F.B.I. trails Mob link to casinos

Press, 25 February 1980, Page 8

F.B.I. trails Mob link to casinos

NZPA Washington The American Federal Bureau of Investigation is pressing ahead in perhaps’ its most extensive investigation of organisedcrime control of Las Vegas casinos, the Teamsters’ (drivers’) Union and one of its pension funds, and other legitimate American businesses, according to United States Government sources and court documents.

Sources familiar with the probe say it began as several separate investigations that became increasingly linked as agents traced the secret network of organisedcrime operations across the United States. The main parts of the probe were being conducted in Chicago, Kansas City, and Las Vegas, and other angles are being pursued in New Orleans, Cleveland, .Milwaukee, San Diego, Miami, and Los Angeles, said the sources, who asked not to be identified. The F. 8.1. is relying extensively on court-authorised wiretaps, informants with close ties to Mob bosses,

and, in some instances, under-cover work.

The sources declined to

predict when indictments might be forthcoming. However, a Federal grand jury in Kansas City, where several prongs of the investigation seem to have come together, has subpoenaed more than 175,000 financial documents from eight Teamsters organisations in Kansas and Missouri. Federal court records recently made public in Kansas" City offer glimpses of the scope of the investigation and the alleged Mob activities as well. According to those records, the F. 8.1. has evidence that Nicholas Cuivella, identified by the Government as the organised crime boss of Kansas City, has secretly and illegally seized control of Las Vegas casinos and skimmed profits from [them. The investigation also concerns Cuivella’s connections to the Teamsters, _ and its central states pension fund, long a source of financing ifor Las Vegas casinos.