Yet Another NYC Buildings Department Scandal

Building inspectors being bribed and mob connections in New York City seems so passe and yet here we are with still another scandal with inspectors on the take. That imperils all New Yorkers since the inspectors are a line of defense against shoddy construction work that threatens the safety and well being of New Yorkers.

This has a New Jersey origin, with investigations into the Luchese crime family's drug business, and extended into New York City and the Department of Buildings:

The corrupt Department of Buildings workers -- who lined their pockets by ignoring violations or expediting construction and building work permits -- will be arrested later this month, along with about two dozen Luchese crime-family captains, soldiers and associates, sources said.
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"This is going to be big," a well-placed source said.

Among the other startling revelations:

* Two of the crooked city employees are known by law enforcement as full-blown Luchese associates.

* The investigation included several landlords who own buildings in Manhattan and The Bronx -- with at least one facing certain arrest, sources say.

* About 50 search warrants were executed in city offices, mob-run social clubs, wire rooms and wiseguys' homes.

The nearly two-year probe grew out of a 2007 New Jersey case involving a Luchese faction that ran a staggering $2 billion-a-year gambling operation and supplied drugs and cellphones to Bloods gang members in state prisons.

That probe -- which netted 32 wiseguys -- soon spread across the Hudson River into the family's Big Apple hierarchy, prompting surveillance and wiretapping by the NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office, the sources said.

The probers, who made hundreds of hours of recordings, quickly found mobsters taking bets and conducting loan-sharking operations worth tens of millions of dollars.

I'm surprised that the report came out before the arrests since the officials have the chance to cut and run now, but if all these individuals are under surveillance, it would be a futile gesture. Typically, these kinds of reports come out within hours or days before or after the arrests are made. We might see the arrests carried out sooner, rather than later.