Word: fbi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...usually does, the FBI credited its "intensive investigation" and "confidential informants" with breaking the case. In fact, FBI agents, New York undercover cops and even such gangwise newsmen as Jimmy Breslin, who first detailed the robbers' troubles, knew where to begin looking right after the sensational heist. They all searched their files and memories for the names of former habitues of Roberts Lounge, a bar near the airport where known cargo thieves, airline cargo handlers and plainclothes cops mingled, drank and bet on horses. The bar changed hands two years ago, but its current customers buzzed with gossip about...
...parole from an armed-robbery conviction. Unable to resist enjoying his new wealth, he ordered a sporty 1979 Thunderbird -and paid for the car with $9,000 in cash. He also bought a new Cadillac for his girlfriend. Before he picked up the T-bird, however, FBI agents fitted it with an eavesdropping bug and a small radio transmitter that constantly signaled its whereabouts. Sepe's next mistake was to boast about the Lufthansa caper to passengers in his car -taped conversations that the FBI found most interesting, especially those with Peter Gruenewald, who worked as a Lufthansa cargo...
...role. When Gruenewald seemed nervous about keeping his secret, Werner gave him $ 10,000 to buy his silence. Then Werner too began to flash his cash in public. He paid $10,000 for a GM Sportvan. And he paid in bills, a fact that became known to the FBI...
When agents began to question Gruenewald, he decided it would be prudent not to answer. Instead, he booked airline flights to Bogota, Manila, Tokyo, Taiwan, anywhere far from Queens. Learning of this, FBI agents decided they could wait no longer. They seized Sepe, whose beeping radio made his T-bird easy to follow, and they also grabbed Gruenewald and Werner. The good listener was charged as a material witness. The FBI hopes that his detention will lead gang members to feel that someone who knows a lot is telling all, thus causing even more falling out among the thieves...
While all this was going on, a third suspect in the theft, Thomas DeSimone, 32, was reported missing by his wife. DeSimone has a record of cargo thefts and had just served time for a truck hijacking. The FBI believes he was murdered in a dispute among the thieves over distribution of the Lufthansa loot. New York police are not so sure he is dead. Also thought to be a victim of the gang's dissension was Steven Edwards, 31, an ex-convict whose bullet-riddled body was found in his New York apartment...