Ball Field Bugs Help Catch Mob Guys - I

Audio Transcript

Mr. Schiff: Bugs at a baseball field. No, not those kinds of bugs. Microphones and transmitters! Retired FBI Special Agent Robert Lewicki was in the New York office for a long time investigating organized crime…

Mr. Lewicki: "The equipment that we used, and this is back in the year 2000, was state of the art technology.”

Mr. Schiff: Lewicki and other FBI agents knew alleged mob members met at a high school ball field on Long Island…

Mr. Lewicki: "These were older gentlemen so these guys would like to sit down. That might be in the bleachers, for example, or behind home plate, behind the backstop.”

Mr. Schiff: One case involved extortion of a landowner and racketeering; threats and large payments. Lewicki says late night ball field discussions were very helpful…

Mr. Lewicki: "The tapes, in their own words, they provided unequivocal evidence of their membership and affiliation going back decades in the Colombo crime family.”

Mr. Schiff: Lewicki says talks went far and wide …

Mr. Lewicki: "Really everything from A to Z going back years.”

Mr. Schiff: One subject in the case got 18 months in prison and the other three-years probation. I’m Neal Schiff of the Bureau and that's the FBI's Closed Case of the Week."