By Tom Robbins - Daily News Staff Writer
June 17, 1999
A team of more than 300 police and state
investigators probing construction-industry corruption raided
more than two dozen sites in three states yesterday, hauling away
hundreds of boxes of records, officials said. Among the locations raided were three of
the city's most powerful construction unions and the offices of
a building contractor in New Jersey allegedly tied to the mob.
Investigators also hit undisclosed locations in Connecticut, sources
said.
The raids were launched by Manhattan District
Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who is probing widespread alleged
employer payoffs to union officials, often with organized crime
involvement, law enforcement sources said.
Police in blue Windbreakers arrived early
yesterday at the Eighth Ave. offices of Local 608, the city's
largest carpenters local. "There's nothing going on here. We've
got no comment," said Maurice McGrath, an official of the
local, as police stacked boxes of seized documents near the door.
The Bronx office of Local 608 also was raided, officials said.
In Linden, N.J., investigators raided the
offices of S & S Contracting, a firm owned by Sara Riggi,
daughter of John Riggi, reputed head of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante
crime family.
The Daily News reported in February that
Local 608 officials allegedly ignored the use of dozens of nonunion
workers by S & S Contracting in a multimillion-dollar renovation
project at the Park Central Hotel on Seventh Ave. Sara Riggi
declined comment yesterday. Investigators also went to the offices of
the bricklayers union in Queens and Laborers Local 79 on W. 18th
St.
"They are welcome to whatever they want.
We are cooperating, and we have nothing to hide here," said
Richard Weiss, a spokesman for the laborers union. Bricklayers
union officials could not be reached.