‘Mobster bookies ‘ busted

  A massive, mob-backed sports-betting ring was smashed yesterday when cops surprised 10 crew members with arrest warrants at their homes, authorities said.
 
 The defendants, allegedly associates of the Genovese and Luchese crime families, took roughly 10,000 bets a month in an operation that grossed $17.5 million a year, sources said. 
 
According to a source, the crew’s ringleader, Allen Sherman, 66, was tied to reputed Genovese underboss Venero “Benny Eggs” Mangano.
 
 Mangano, who was Genovese boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante’s driver, was recently released from prison at the age of 85.

The 10 defendants, from Staten Island, Brooklyn , and Long Island, were charged with conducting an illegal sports-betting operation in Brooklyn federal court.

Another two men named in the complaint were charged in Florida, and four more will appear in the Brooklyn courthouse later in the week, prosecutor Jeffrey Goldberg said. 

--Stefanie Cohen