U.S. Busts Vodka Smugglers By William K. Rashbaum August 22, 2000 NEW YORK - Over the last two years, a federal investigation into Russian and Italian organized crime in the ports of Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, turned up the expected mix of mundane mob staples: extortion, cigarette smuggling, money laundering. But federal agents said they also came across a bit of criminal enterprise that for pure creative corruption struck them as remarkable: loose-knit web of companies was smuggling tens of millions of gallons of American-made grain alcohol - including some from one of the country's oldest distilleries -...