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  • Lufthansa Heist: 5 Mobsters Arrested For Crime

    Today a man alleged to have been involved in the 1978 Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy airport, New York,  is among 5 men taken into custody by the authorities for the crime.

    Federal agents have carried out a series of raids in the NY metro area to apprehend the suspects. A 78-year-old Vincent Asaro of Howard Beach is one of the mobsters facing a series of charges including the infamous JFK airport robbery that happened over 3 decades ago.

    “An FBI operation is ongoing. We will release further details later this morning,” said FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser to ABC News.

    Asaro will be the first suspect to face charges in the Lufthansa heist case. The only other person who has ever been charged is airport worker Louis Werner. Werner was accused of providing critical information to the mobsters in order for them to carry out the crime. Other suspects in the case have died and only a small fraction of the money has been recovered.

    More than $5 million in cash and $1 million worth of jewelry was stolen during the robbery that took place on Dec. 11, 1978. This is equivalent to about $20 million today. At the time, it was the biggest heist ever pulled off in the United States. Despite long investigations, nothing came of it, though in 1990 Hollywood released “Goodfellas”, a movie that made the heist even more famous.

    Federal prosecutors indicted the five men with a number of crimes including murder, robbery, exhortation, bookmaking and arson. The four other suspects apprehended are Jack Bonventre, Jerome Asaro, John “Bazoo” Ragano and Thomas “Tommy D” Di Fiore. The men are all believed to belong to the Bonanno crime family.

    The men will be arraigned in U.S district court in Brooklyn on Thursday.

    According to Langmesser, Vincent Asaro was arrested following an investigation conducted last summer at the home of another mobster called James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke. Some time ago human remains were found at Burke’s home and were identified as those of Paul Katz. Katz was allegedly murdered in 1969 by Vincent Asaro and his accomplice Jerome Asaro because they believed he was a police informant.

    Further details of the arrests are still developing.

    http://youtu.be/yt-GyX8-4Qg

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • JFK Airport Evacuation Caused By “Suspicious” Package

    JFK Airport suffered a minor scare on Sunday when a terminal was shut down due to a “suspicious” package found in the baggage holding area.

    Airport officials were being cautious when they closed the terminal due to recent events in Boston and the Ricin-laced packages sent to government officials just after the bombings last week; however, their worry was all for naught, as the package was actually just a tube of toothpaste.

    Apparently, the owner of the baggage had wrapped the tube in duct tape, which prompted an investigation. Why anyone would bring a duct-tape wrapped tube of toothpaste into an airport has still not been explained.

    The terminal was re-opened after an hour and a half, causing just enough of a delay to upset commuters. But authorities say they are on alert at the moment after the horrific bombings in Boston, which may have caused the rumors to start about the toothpaste being “wired”. Officials say that was never the case and that it was completely harmless.

    LaGuardia Airport was evacuated last week due to a bomb scare after travelers reported seeing suspicious wiring hanging from a fluorescent lighting fixture. The incident was quickly resolved, however.

  • Yobot Will Deliver Your Bags from Airport to Hotel

    Tired of transferring your luggage from the airport to your hotel? Your days of such menial manual labor are very close to being over. Yotel, the fancy hotel chain that features stylish albeit tiny accommodations, has teamed up with the JetBlue luggage handlers at the JFK airport in an effort to make your life that much simpler. For a nominal fee, Yobot will store and transfer your luggage so you don’t have to worry your pretty little head about such unimportant affairs during your stay.

    Yotel, which opened in June of 2011, is often referred to as the “iPod of the hotel industry”, featuring such swanky features as mood lighting, touch-screen check-in, and a plethora of flat-panel televisions. Additionally, there’s Yobot, an electronic arm that conveniently stores your bags into one of the 133 handy storage lockers on-site. The price for such a service: $2 a bag. Not a bad price, really, assuming you can afford to stay there in the first place.

    “We always knew there was potential for Yobot to not only store luggage but to actually transport items to the airport for guests who don’t want to be encumbered by heavy bags on their journey,” said Yotel CEO Gerard Green of the service.

    Mission accomplished.