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http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...16Z_01_N18268508_RTRUKOC_0_UK-CRIME-HOFFA.xml
Hmm, who wants to put money down Jimmy Hoffa will be found?
ETROIT (Reuters) - Using body-sniffing dogs and heavy equipment, the FBI on Thursday began digging around a Michigan horse farm, pursuing what it said was the best lead to surface in two years on the 1975 disappearance of labour leader Jimmy Hoffa.
A team of 40 to 50 people began searching the site in Milford Township, about 35 miles (56 km) west of Detroit, on Wednesday morning, said Daniel Roberts, head of the Detroit FBI office.
"You can see from the amount of FBI and police department personnel out here that this is probably a very credible lead," Roberts said at a news conference. He described it as "the best lead I've seen come across on the Hoffa investigation" in his two years in Detroit.
"We plan to be out here for a couple weeks at least to make sure we've covered everything adequately," he said.
The horse farm is about 20 miles (32 km) away from where the legendary Teamsters union boss went missing on July 30, 1975.
Hoffa was last seen outside a Detroit-area restaurant where he was to meet New Jersey Teamsters' boss Anthony "Tony" Provenzano, a member of the Genovese crime family, and a local Mafia captain, Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone. He had called his wife to say no one else had shown up for the meeting.
His disappearance just before he embarked on a campaign to get re-elected to his post as president of the Teamsters sparked a nationwide investigation into what has become one of the great crime mysteries in American history.
Hoffa was declared dead in 1982, and numerous books and movies about his life have pinned his disappearance on mobsters who murdered him and disposed of his body because they did not want him interfering with their close ties to the union.
Roberts said the FBI had sent in teams from Chicago and Washington to help with the search. He also said Detroit police are helping with cadaver-sniffing dogs.
He said that "one of the major areas" the agency wants to dig is covered by a horse barn that may have to be removed.
The FBI has also brought in archeology and anthropology professors and students from Michigan State University (MSU) to help with the search, Roberts said.
"The MSU folks are helping us with the ability to look at the earth, find out if it has been moved and replaced. And they have the tools and knowledge to be able to do that," he said.
Roberts said "nothing significant" had been recovered on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta)
Hmm, who wants to put money down Jimmy Hoffa will be found?