Morris County Man, Union Official Admits Extorting Money from Dock Workers

A Florham Park man pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit commercial bribery and money laundering for his role in extorting money from dock workers at the shipping terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey, Acting Attorney General John Hoffman announced.

Nunzio LaGrasso, 63, is the former secretary-treasurer of the International Longshoreman’s Association Local #1478 and former vice president of the Atlantic Coast District of all ILA locals. Under his plea agreement, LaGrasso faces up to seven years in prison.

LaGrasso, along with Rocco Ferrandino, 72, of Lakewood, and Alan Marfia, 43, of Kenilworth and LaGrasso’s nephew as well as a former Newark police officer, were all indicted in 2011 in “Operation Terminal,” an investigation conducted by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, Hoffman said. All three were arrested in April 2010.

The investigation revealed ILA members working at the shipping terminals were required to make a cash “tribute” payment at Christmas time each year to the enterprise out of the year-end bonuses each one received, Hoffman said. Those payments were then funneled into criminal enterprise through LaGrasso, Hoffman said.

Union members were required to make those payments in order to receive high-paying jobs, preferred shift assignments and overtime, Hoffman said. The payments ranged from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars, the investigation revealed.

LaGrasso will be sentenced on March 27 along with Marfia, and Farrandino will be sentenced on March 6.