New Jersey has had a long-held reputation as being somewhat sleazy. It was birthplace to slews of mobsters, gangsters and mafia thugs long even before HBO advertised that fact in their Jersey-set drama The Sopranos.But what happened today really took the biscuit - with the FBI raiding mayoral offices in Hoboken and Secaucus (two incredibly wealthy commuter suburbs of New York City) and arresting over 30 people - included both Mayors!
Peter Cammarano III (Mayor of Hoboken) and Dennis Elwell (Mayor of Secaucus) are both spending their Thursday in Claremont Tower, the FBI's NJ headquarters. They've been arrested on charges of corruption, amidst allegations of international money laundering.
Also nabbed in the raid were Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt - leaving some people to wonder who exactly is left to run the state while some of their biggest movers and shakers are behind bars!
What elevates this story from 'obscure' to just plain 'bizarre' is that a slew of rabbis from New York City and New Jersey have also been arrested - raising many eyebrows and leaving most of us wondering just what this conspiracy was and how far it went.
Newark Major Cory Booker (a former Oxford alumni) described the events discreetly: "It's been an unbelievable morning so far."
That politics in New Jersey are corrupt is no surprise - but the fact that the FBI is actually doing something about it is. I think this is going to be a pretty explosive story when we finally learn more!
