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A $6,000 theft at the Laborer's Local 91 union hall on Seneca Avenue -- characterized as an "inside job" by local law enforcement authorities -- was followed this week by news of yet another scam involving the troubled union local.
Sources close to the federal grand jury investigation into Local 91 now underway in Buffalo told the Reporter that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are currently examining gift certificates redeemed at Sam's Club, a local members-only grocery outlet on Porter Road, in an attempt to see whether they were illegally redeemed by union officials.
Local 91 has traditionally awarded the gift certificates at various holiday times throughout the year to union members who have amassed certain numbers of hours worked. But federal law enforcement officials are investigating allegations that certain union officers have been redeeming large numbers of the certificates made out in the names of members who did not work the required number of hours.
If proven, the allegations would constitute further evidence of theft against the union membership. On Sunday, Oct. 9, an employee of Local 91 entered the Seneca Avenue union hall to discover that a number of desks had been ransacked, according to city police reports.
Although "three knives" belonging to the union were found on the floor near the room where an estimated $6,000 was taken, no sign of forced entry was found, police said. Investigators believe that only someone with normal access to the building could have committed the robbery.
"That place is like a fortress," one top law enforcement official told the Reporter. "Breaking in there would make about as much sense as breaking into the Hell's Angels clubhouse or John Gotti's social club in Queens, New York."
The union local has been the target of a federal grand jury seated in Buffalo since February, 2000. Investigations are also reportedly underway at the Niagara County District Attorney's office, the county Sheriff's Department and the Niagara Falls City Police, sources said.
While some of the local law enforcement agencies are interested in specific acts, the federal investigation is seeking to establish "a pattern of intimidation and violence" that has caused Niagara County construction costs to skyrocket and created a climate of fear for contractors and members of other skilled trade unions working here.
Numerous contractors contacted by this newspaper said they refuse to work in Niagara County because of the threat of Local 91, and incidents of violence between Laborers and members of other unions have often wound up on the police files, even during the recent construction of the Niagara Falls High School.
In the meantime, the lack of work has reduced the annual incomes of many rank-and-file union members to less than $20,000 a year, while the union's boss, Michael "Butch" Quarcini pulls down a whopping $102,760 a year, more than the head of any other union local in Western New York. His daughter, Cheryl Cicero, became the No. 2 person in the organization this past summer, and is earning $89,713, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Union members were suspected by city police to be responsible for the destruction and theft of more than a ton of fieldstone from a pocket park on 24th Street in July and highly placed city officials told the Reporter that extortionate demands by Local 91 have kept a Buffalo Avenue hotel construction project in limbo for months.
Quarcini's former longtime top lieutenant, Dominick Dellaccio, quietly retired several months ago in the face of the various, ongoing investigations.