XM MLB Chat: Cops raid NYC newspaper circulation offices in union probe

NEW YORK — "Investigators in New York City raided circulation offices at some of the nation's largest newspapers Tuesday as part of a union corruption probe, a law enforcement official said.

Police officers working with the Manhattan district attorney's office
searched circulation offices of The New York Times in Queens, the New York Post and the Daily News in Manhattan, and El Diario in Brooklyn, the official said, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Investigators were seeking paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which packages and delivers newspapers across the region."...(AP)

"It's part of an investigation into corruption at the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers,
a Teamsters-affiliated union that packages and delivers newspapers throughout the New York City region.

Affected are circulation offices for the New York Times (Queens), the New York Daily News (Manhattan), the New York Post and El Diario (Brooklyn). It's not the first time this union has been the subject of a mob probe.

The Newspaper and Mail Deliverers, with some 1,600 members, has real power over the newspaper industry in the New York area.

Their packagers and drivers make possible the delivery of hundreds of thousands of daily newspapers. Without union cooperation, management might find delivery of its papers

suddenly difficult.

Union enforcers stand ready to make sure of this.

Back in 1992, police raided circulation offices at the Post and the Daily News. A probe by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office led to criminal charges against several union members, including