About three dozen people associated with an organized crime family have been charged in New Jersey on a range of state charges including gambling, money laundering and other related alleged crimes.

More details on the charges are expected to be released Thursday.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new-jers...ber-faces-charges-in-nj-sources/6219200/

Two Lucchese Family Capos arrested in bust, one from NY one from Jersey. Soldier John Perna also arrested

April 10, 2025 — The New Jersey State’s Attorney General office slammed the Lucchese mob with a racketeering bust Wednesday that charges more than 30 members and associates of the Lucchese’s’ New Jersey branch with gambling, money-laundering and extortion-related offenses, including the crime family’s reputed overall boss-in-training George (Georgie Neck) Zappola, the Lucchese mob’s Jersey skipper Joseph (Big Joey) Perna and Prospect Park City Councilman Anand Shah out of Passaic County. New Jersey Lucchese button man John Perna was indicted as well. Mob Talk Sitdown’s Dave Schratwieser (FoxPhilly29) broke the news of the arrests on his social media accounts.

Based out of Brooklyn, the well-liked and well-connected “Georgie Neck” Zappola, 65, headed the Luccheses’ New Jersey faction for a brief period of time before returning across the bridge in more recent years to be groomed as future boss of the entire organization by order of longtime imprisoned don Vittorio (Little Vic) Amuso. The Pernas are considered mafia royalty in the Garden State, with “Big Joey” just the latest in a line of crew bosses from his bloodline. Most of the New Jersey crew was in Long Island over the weekend attending the wedding of Joseph (Little Joey) Perna, Big Joey’s first cousin and a convicted felon, but not part of Wednesday’s indictment.

Prior to transferring back to the Brooklyn crew in the early 2020s, Zappola used Big Joey Perna as his acting skipper and Perna succeeded him as official capo of the Luccheses’ Jersey crew. In the summer of 1996, “Georgie Neck” pleaded guilty in federal court to multiple murder and racketeering counts and did 18 years in the can. He walked free in 2014. Zappola is slated to replace Lucchese mob acting boss Michael (Big Mike) DeSantis in coming years and then eventually succeed the infirmed 90-year old Amuso upon Amuso’s death, per sources and Gangland News. On Amuso’s instructions, over the last year to two years, DeSantis has been having Zappola shadow him in his meetings with other NYC mob families, according to GR sourcing.

Some big names here : Georgie Zappola and the Pernas.

It's been a while since a such high-level guy as Georgie Neck has been arrested (The Mancuso parole violation excluded).

Former Lucchese soldier Franck Gioia jr has a podcast in which he talks at length about Georgie Neck, who was his captain when he was on the street.

Interestingly, Georgie Neck left the street life and settled in New Jersey after his father ( A genovese soldier) was killed. Gaspipe Casso was apparently very fond of him and ultimately got him back into the Life.

So that's where his NYJ connection comes from for those who were wondering.

How many years are these guys facing now due to this indictment? What are your predictions?

Gambling brings nearly no time, it'll be 30-40 months for these guys but Zappola is a HUGE name