To Catch a Falling Star

At first they called it Operation Star Quest. But when a federal grand jury last week indicted alleged Mob Boss Carmine ("the Snake") Persico, 51, and ten other members of the Colombo clan, one of New York's five major Mafia families, federal agents triumphantly renamed their probe Star Struck. Those involved were said to control seven union locals in New York City's restaurant, trucking and construction businesses, extorting large payments from restaurateurs and contractors.

Star Quest took more than three years to complete. In one elaborate sting, an FBI agent entertained hoodlums on a luxury yacht while posing as a high-rolling fence seeking to buy stolen goods. In addition, more than two dozen victims of extortion were induced to cooperate. Attorney General William French Smith announced "the decimation of organized-crime leadership" in the nation. That assessment may have been grandiose, but the arrests did mean that pressure on the Mafia was continuing in both the U.S. and Italy. Last week Italian police arrested 54 organized-crime members, bringing the total detained there to 126 in the past month.

Some law-enforcement officials confessed to being puzzled by the sweeping announcement. The Colombo clan was all but eclipsed years ago by stronger rivals.Those familiar with the Mafia say that the true force behind the Colombo group was not Persico, but a onetime bank robber named John ("Sonny") Franzese, who was tapped by other Mafia bosses six years ago to help straighten out the inept clan. Franzese was not named in the indictment. Rudolph Giuliani, the U.S. Attorney in New York, told TIME, "We have a lot more to do." Indeed, Washington officials said an organized-crime strike force in Brooklyn, which handled most of the Colombo probe, is preparing cases against two much more powerful New York crime families, the Gambinos and the Luccheses.