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March 15, 1996
The boss: The elected head of the Cosa Nostra, its operations manager in a city. According to the FBI, the Metro Detroit boss since 1979 has been Jack William Tocco, 69, of Grosse Pointe Park.
The commission: A group of bosses from Cosa Nostra families in New York, Chicago and other major U.S. cities making decisions concerning matters affecting all of the families.
Capos or captains: Members who participate with the boss in decisions concerning the affairs of the Cosa Nostra. Suspected Metro Detroit capos are Anthony Joseph Zerilli, 68, of Sterling Heights; and Tony Giacalone, 77, Anthony Joseph Tocco, 65, Vito William Giacalone, 73, and Anthony Joseph Corrado, 60, all of Clinton Township.
Numbers: Betting on a lottery. In this case, investigators charge gamblers used the same three daily winning numbers as the Michigan lottery in the Metro Detroit operation.
Protection: Collecting payments under threat of harm; extortion, usually against those unlikely to call police because they're profiting from numbers, bookmaking or other illegal enterprises.
Loan-sharking: Making loans at excessive rates -- allegedly more than 10 percent a month in the Metro Detroit case -- and using threats to collect.
RICO: An acronym that stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The act was passed to fight organized crime. Its key provisions make it a crime to commit a pattern of racketeering acts in conducting the affairs of an "enterprise." Racketeering acts include robbery, murder, arson, fraud, drug dealing or the use of violence and threat of force.