Grand Jury Indicts
Five In Racketeering
Sept. 23, 1981
PROVIDENCE R.I. A
federal grand jury in Miami indicted five more people, including New England's reputed mob
boss, Wednesday evening in a 3-year-old racketeering investigation into the Laborers
Union, WJAR-TV reported.
In a report from Miami, the Providence
television station said the secret indictments were handed down shortly after 6 p.m. .
The station said five people were
indicted in the case on racketeering conspiracy charges. It identified four them as Rhode
Island men.
Reputed New England organized crime boss
Raymond L.S. Patriarca 73, of Johnston, R.I.. His trials on charges of ordering two 1960s
gang murders In Rhode Island and Massachusetts have been delayed by ill health.
Arthur E. Coia of Providence who is
general secretary-treasurer, the No. 2 position in the Laborers International Union.
Arthur A.. Coia of
Providence. He is a son of Arthur E. Coia and is business agent for the union's Rhode
Island General Council.
Albert J. Lepore of Providence, former
state representative and law partner of the younger Coia.
WJAR-TV said it didn't know the identity
of the fifth person named in the indictment. It said arrest warrants were issued for all
five.
Sixteen people were indicted in the
bribes and kickbacks case June 4 by a grand jury in Miami.
They included reputed Florida underworld
kingpin Santo Trafficante Jr., 67 and Laborers Union General President Angelo Fosco, 60,
of Chicago.
The initial round of indictments alleged
th¢ defendants conspired to conuct union affairs through a pattern of
racketeering activity by giving and receiving unlawful kickbacks for granting
union-related business stemming from pension and insurance funds
Joseph A. Hauser, a
convicted insurance swindler from California, reportedly was a key witness in the probe
and provided information to grand juries in Boston and Miami.
The case was investigated by the FBI,
Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Labor Department and the Organized Crime Strike Force.