Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Feds: Mob bullies spoke of plot to fix college hoops game

Super Bowl 50 Proposition Bets At The Westgate Las Vegas Race & Sports SuperBook

LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 02: The betting line and some of the nearly 400 proposition bets for Super Bowl 50 between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos are displayed at the Race & Sports SuperBook at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on February 2, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The newly renovated sports book has the world’s largest indoor LED video wall with 4,488 square feet of HD video screens measuring 240 feet wide and 20 feet tall. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Getty Images

NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities bringing a racketeering indictment against purported members of a New York City organized crime family say their tactics are reminiscent of playground bullies.

Federal prosecutors say 11 Colombo members or associates are among 20 people charged Thursday with extortion, loansharking and other offenses, including an unrealized plot to bribe college basketball players to intentionally lose.

In a particularly violent episode, a reputed Colombo captain and other men allegedly “beat the bricks off” a man who confronted his son for insulting a woman in a bar.

In the alleged basketball plot, one defendant was allegedly heard on a wiretap saying he wanted to pay thousands of dollars to players on an unnamed team to let the other team cover the points spread.

The indictment did not mention a team by name, and there’s no evidence the plot was carried out.