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After 35 years, arrests made for $6 million 'Goodfellas' heist

After 35 years, arrests made for $6 million 'Goodfellas' heist

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It was the centerpiece of Goodfellas, an inside job on a Lufthansa cargo plane that left a mafia crew with $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels in the final days of 1978. For years, the only arrest was one of the airline's cargo agents, the so-called "inside man." But now, more than 35 years later, more alleged culprits may be headed to prison.

The new arrests are part of a larger string of racketeering indictments in New York, targeted at organized crime. But a side effect of the indictment has shed new light on a case that many considered over and done. The supposed mastermind, James Burke, died while serving time in prison over unrelated charges, and while the relative complexity of the heist means many more people must have been involved, no further arrests were ever made. According to the New York Times, the latest break came in June when federal agents stormed a home in Queens that belongs to Burke's daughter. When the agents dug into the basement, they found human remains, spurring new questions, new warrants and now new arrests.