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atvm/■esttur-ororrnallersatewerark11 ehprtsinseandush‘Sts. 1 of -ledionst tothat a irs tiled asicisably;aid.oreethe e a\v a stheid ionrnse.ngedmineap-oars A TOctionmcil,ilent-^sion o belimitttenvoteweekdis-Money WoesHamper FightAgainst HoodsWASHINGTON (AP) - Officials say a Justice Department campaign against organized crime, begun in 1961, is succeeding. But they assert congressional tightening of purse strings is hampering the fightagainst the Syndicate.‘ We’re stretching and straining all the while,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. Fred M. Vinson Jr.. of the department’s Criminal Division, “but the fact is we’re having to rob Peter to pay Paul to keep our people in thefield.”MAKING INROADSVinson and Henry Peterson, head of the division's organized crime section, report highly mobile task forces of federal crime fighters are making inroads intoLa Cosa Nostra, but that more money is needed for additional men.The task forces, spearhead ofthe Justice Department's most recent efforts against organized crime, work with other federal agents in selected cities to pressure organized hoodlum elements.In Detroit, for example, they report 65 indictments—12 of them last Thursday.The task groups have infiltrated five areas so far, and are described by Justice Department officials as the biggest boon to organized crime-busting since Elliot NessSOME GAIN Like guerrilla warfare, it’s difficult, Vinson said in an interview, to pinpoint gain against the underworld. But he thinks that since 1961, when Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy began the present campaign, ‘‘the graph has levelled off and maybe has gone down a bit.”Some officials estimate it may take 10 years of vigorous effori to bring organized crime to heel.‘‘What you have to do,” Vinson says, is establish priorities hit them where it hurts.”This is the job of the taskforces, and two more groups leave the department for secret destinations within the next month Another two, Peterson disclosed, are on the drawing board” for early next year.But Vinson and Peterson complain they’ve been left by ('engross with inadequate funds to carry on the war.H FAT’S ONVinson says the department asked for 100 additional assistant I S. attorneys and got 65. He wanted 40 more lawyers forthe criminal division—a batteryof five is used in each task force—and didn’t get any. A demandfor funds to provide 200 more narcotics agents was halved But the heat's on. and there are reports of discomfort and movement in the underworld. \ inson said an indication thatthe task force scheme is beginning to pay off is the “obvious unwillingness of the second (Mafia) echelon to assume pow-
Newspaper Details
Big Spring Daily Herald
Big Spring, Texas, US
Sun, Nov 17, 1968
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Madison H.
NA, 25 May 2023
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