The FBI and NYPD Joint Organized Crime Task Force have arrested ten men in New York City today on charges of running a racketeering conspiracy as part of an organized crime effort. What’s notable is that these men and their crime family have alleged ties to the Russian mafia and to Donald Trump – raising the question of whether this move was made as part of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Trump and Russia.

The ten men arrested today are associates of the Bonanno organized crime family (source: NBC New York). But a bit of digging by the Democratic Coalition Against Trump has revealed that a lawsuit alleges that same crime family is partnered with Russian businessman Felix Sater (link). Sater has a long history of financial ties to both Donald Trump and the Russian mafia, and in fact has done prison time for his Russian mafia ties (source: Esquire). So it’s not difficult to draw a straight line from today’s arrests to Trump and Russia. But what is the FBI suddenly up to?

If today’s ten FBI-NYPD arrests are indeed related to the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, as the connections suggest, it may be an instance of rounding up the lower level mafia associates in order to see which of them is willing to cut a deal by selling out their bosses. This could also be a sign that the FBI is further along in its Trump-Russia investigation than had been believed, having completed its phase of gathering information externally, in favor of a phase of actively prompting little fish to flip on bigger fish, presumably leading all the way up to Trump and his direct associates. Contribute to Palmer Report