Suspected Mafia boss Gotti charged

Alleged Mafia boss John "Junior" Gotti has been charged with conspiring to murder and traffic cocaine.

Gotti is said to have helped organise the murder of three men between 1988 to 1991.

Five other suspects were also indicted by a grand jury in Tampa, Florida, on murder, drug trafficking and other charges after a joint investigation between the FBI and police in New York and Florida.

Gotti, 44, who was earlier arrested at his Long Island home, has escaped conviction on racketeering charges linked to his late father's crime organization three times.

On all three occasions, judges declared mistrials because jurors failed to reach a verdict.

Gotti said he had quit the Gambino crime family after taking control from his father and has been law-abiding for years.

Federal prosecutors allege Gotti and the New York-based Gambinos have been involved in murder, kidnapping, bribery, extortion, gambling, jury tampering and other crimes from 1983 to the present.

The new charges allege Gotti has held several roles in the family including de facto boss.

His father, John J. Gotti, was known as the "Teflon Don" for escaping conviction three times. The elder Gotti was eventually convicted of racketeering charges and died in prison in 2002.

The latest indictment alleges the family publicly shot, stabbed, beat and murdered people in order to "create and maintain fear and dread in others."

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