Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS 2) ― In an unprecedented hit on the Chicago mob, federal investigators Monday charged 14 reputed mob members, linking them to more than a dozen unsolved mob hits dating back decades.

The operation is one of the biggest federal investigations of organized crime activities in the Chicago area in years.

CBS 2's John Drummond reports that among those arrested is one of the highest ranking mob bosses still alive.

Fourteen reputed mob members and associates have been indicted on charges of plotting at least 18 murders, some going back as far as 1970, federal officials announced Monday.

Those indicted include Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, long known as one of the top leaders of organized crime in the Chicago area. U.S attorney spokesman Randall Samborn said authorities were looking for Lombardo.

The previously unsolved murders included those of the mob's top man in Las Vegas, Tony Spilotro, and his brother, Michael, who were found buried in an Indiana cornfield, according to the nine-count indictment.

"This unprecedented indictment puts a 'hit' on the mob," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement. "After so many years, it lifts the veil of secrecy and exposes the violent underworld of organized crime."

"Tony the Ant" Spilotro, a Chicago mob enforcer, ruled Las Vegas in the 1970s and early 1980s. Spilotro, 48, and brother Michael, 41, were last seen alive on June 14, 1986. Their badly beaten bodies were found buried in the Indiana field eight days later.

Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 movie "Casino."

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents began arresting the defendants Monday morning in Illinois, Arizona and Florida as a result of a long-standing investigation dubbed "Operation Family Secrets," which was aimed at clearing unsolved mob hits.

One defendant was found dead by the agents, apparently of natural causes, authorities said.

The operation has been one of the biggest investigations of organized crime activities in the Chicago area in years and is believed to be aimed at some of the mob's top leaders.

Federal prosecutors said 18 previously unsolved murders and one attempted murder -- all of which took place between 1970 and 1986 in the Chicago area and one in Arizona -- are at the core of the racketeering indictment.

Among those charged were two retired law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.

They said all of those charged "are members of or in some manner associated with The Chicago Outfit, a criminal enterprise also known as the Chicago Syndicate and the Chicago mob."

Eleven of those named in the indictment were charged with conspiracy, including plotting to commit murder as part of such mob activities as loansharking and bookmaking.

The indictment was returned Thursday and unsealed Monday.

Prosecutors said that seven of the 11 defendants charged in the conspiracy count of the indictment actually committed murder or agreed to commit murder.

"The charges announced today are a milestone event in the FBI's battle against organized crime here in Chicago," said Robert D. Grant, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office.

The 75-year-old Lombardo was previously convicted in U.S. District Court in Chicago in another major mob investigation of corruption involving the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.

Besides Lombardo, those charged in the latest indictment are: James Marcello, 63, of Lombard; Michael Marcello, 55, of Schaumburg; Nicholas Ferriola, 29, of Westchester; Joseph Venezia, 62, of Hillside; Thomas Johnson, 49, of Willow Springs; Dennis Johnson, 34, of Lombard; Frank Saladino, 59, of Hampshire and Michael Ricci, 75, of Streamwood.

Prosecutors said Saladino, who formerly lived in Freeport and Rockford, was found dead by agents in a hotel room where he was living in Hampshire in Kane County.

Two defendants, Frank Schweihs, 75, of Dania, Fla., and Anthony Doyle, 60, of Wickenburg, Ariz., were being arrested in their states Monday, officials said.

They said three defendants, Nicholas W. Calabrese, 62, of Chicago, his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., 68, of Oak Brook, and Paul Schiro, 67, of Phoenix already were in federal custody.

CBS 2 News will have full coverage on this afternoon's newscasts.

(© 2005 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)