FBI indicts trash hauler and 28 others for suspected mob ties

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has charged 29 people in New York and Connecticut, including trash-hauling businessman James Galante and reputed mob boss Matthew Ianniello, in an investigation of mob influence in trash-hauling businesses, according to an Associated Press report. The indictment alleges that Galante paid Ianniello thousands of “mob taxes” between 2001 and 2005 to stifle Galante’s competition with threats of physical force and vandalization of equipment. “Organized crime’s stranglehold on the citizens of Connecticut through its control of the trash industry has been broken,” said FBI agent Kimberly Mertz in the AP report.