WISEGUYS PLAY THE MARKET

GAMBLING RING IS BUSTED IN HUNTS PT.

That's a lotta cabbage.

Tucked in among the bananas and potatoes at the Hunts Point markets in The Bronx, a Genovese -run gambling ring pulled in $1 million a year in green stuff, prosecutors charged yesterday.

The ring -run out of the New York City Terminal Produce Cooperative Market and the Hunts Point Cooperative meat market - allegedly offered sports and numbers betting to both customers and wholesalers.

Market-goers could allegedly place $50 on the Giants - or on their mother's birth date - even as they picked string beans or haggled over sides of beef.

"T

heir overall take was small," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

"What concerned us was that organized crime was trying to get a foothold into the Hunts Point markets. We are determined to rid these markets of any mob activity whatsoever," he added.

M

anhattan rackets prosecutors and NYPD organized-crime investigators announced the "fruits" of their 17-month-long probe - dubbed "Operation Rotten Apples" - after a morning in which 11 alleged Genovese, Luchese and Bonanno mobsters were arrested in their homes and on the streets.

Key among them is John Caggiano, 59, of Country Club Road in The Bronx.