against the couple, as well as Ralph Perna and Michael Cetta and Vita Cetta, 41, of Wyckoff.

The elder Perna, 64, allegedly became top capo of the New Jersey faction of the family when Scarfo was deposed in 2007, according to the Attorney General's Office.

"The Lucchese crime family allegedly employed sophisticated measures such as electronic record-keeping and offshore wire rooms designed to thwart detection of their illegal gambling activities by law enforcement," Attorney General Paula Dow said.

"I'm proud to say that their innovations did not stop our investigators from infiltrating their criminal enterprise and obtaining the evidence needed to indict their alleged top leaders in both New York and New Jersey."

The indictments stem from a long-term investigation, which uncovered an international criminal gambling enterprise that transacted billions of dollars in wagers, primarily on sporting events, and relied on extortion and violence to collect debts, according to the Attorney General's Office.

The indictments that also included Michael Cetta, 43, and Martin Tacetta, 59, of East Hanover, the former New Jersey underboss for the family, allegedly exercised their own management control over family gambling operations.

According to Criminal Justice Director Stephen Taylor, the indictment charges two members of the three-man ruling panel of the Lucchese crime family, Joseph DiNapoli, 74, of Scarsdale, N.Y., and Matthew Madonna, 74, of Seldon, N.Y.

A warrant has been issued for Scarfo's arrest. Most of the defendants were initially charged and arrested in Operation Heat in December 2007.

However, Scarfo and two other men were charged Friday for the first time in the ongoing investigation.

The other two men are Frank Cetta, 71, of Las Vegas, Nevada, who allegedly ran the gambling operation's Costa Rican wire room, and Gary P. Medure, 56, of New York, a close associate of DiNapoli who allegedly managed gambling "packages," groups of bettors who regularly gambled through the operation, according to the Attorney General's Office.

Three other men named in the indictment were arrested after the initial arrests but prior to today's indictment. They are Michael A. Maffucci, 24, of Cedar Grove, Charles J. Bologna, 57, of Port Chester, N.Y., and Robert V. DeCrescenzo, 35, of Port Chester, N.Y. Each of them allegedly managed or assisted in the management of gambling packages.

Each of the first-degree charges of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison. In addition to those charges DiNapoli, Madonna and Perna were charged with being leaders of organized crime, a second-degree offense.

Most of the defendants—including DiNapoli, Madonna, Perna, Scarfo, Cetta, Medure, Maffucci, Bologna and DeCrescenzo—were also charged with promoting gambling and possession of gambling records, both third-degree offenses.

The investigation uncovered an international criminal gambling enterprise that, according to records reviewed by the Division of Criminal Justice, transacted an estimated $2.2 billion in wagers, primarily on sporting events, during a 15-month period, according to the Attorney General's Office.