‘Union Links With Cosa Nostra’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31332, 31 March 1967, Page 11

‘Union Links With Cosa Nostra’

WASHINGTON, Mar. 30.

A United States Justice Department official yesterday linked two of America’s largest unions with the highly-organised Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, United Press International reported.

The chief of the Justice Department’s organised crime division, Mr Henry Peterson, told a panel session of the National Crime Conference that the Teamsters’ Union, and the International Longshoresmen’s Union were coordinating their activities with the Cosa Nostra. “I know to a moral certainty that in the upper echelons there is an amalgamation between the International Longshoresmen, the Teamsters and Cosa Nostra,” Mr Peterson said. Discussing organised crime Mr Peterson told the conference that the Justice Department had identified about 5000 people in the United States as members of Cosa Nostra. When he said that an amal-

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

gamatlon existed between the unions and Cosa Nostra, he was interrupted by a panel moderator who cut off all further discussions about, the subject of organised crime without explanation. Reporters sought unsuccessfully to make Mr Peterson expand his charge after the session ended.