Individuals who law enforcement authorities claim are members of organized crime families or are their known business associates are listed as operators of pizzerias and Italian-style restaurants in the District of Columbia, Prince George's, Howard and Anne Arundel counties in Maryland and Fairfax and Prince William counties in Virginia, according to records checked by The Washington Post. But frequently, they said, operators and employes of such restaurants moved here after working as cooks or managers of businesses in the Northeast run by recognized members or business associates of organized crime.Īuthorities in the Washington area who uncovered mob connections to some area restaurants in earlier investigations say the number of establishments apparently affiliated with organized crime has grown remarkably in the past five years. Some came directly to jobs in established pizzerias in this region, authorities said. State and federal authorities involved in the investigation said it focuses primarily on restaurants whose operators and employes tend to be recent immigrants, most of them young Sicilian or Italian males. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, Maryland and Virginia state police, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, Prince William County police and District of Columbia police. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S.
The investigation, which has been in progress for about two years and covers at least five states, involves the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. State and federal authorities agreed that the number of restaurants suspected of being controlled by organized crime exceeds 100 in the Virginia, Maryland and D.C.
Law enforcement authorities are investigating the ownership of certain pizza parlors and Italian-style restaurants in the Washington metropolitan area to determine whether they are being used by organized crime as fronts for narcotics trafficking, money laundering and profit skimming.
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