Luchese Crime Family Underboss Sentenced For Murder

WHITE PLAINS, NY — The underboss of the Luchese crime family was sentenced Thursday. Audrey Strauss, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Steven L. Crea, 73, of Crestwood, will be going to prison for life following his conviction for the 2013 murder of Michael Meldish, conspiracy to commit racketeering and other felonies.

He also received a $400,000 fine and will forfeit $1 million.

Crea and three other co-defendants were convicted by a jury Nov. 15, 2019, following a six-week trial.

Strauss said Crea was the last of a dozen men arrested in 2017 to be sentenced for his crimes.

"For his role in the 2013 murder of Michael Meldish and other crimes, Crea will now spend the rest of his life behind bars," she said.

According to prosecutors, Crea was the underboss, or second-in-command, of the Luchese Family of La Cosa Nostra. They are one of the "Five Families" that constitute the Mafia in the New York City area.

From 2000 to his arrest in 2017, Crea helped lead the Luchese Family, which made millions of dollars in profit from crimes committed by the family's members and associates in New York City, Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Authorities said, in 2013, Crea helped orchestrate the murder of Meldish.

In May 2017, charges were filed against 12 members of the Luchese Family, including the acting boss, underboss, consigliere, four captains and five soldiers, for their commission of a wide array of crimes with the Mafia from at least 2000 up to and including 2017.

With the exception of one captain who died before his case was resolved, every Luchese Family member charged in this case either pled guilty or was convicted at trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

SEE ALSO: New Ro Man Pleads Guilty To Murder, Racketeering Conspiracy

Like Hudson Valley Patches' Facebook Pages.