rackets

Chavez told the jury — at times through tears — that he got in over his head with clients who threatened him into going along with their rackets.

As it played, the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus started a Mexican Wave while brandishing football rattles and tennis rackets.

But analysts and law enforcement officials say that emboldened cartels are spreading fear in races at the local level as they expand their reach into extortion rackets, migrant trafficking and food production.

The charges unsealed this week show little has changed in the operations of the jail rackets since Torres first implemented them while awaiting trial 20 years ago.

Among the rackets Bongiovanni is accused of protecting is Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club, a strip club outside Buffalo described by prosecutors as a haven for drug use and sex trafficking.