Former Stone Park police lieutenant and mob bagman Thomas Tucker was sentenced Friday to nearly 5 years in prison on racketeering charges for passing payoffs to public officials in three western suburbs to protect mob-controlled video poker.
Tucker admitted he delivered cash bribes from mob boss Anthony Centracchio to officials in Stone Park, Northlake and Franklin Park in the early 1990s. In return, the officials offered protection for illegal gambling at bars and nightclubs, prosecutor Stephen Andersson said.
Tucker also acknowledged that he took bribes to ignore the gambling while he was on the Stone Park police force from the late 1970s until 1984, according to his plea agreement.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman sentenced Tucker, 65, of Franklin Park, to 57 months in prison, ordered him to forfeit $10,000 that prosecutors say he accepted in bribes and fined him$5,000.
Centracchio, the mob’s reputed top boss in the west suburbs who was indicted with Tucker, died last year.
