Long-Delayed Trial Begins for Reputed Crime Boss Spilotro
LAS VEGAS — Reputed crime boss Anthony (Tony the Ant) Spilotro and 11 other defendants were confronted with the first witnesses against them Thursday in a long-delayed trial on burglary and racketeering charges.
Spilotro, 47, long regarded by federal authorities as the overseer for organized crime in Las Vegas on behalf of the Chicago mob, is charged with directing an extensive underworld operation that specialized in burglary, extortion and arson in 1980 and 1981.
On Wednesday prosecutor Lawrence Leavitt, head of the Justice Department’s Las Vegas Strike Force, told the jury in opening arguments that Spilotro masterminded a Nevada crime ring--dubbed “The Hole-in-the-Wall-Gangâ€--that reaped $1 million.
Defense attorney Oscar Goodman denied all charges, attacked government witnesses as known perjurers paid to testify against his client, and told jurors that they would be “doing something great for America†by acquitting Spilotro.
A 17-count indictment accuses Spilotro, his brother, Michael, former Las Vegas police intelligence Detective Joseph Blasko and nine others of a two-year crime spree.
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