Five men arrested three decades after 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK

[January 23, 2014]  NEW YORK (Reuters) — Five men believed to be mobsters were taken into custody on Thursday on charges of murder and other crimes linked to an infamous 1978 Lufthansa Heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport, an FBI spokeswoman said.

The arrests in the three-decades-old crime, made famous by the 1990 film "Goodfellas," were the result of an FBI search last summer at the New York home of James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, said FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser.

Burke, the suspected mastermind of the heist who died in prison in 1996 while serving time for the murder of a drug dealer. Robert DeNiro played a character based on Burke in the film.

(Reporting by Chris Francescani; writing by Barbara Goldberg; editing by Scott Malone)

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