Gangland - 4/12/18

[Chucky]

This Week in Gang Land
By George Anastasia

Skinny Joey Wanted A Retrial But Took The Better Option

Gang Land Exclusive!In the end, it was an offer Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino couldn't refuse.

After battling federal prosecutors to a draw in a hard-fought racketeering trial earlier this year, the flamboyant 56-year-old life-long gambler has decided that the better bet is to take a plea deal with the government for the first — and he hopes the only time — in a long and storied career of forcing the law to prove its case before a jury of his peers.

A very important reason was that the usually hard-driving prosecutors in the so-called Sovereign District of New York agreed to give Skinny Joey an amazingly sweet plea deal — a guarantee that the most severe prison term the mob boss could receive from a judge who has publicly stated that he was a major organized crime figure is two years behind bars.

None of the 44 other lesser ranked wiseguys and mobs associates who copped plea deals rather than go to trial — not even the minor defendants who pleaded guilty to selling untaxed cigarettes — was allowed to plead guilty to a charge carrying a maximum sentence of two years behind bars.

As Skinny Joey well knows, it could have been worse.

The gambling and fraud charges listed in the four-count indictment against him could have brought a prison sentence of 10 years given Merlino's two prior federal convictions and his designation in the case as one of the leaders of an East Coast La Cosa Nostra Enterprise.

Despite the great deal, several sources have told Gang Land that Merlino was on the fence about taking the government's offer. Skinny Joey, whose lawyer described him at trial as a "degenerate gambler," wanted to go to trial again, but the thought of what a loss would have meant to his family convinced him to take the deal.

Merlino has an older daughter graduating from college in a few weeks and his younger daughter is on schedule to graduate in two years. If his sentencing falls right, he hopes to still be free for the first graduation and to have finished his latest prison term in time for the next one.

His change of tune — "The only thing I'll accept is an apology" was what he was telling associates after his mistrial — stems in part from advice from close friends, but also from his realization that he and his attorneys would not be able to present what they felt were some of their best arguments to the jury.

During the trial, his lawyers were barred from playing any secretly recorded conversations in which Merlino disavowed his mob connections and in which he said he would not get involved in anything illegal. Those comments, in conversations with key government informant John (JR) Rubeo, were ruled inadmissible by Judge Richard Sullivan.

Sullivan ruled the comments were self-serving and proved nothing. Merlino realized it was unlikely the judge would rule differently in a retrial.

Sources say Merlino has apparently agreed to plead guilty to one gambling charge — placing bets via the Internet. Three more serious charges, tied to medical insurance fraud and bookmaking , as well as the most serious charge, racketeering conspiracy, will be dropped, the sources say. And Merlino's sentencing guideline range will be between 10 and 16 months, those same sources say.

He is scheduled to appear before Judge Sullivan on April 27 to enter the plea. A sentencing hearing would be scheduled sometime after that.

In his prior skirmishes with the law, Skinny Joey has been convicted of an armored truck robbery and of racketeering. He was acquitted of murder, attempted murder and drug dealing charges. After his release to a halfway house in Florida in 2012, Merlino insisted that he was leaving his life of crime behind.

But federal authorities have a different perspective. They argue that despite relocating to Boca Raton, the transplanted South Philadelphia corner boy has continued to run the Philadelphia crime family.

In the current case Merlino was identified as the boss of the Philadelphia branch of Cosa Nostra, an allegation he has continued to deny.

Merlino has told associates that he was unjustly targeted in the case because of his reputation and alleged standing in the underworld. He has portrayed himself as a victim of overzealous prosecutors and less than reliable mob informants who were using him as a get-out-of-jail-free card.

In addition to the sweetened federal offer — and a chance to be home for both his daughters' graduations — reports that many jurors had been leaning toward conviction likely play a role in his decision. Court room sources placed the votes at 10-2 and 9-3 for conviction on insurance fraud and bookmaking charges even though Rubeo, the prosecution's key witness, came across as less than credible under heavy cross-examination by Merlino's long time, Atlantic City-based lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr.

But as is often the case in mob trials, it was the tapes that appeared to be Merlino's undoing. The credibility and motivation of cooperating witnesses like Rubeo can easily be challenged. JR was described by Jacobs in his opening statement to the jury as "an arch criminal," a mob associate who began cooperating after getting jammed up in a major cocaine trafficking case that could have landed the 43-year-old in jail for life.

Rubeo cut his loses and reduced his risk by recording hundreds of conversations for the FBI.

Those tapes proved damaging even though the defense raised questions about how well the FBI monitored Rubeo and how often he was able to turn his recording devices on and off.

On one tape Merlino accepted a $5,000 payment from Rubeo. On another he discussed a $20,000 score. Both were linked to the medical insurance fraud charges that were built around the bogus billing of insurance companies for highly expensive compound pain creams.

The jury also heard from Wayne Kreisberg, a Florida-based businessman who was a major player in the medical insurance fraud scam. Kreisberg , who was indicted in both New York and Tampa, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering and insurance fraud in a consolidated plea deal. He is to be sentenced in Tampa on April 26, one day before Merlino enters his guilty plea.

Kreisberg, 41, was described by Merlino's lawyer as a "lifetime fraudster" who operated behind the shield of more than a dozen shell companies and who has "been sued by everybody you can think of." He admitted to making about $6 million in the compound cream scam, telling jurors that a pharmaceutical company that was part of the scheme would manufacture prescribed pain creams for about $300 and then bill insurance companies for between $5,000 and $10,000 for a month's supply.

Doctors who were in on the scam, Kreisberg said, usually wrote prescriptions for a year's supply. Overall, Tampa authorities alleged, Kreisberg and his Florida associates generated $157 million in phony insurance payouts.

Kreisberg testified that another member of the Florida operation told him "Joey got a piece of the business." He also testified that he saw Merlino receiving envelopes stuffed with cash and that he paid Skinny Joey $100,000. That payment, he said, was made after Merlino claimed he had not received all the money he was promised.

Merlino has told associates that his only business dealings with Kreisberg were tied to his investment in Merlino's, a restaurant Skinny Joey had opened in Boca Raton.

Kreisberg said he had invested $95,000 in the restaurant but claimed Merlino stiffed him when the restaurant was sold. Kreisberg claimed from the witness stand that he should have received $200,000 based on his involvement in the defunct business.

How much of an impact that financial testimony had on the jury is impossible to determine.

Potentially more damaging was a tape played for the jury in which Merlino described himself and those around him as "gangsters" and another in which he and co-defendant and Genovese crime family capo Eugene (Rooster) Onofrio discussed the ease with which someone could get whacked.

"It's easy to kill somebody," Merlino said in a conversation that Rubeo recorded.
"It's simple," added Eugene (Rooster) Onofrio.
"You're my friend," Merlino continued. "You trust me. I tell you, `Listen, drive me home right now.' Get you in the car. I shoot you in the fuckin' head and it's over with."

While Merlino was not charged with any acts of violence in the indictment, that conversation underscored a key point that prosecutors tried to hammer home through the trial: Merlino was a dangerous mob leader to whom tribute had to be paid. And that, prosecutors argued and Rubeo testified, was why Merlino was on the receiving end of the fraud and gambling operations that were at the heart of the case.

If Merlino follows through in two weeks, the case that was announced with much fanfare in August of 2016 will be a smashing success for the government, at least on paper, since all 45 arrested defendants will have pleaded guilty to one crime or another. But in every plea deal, the most serious charge, racketeering conspiracy, was dropped.

Hardest hit was Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello, a Genovese crime family capo who was sentenced to 84 months, six months above the suggested guidelines for three counts of conspiracy to commit extortion. There is concern in the Merlino camp that Sullivan could do the same with Skinny Joey.

At the sentencing of co-defendant Carmine Gallo, a Florida-based Merlino associate, Sullivan described Skinny Joey as a major "organized crime figure" who used "wiseguys" and "wannabe gangsters" to collect payoffs and threaten debtors who owed him money.

That would indicate that it may not bode well for Merlino.

But most defendants (Gallo got four months of home detention and 20 months of probation) received less than two years in prison.

Merlino is hoping he will be among that group. And as Skinny Joey, a veteran of many sentencing disputes knows, even if gets the full two years, he'll have to do only 21 months, and still might be able to enjoy both daughters' college graduations.

G-Man's Merlino-Genovese Gaff Panned In South Philly

FBI Agent William Inzerillo, who was Rubeo's handler during most of the Merlino investigation, is not a favorite of the guys from Skinny Joey's old neighborhood in South Philadelphia.

Few agents are.

But Inzerillo's testimony had some wiseguys laughing and rolling their eyes when they heard that the G-man described the Philly mob as a subsidiary of the powerful New York group currently headed by Liborio (Barney) Bellomo.

'Yeah, you can take that to the bank," said one underworld wag sarcastically. "Where does the FBI get this stuff?"

Inzerillo, who acknowledged that he was not an expert on the Genovese organization, had testified that "From this investigation we found out that . . . the Philadelphia crime family, which is Joey Merlino, answers to the bosses of the Genovese crime family."

He said this in response to a question from Merlino's lawyer who was referring to an Inzerillo memo listing Merlino as a "capo" in the Genovese organization.

That's news to many of Merlino's friends who hang out at a clubhouse on Ninth Street.

It also might have been a surprise to the FBI agents in Philadelphia who were largely left out in the cold by their New York brethren during their probe but who continue to work cases against the indigenous local crime family.

There are, however, some historical points of reference to the Philadelphia-Genovese connection.

For years the Philadelphia mob had lined up with the Gambino crime family. This was especially true when Angelo Bruno was boss from 1959 through 1980. Bruno was a close friend of Carlo Gambino and much to the chagrin of his own soldiers, Bruno welcomed two of Gambino's distant cousins, Rosario and Giuseppe Gambino, to the Philadelphia area when in the late 1970s they opened a posh restaurant in Cherry Hill, NJ.

The Sicilian-born Gambinos would ultimately be jammed up for dealing heroin. They were believed to be part of the infamous Pizza Connection, an international Mafia drug trafficking operation.

Bruno's consigliere at the time, Newark-based Antonio (Tony Bananas) Caponigro, was less than pleased when the Gambino cousins were given carte blanche to operate in Bruno territory. Caponigro had been dealing heroin "on the sneak" because of Bruno's supposed ban on drug dealing for all family members.

Caponigro used back channels to put out feelers about taking Bruno out and was supposedly assured by Funzi Tieri, then a leader of the Genovese organization in North Jersey, that he had a green light.

Bruno was killed on March 21, 1980, a rain-soaked Friday night , after having dinner at Cous' Little Italy, a popular neighborhood restaurant. He was sitting in the passenger seat of his car (John Stanfa was his driver that night) parked in front of his South Philadelphia row home smoking a cigarette when a man wearing a trench coat walked up behind the car, pulled out a shotgun and blew a hole in the back of Bruno's head.

Many believe Caponigro was the shooter that night. He went to New York a few days later expecting to be anointed the new boss of the Philadelphia organization. Instead, his body was discovered in the trunk of a car in Bronx. He had been beaten, tortured and shot. Twenty dollar bills were stuffed in his mouth and his anus — signs that he had gotten too greedy.

Caponigro was apparently double-crossed by the Genoveses who had their eyes on a $2 million bookmaking operation he controlled in Newark.

Bruno's murder destabilized the Philadelphia organization. An internecine power struggle erupted. His successor, Philip (Chicken Man) Testa, was killed a year later. Testa's consigliere, Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo, went to New York to seek help.

Scarfo had spent two years in a New Jersey state prison for contempt when he refused to testify before a New Jersey State Commission of Investigation panel. In jail on the same charges at the time was a Genovese capo, Louis (Bobby) Manna. Manna and Scarfo became friends.

When Scarfo, who died in prison last year, headed north after the Testa murder, he sought out Manna. And when he took over the crime family, Little Nicky lined up behind the Genovese rather than the Gambino organization.

That didn't make the Philadelphia mob a subsidiary, but it did result in a shift of alliances that that appear to have continued through the 21st century.

The top three wiseguys snared by Agent Inzerillo and JR Rubeo were Joey Merlino and Genovese capos Patsy Parrello and Rooster Onofrio.

And sources tell Gang Land that Scarfo's son, who is also named Nicodemo, can be seen walking the yard almost every day, in a southern New Jersey federal prison with his dad's old Genovese pal — Louis (Bobby) Manna.


Warning From Joey Electric: Don't Get Caught On Tape

The Philadelphia mob is arguably one of the most recorded crime families in modern day history of the American Mafia. In the late 1980s George Fresolone, working for the New Jersey State Police, recorded hundreds of conversations, including his own making ceremony.

A few years later there were the federal bugs placed in a Camden law office where then mob boss John Stanfa and his associates discussed all manner of murder and mayhem. There were taps on the phone and listening devices in the Currier&Ives Room at the old Garden State racetrack that helped nail mob boss Ralph Natale and his crew in the late 1990s. After that came Big Ron Previte who strapped on a body wire and secretly recorded conversations for the FBI for nearly two years.

Reputed Philadelphia mob soldier Joseph (Joey Electric) Servidio said it best:

"Eighty percent of eyewitnesses get the wrong person," the South Jersey-based electrician told an associate while arguing that witness testimony is not always damaging.

"What you can't beat are tapes . . . with you saying that's what you did, you know?"

These words of wisdom were uttered during a meeting at Servidio's home in Marmora, just outside of Ocean City, back in February 2017. The problem for Joey Electric was the guy he was talking to was wearing a wire for the FBI.

Servidio, 58, and three other mobsters have been charged with drug dealing in connection with the two-year investigation in which the informant, identified by underworld sources as Anthony Persiano, and an undercover FBI agent posing as his friend, met with, set up and carried out drug deals.

Others charged in the case are Salvatore Piccolo, 66, Michael Gallicchio, 49, and Carl Chianese, 79.

Piccolo, who was named in a separate complaint, was charged with two meth transactions.

Servidio, Gallicchio and Chianese were charged with setting up a series of drug deals involving meth, heroin, fentanyl, tramadol and marijuana. There were also deals involving stolen cigarettes. The FBI got it all on tape. And sometimes on video surveillance cameras as well.

Gallicchio, according to a 67-page affidavit filed by FBI Agent Mark Hindle, was in the business of compressing heroin and other drugs into blue pills that were sold wholesale for $10 apiece. The pills, which were poured onto the burgeoning opioid market, sold for about $30 on the street.

All the defendants were picked up on tape, but Servidio is highlighted in the affidavit.

"The guy can't keep his mouth shut," said one underworld source. "That's always been his problem."

While he is identified as a member of the Philadelphia crime family, sources say he is affiliated with the Newark-based branch of the organization and reports to longtime capo Joseph (Scoops) Licata. There is some indication, however, that Servidio was wheeling and dealing without Licata's approval, which could create a different kind of problem for the talkative wiseguy.

On tape, according to the affidavit, Servidio is heard boasting about a murder he allegedly committed when he was 19; talking about an armored truck robbery he claimed he had carried out recently and discussing murdering a local drug dealer who apparently was talking trash about him.

There are also discussions about gun purchases.

"I'm a criminal," Servidio said at one point. "Everything I do is criminal."

He claimed that he didn't make enough money from his electrical contracting business because most of the work he did was for family and friends whom he didn't charge.

"I need like $250,000-a-year to break even," he said at another point.

In one of the more troubling comments, Servidio explained how a woman whose son had died of an overdose told him she hated all drug dealers except Joey Electric and asked why he trafficked in narcotics. While it's unclear what Servidio might have said to the woman, to his associate he said it was simply a matter of economics.

"It's the most money I can make," he said as the tape was running. "I like to spend money."

Bail and detention hearings have been held in federal court in Camden where the case is based. Servidio, Piccolo and Chianese , according to court documents, are all considering plea deals. All four defendants in the case have prior drug convictions.

Servidio did five years after pleading guilty to selling cocaine in 2006.

The three deals to which he copped included the sale of a three gram sample for $300, a quarter kilo of coke for $7,000 and a half kilo for $12,000.

All three sales were to a cooperating witness who was working for the FBI.

"These guys never learn," said a South Philadelphia wiseguy after the arrests were made back in March. "It's Previte all over again."

[Snakes]

An all-Philly GL, thanks. Any thoughts on these, Chucky?

[Chucky]

George had not written anything on the Servidio thing, I think he and Mayo face thought the other shoe would drop by now. Also, not surprised these guys are already considering plea deals, they would have been toast in court.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Goods pics this week.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[stevan tod]

Iam sick and tired of Merlino,Onofrio,Parello and Rubeo news.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the posts Chucky and SP.

Nothing new from Capeci.

[Ivan]

Thanks for the _readable_ Gangland post Chucky, as always.

This was worth reading just for the part about Manna and Scarfo Jr. being pals in prison.

[Snakes]

Iam sick and tired of Merlino,Onofrio,Parello and Rubeo news.

Maybe so, but there are others that were probably ready to burn Capeci's office down if he didn't cover it this week, so we have to find a happy medium.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Iam sick and tired of Merlino,Onofrio,Parello and Rubeo news.

Maybe so, but there are others that were probably ready to burn Capeci's office down if he didn't cover it this week, so we have to find a happy medium.

Snakes!!???
How could you ever, EVER, part with your truly awesome avatar?!!!!!!?

[cdc]

Interesting how an FBI agent could be so stupid to label Merlino a genovese capo. Must have lowered their standards.

[PistolPete]

Is The Rooster out of jail?

[Rocco]

Interesting how an FBI agent could be so stupid to label Merlino a genovese capo. Must have lowered their standards.

I have to assume he said this because of the wire where Merlino did not want to be in deep shit by not paying up to a Genovese Sports Book run by Pagano. Pagano sent word that he's gotta pay. I have to assume Merlino was testing the waters as he had to know it was a Westside owned Book he was placing bets into. OR like a typical scumbag move he was going to see if he could use his status to see if some low level associate would step up and absurb the loss. He was wrong the associate went back to Pagano and complained.