The mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus, a state assemblyman and dozens of others were rounded up early Thursday as the F.B.I. swept across four counties in New Jersey as part of a two-year corruption and money-laundering investigation, the authorities said.



The case ranged from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn and has even reached into the State House in Trenton. It began with bank fraud charges against a member of the insular Syrian Jewish enclave centered on the seaside town of Deal, N.J. But when that man became a federal informant and posed as a crooked real estate developer offering cash bribes to obtain government approvals, the case mushroomed into a political scandal that could rival the most explosive and sleazy in New Jersey’s recent past.

Among the roughly 30 people arrested by midmorning were Mayor Peter J. Cammarano III of Hoboken and Mayor Dennis Elwell of Secaucus, both Democrats, and Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, a Republican from Forked River, in Ocean County. Mr. Cammarano, who turned 32 on Wednesday, was elected mayor June 9 and sworn in July 1, after serving as councilman at large since 2005.

Also taken to the Newark office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were the president of the City Council in Jersey City, Mariano Vega, and the city’s deputy mayor, Leona Beldini.

Agents also raided the home of Joseph V. Doria Jr., commissioner of the state’s Department of Community Affairs, who also is the former mayor of Bayonne, an official confirmed Thursday morning.

The United States attorney’s office in Newark scheduled a news conference for noon.

Also among those arrested were several rabbis from enclaves of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn and in Deal and Elberon, communities along the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County.

The timing of the investigation dovetails with the timing of bank fraud charges against Solomon Dwek, son of the founders of the Deal Yeshiva, a religious school that teaches children in the Sephardic Jewish tradition. Mr. Dwek passed a $25 million bad check at a PNC Bank branch in 2006, according to The Asbury Park Press. In the investigation, a cooperating witness posed as a real estate developer looking to build in Hoboken.

There, in a diner, prosecutors charge in their complaint, Mr. Cammarano eagerly agreed earlier this year to help the fake developer with his projects in exchange for cash. When the man asked for assurances that his requests would be expedited by the Hoboken City Council, Mr. Cammarano replied, “I promise you,” adding, “You’re gonna be, you’re gonna be treated like a friend.”

The fake developer responded that he would give a middleman $5,000 in cash for the mayor and another $5,000 after Mr. Cammarano’s mayoral election.

“O.K.,” Mr. Cammarano replied, according to the complaint. “Beautiful.”

And Mr. Cammarano expressed confidence that he would be elected, no matter what, according to the complaint. “Right now, the Italians, the Hispanics, the seniors are locked down,” he is quoted as saying. “Nothing can change that now. ... I could be, uh, indicted, and I’m still gonna win 85 to 95 percent of those populations.”

Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark, who has fought corruption in New Jersey’s largest city, told The Star-Ledger it was “an unbelievable morning so far.”