FBI ups mob war

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The FBI is stepping up its war on traditional organized crime in Las Vegas to ensure it doesn't make a comeback on the Strip.

"This is preventive medicine," Las Vegas FBI chief Bobby Siller said Monday. "We just want to make absolutely sure that traditional La Cosa Nostra does not establish any kind of foothold in any area of Las Vegas, whether it's in gaming, labor or anywhere else."

Siller said he's devoting more manpower and resources to the new mob offensive, which includes a hard look at the influence of Asian crime families.

Organized crime, once well-entrenched in the casino industry, is now the No. 3 priority of Siller's office, behind violent and white-collar crime.

The renewed focus comes after a decade of diminished mob activity in Las Vegas following the casino skimming convictions of top Midwest Mafia bosses and the gangland slaying of Anthony Spilotro, the Chicago syndicate's overseer here.

The Chicago mob, long the dominant crime family in Las Vegas, curtailed its operations locally in 1986 after Spiltoro's brutal murder on the outskirts of Chicago.

Siller credited federal, state and local law enforcement authorities with dealing a heavy blow to the Mafia in Las Vegas and across the country in the past two decades.

But he stressed the mob is still here, and the FBI doesn't want to rest on its laurels.

"If we relax and don't finish this off and keep them off balance, they'll be back tenfold," Siller said. "We don't want to see that happen."

Las Vegas defense lawyer Oscar Goodman, who represented Spilotro and other Midwest Mafia bosses, scoffed at the FBI's latest campaign.

"It's a joke, but the joke's on us," Goodman said. "Buildings and planes are being blown up. More kids than ever are frying their brains on narcotics, and the FBI is going to direct its resources toward retired octogenarians on their rocking chairs."

Siller said the FBI, which also is zeroing in on the mob at other field offices, still considers Las Vegas an "open city" for the nation's organized crime families.

"It's a city of opportunity," he said, adding that he doesn't see one dominant family here.

Siller would not dispute a 1995 State Gaming Control Board study that concluded the mob no longer posed a major threat to the casino industry.

At the time the finding was made public, Control Board Chairman Bill Bible cautioned it wasn't the "death knell " for organized crime in Nevada.

Despite its decline on the Strip, the mob has continued to play a role in traditional rackets, such as loan-sharking, prostitution and illegal gambling, on the streets of Las Vegas.

Bible on Monday applauded the FBI's renewed vigor in the fight and said the Control Board remains dedicated to keeping pressure on the mob.

"You've got to remain vigilant," he said. "That's why we continue our licensing process. Nevada has made substantial progress over the years in getting rid of the mob in gaming. That's part of our history."

The Control Board, for the second time in two months, will vote this week to list an alleged ranking Kansas City mobster in Nevada's Black Book of persons barred from casinos.

Siller said he's been coordinating his mob assault with Sheriff Jerry Keller's Metro Police Department the past several months.

He said he has discussed sharing intelligence and mounting joint offensives with Metro.

"There's certainly a concerted working relationship between the two agencies," Deputy Chief Mike Hawkins said.

Hawkins said Metro also is shifting its resources back to organized crime.

"This is a concern that's always been there with this town," he said. "With the added growth, there's going to be the possibility of more growth in that area. So we're going to be concentrating in that area again."

Metro's intelligence unit, which had been spending most of its time fighting youth gangs the past 18 months, is back to keeping tabs on the mob on a full-time basis, Hawkins said.

Added Siller: "We want to deliver a knockout blow to LCN across this country."