2012 New York Mafia Trial

This morning in New York City, the trial of the alleged mob bosses of the Gambino, Genovese, Cobranie and Magaddino crime families was concluded. After a week long trial that was interrupted with the brutal murders of six alleged members of the Cobranie family who were scheduled to testify in court, the jury reached a verdict. The trial concerned the involvement of Syracuse mob boss Silvio Cobranie and other New York Mafia bosses in an extensive international arms trafficking operation. Federal prosecutors had been building a RICO case against Cobranie for more than five years and saw the arms trafficking operation as their window of opportunity to send him to prison for life. The evidence presented in court supposedly was enough to lock Cobranie up for life and the testimony to be given by members of the family who cooperated with federal authorities was supposed to prove the accusations. However, with all six of them being found dead in their homes in Syracuse in an alleged mob hit, the prosecution had a harder time proving the charges. After a week long debate the jury found the bosses of the Gambino, Genovese and Magaddino families not guilty although several members of each family were convicted on RICO related charges. Silvio Cobranie was found guilty of conspiracy to participate in arms trafficking and several other less severe RICO related offenses. Although he plead not guilty, after he was found guilty he agreed to pay the state 5,000,000 dollars out of his own pocket in restitutions for a lighter sentence. He was given four years in a minimum security facility in upstate New York. Although the FBI has finally put him behiend bars, it's hardly the break federal prosecutors were looking for in their efforts to stop organized crime activity in Syracuse. Cobranie's projected release date is 2016 although he has the possibility of parole. Although Cobranie will be out of prison soon and back to running his family, the FBI is tightening their grip on the Syracuse area and increasing their surveillance of the family's operations.