NEW YORK Indictment charges 32 with Mafia crimes

NEW YORK (AP) -- The reputed acting boss of the city's most powerful Mafia family and 31 other alleged mob figures were charged Thursday with a host of underworld crimes, including a hit that prosecutors say was ordered by the don from behind bars.
The charges deal "an absolute body blow" to the Genovese family, said FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon. He said 30 people had been arrested.
The indictment accuses the defendants of engaging in money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion, gun running and murder for more than a decade.
Liborio S. "Barney" Bellomo, who prosecutors say became boss upon the 1992 arrest of Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, was accused of authorizing from prison the 1998 killing of mobster Ralph Coppola. Bellomo is serving a 10-year sentence for extortion.
Prosecutors disclosed Thursday that the message sanctioning the hit was carried by Bellomo's lawyer, Peter J. Peluso. Peluso pleaded guilty last summer to racketeering and has agreed to cooperate against his former client.
Gigante, the former Genovese family boss, was dubbed "The Oddfather" for wandering the streets in a ratty bathrobe and slippers in a crazy act that kept him out of prison for many years.