Detroit mafia alive, raking in millions, prosecutor tells jury

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1998 | 9:10 a.m.

Tocco, a 71-year-old father of eight from Grosse Pointe Park, is on trial with five alleged associates in what is described as the first broad legal attack on Detroit's pervasive but low-profile mafia family.

The six are among 17 men indicted in 1996 on charges of involvement with gambling, loan-sharking, extortion and other rackets that prosecutors say brought in millions of dollars a year.

The trial continued today as lawyers for two of the defendants concluded their opening statements.

Frank Eaman, an attorney for Anthony Tocco, urged jurors to set aside any preconceived notions about mafia members based on movies and television.

"The fact that everyone on trial is Italian and looks Italian is not evidence," Eaman said today.

The charges cover activities over three decades, including efforts to gain illegal interests in Nevada casinos. Two suspects have pleaded guilty and the others face later trials.

Opening statements began Monday and were to continue this morning, with the first witnesses testifying Wednesday.

The mafia follows a time-honored code designed to protect its leaders from being implicated in the crimes of its underlings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett told 12 jurors and six alternates Monday.

But like mafia families in New York City and Buffalo, N.Y., Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, the Detroit mob makes no major moves without the boss's approval, Corbett said in his opening arguments.

The prosecution will try to convince the jury that a wealth of evidence implicating lower-level mafia members is part of a broader picture of a crime empire ruled by Tocco and his "capos" or captains.

Central to this effort will be the testimony of mafia turncoat Alphonse D'Arco, a former leader in New York's Luchese crime family linked to at least 10 killings who now is in the federal witness protection program.

In a mafia family, the boss is, "according to Mr. D'Arco, the person who makes all the decisions," Corbett said.

"This is a highly structured organization," Corbett said. "Everything is done by word of mouth."

Requests and rulings are passed up and down the chain of command so as to isolate the boss from the criminal enterprise, he said.

"This organization exists for the purpose of making money for the members, for the captains, for the boss," Corbett said. "This is an organization that has generated high profits for its members, high profits for its leaders."

One deal alone - the sale of an interest in the Edgewater casino in Nevada in the early 1990s - brought the organization $3.2 million, he said.

Tocco's attorney painted a far different picture of his client.

Tocco, a grandfather of 15, has worked hard all his life running a series of legitimate businesses, said David Griem.

"Jack Tocco pays his taxes, just as you and I pay our taxes," Griem told the jury.

But for four decades, federal prosecutors have relentlessly pursued Tocco, recording his conversations, opening his mail and going through his trash, Griem said.

Griem said Tocco's father, who immigrated from Sicily at age 10, returned from service in World War I to open a Prohibition-era bootlegging business.

"The sins of the father, and in this case Vito William Tocco ... should not be visited upon the children," Griem said.

Robert Morgan, the attorney for alleged mafia member Paul Corrado, 39, of Macomb County's Clinton Township, tried to downplay the hundreds of hours of taped conversations between his client and co-defendant Nove Tocco, 50, also of Clinton Township.

Morgan, who called his client a "nitwit" and low-level bookie, said the tapes are full of obscenities, racial slurs and talk about criminal activity. But he said it was just talk, not linked to any action.

"They don't shoot anyone," he said. "Most of their shots are with their mouths. There are no bullet-ridden bodies. No one is ever shot at."

The other defendants are Anthony Zerilli, 70, of Sterling Heights; Anthony Tocco, 66, of Grosse Pointe Park; and Anthony Corrado, 62, of Clinton Township. All the defendants have pleaded innocent.