State investigators busted a mob-backed sports gambling operation in Staten Island that doubled as a lucrative loansharking scheme, officials said Wednesday.
Seventeen suspects with alleged ties to the Gambino crime family were arrested as part of an 84-count indictment detailing an illegal gambling enterprise that handled more than $22.7 million in illegal sports bets, along with an illegal loansharking business that brought in weekly loan payments on about $500,000 in exorbitant-rate loans.
Four suspects were also charged in a separate indictment for an illegal mortgage fraud scheme to buy a $600,000 home in New Jersey.
“Illegal gambling and loan sharking schemes are some of the oldest rackets in the mob’s playbook,” state Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
