TRENTON – The State Attorney General’s Office says a grand jury has indicted Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., 44, of Ventor and more than 30 other people said to have ties with the New York-based Lucchese crime family.

Scarfo is charged with racketeering, conspiracy and gambling charges.

Authorities say Scarfo was the top capo of the New Jersey faction of the family until Ralph V. Perna of East Hanover deposed him in 2007.

The state grand jury indictment stems from Operation Heat, an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice that uncovered an international criminal gambling enterprise that transacted billions of dollars in wagers, primarily on sporting events, and relied on extortion and violence to collect debts.

The indictment also charges a former New Jersey corrections officer and a high-ranking member of the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the Bloods in an alleged alliance with the Lucchese crime family to smuggle drugs and pre-paid cell phones into East Jersey State Prison.

According to records reviewed by the Division of Criminal Justice, the gambling operation transacted an estimated $2.2 billion in wagers during a 15-month period and received and processed the wagers using password-protected Web sites and a Costa Rican “wire room” where bets were recorded and results tallied.

Attorney General Paula T. Dow said, “The Lucchese crime family allegedly employed sophisticated measures such as electronic record-keeping and offshore wire rooms designed to thwart detection of their illegal gambling activities by law enforcement.”

“I’m proud to say that their innovations did not stop our investigators from infiltrating their criminal enterprise and obtaining the evidence needed to indict their alleged top leaders in both New York and New Jersey.”