Wholesale fish market's relocation put on hold after Mafia-related talk

NEW YORK (AP) - A judge put the relocation plans of the nation's largest wholesale fish market on ice Friday after hearing claims that it could be vulnerable to Mafia infiltration when it moves to its new site.

State Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead extended a restraining order blocking fishmongers from taking over unloading duties at the Fulton Fish Market, which is moving to the Bronx after more than 180 years on the Manhattan waterfront.

Sellers insist they cannot pay the costs associated with the new, more sanitary market unless they take over the unloading. They say they can operate faster and cheaper than current unloader Laro Service Systems.

Laro was installed by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1995 to take over the historically mob-tainted business of unloading fish trucks. The mob had been using the unloading service to extort payments from sellers dependent on quick service in the highly time-sensitive, $1 billion-a-year fish market.