Blaz sought way around P.R. Parade
MAYOR DE BLASIO’S team was scoping for alternatives amid the controversy over the Puerto Rican Day Parade’s honor of Oscar Lopez Rivera — asking if the mayor and Police Commissioner James O’Neill could march in a different parade the same day in Brooklyn, according to the parade organizer.
Local activist Dennis Flores, who runs the Sunset Park Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival, said senior City Hall staffer Marco Carrion approached him and asked about the mayor and top cop joining the march.
“They definitely wanted to march in the parade, and were just trying to feel the temperature to see if I would be receptive,” Flores told the Daily News.
“They were trying to figure out what to do,” he said. “They just said, ‘Look, there’s a lot of issues with the Oscar thing — we don’t know what to do.’ ”
De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips denied the request took place. “None of that is true,” he said.
Former FALN leader Lopez Rivera declined the honor of “National Freedom Hero” last week.
De Blasio had publicly maintained that he planned to march in the Manhattan parade regardless of the honor — but said this week that he actually didn’t want to participate if the militant remained an honoree. NEARLY three dozen reputed Russian mobsters were hit Wednesday with federal charges alleging a variety of gangland crimes, according to court filings.
Of the 33 alleged wiseguys charged, 23 face racketeering conspiracy charges for their work under Razhden (Brother) Shulaya, an indictment alleges.
Shulaya, part of an “order of elite criminals from the former Soviet Union,” orchestrated standard mob offenses such as trafficking stolen cigarettes. His goons also tried cheating casinos in Atlantic City with “electronic devices and computer servers” to rig slot machines, the feds allege.
The alleged mobsters operated in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada and abroad, prosecutors claim.
Two are accused of conspiring to commit murder for hire. The feds have arrested 25 of those charged, an FBI official said.
Contact information for the lawyers of those accused was not immediately available.