[chris]

This FBI file concerns a 1970 investigation of Joseph Anthony Colombo and others for an alleged illegal gambling business in Brooklyn, New York. The New York Field Office sought approval to use concealed photographic coverage and later to apply for a court order to intercept oral communications at premises described as a numbers drop. FBI memoranda and airtels state that informants and physical surveillance indicated a numbers operation handling more than $10,000 daily and allegedly controlled by Colombo, identified in the records as a La Cosa Nostra leader. The release includes internal approval memoranda, correspondence with the Attorney General, and notice that the Criminal Division authorized a Title 18 surveillance application in November 1970; numerous pages were withheld or redacted.

FBI file number: NY 182-120 | Documents span: 1970 | Released in 1 part
Names in this file: Joseph Anthony Colombo, J. H. Gale, W. B. Soyars Jr., Will Wilson
Subjects: organized crime, illegal gambling, numbers operation, electronic surveillance, Brooklyn