Former Philadelphia mob boss Joey Merlino was arrested in Florida Thursday as part of a sweeping East Coast mob takedown that snared dozens of alleged mafia members.
Advertisement
According to the unsealed indictment numerous perps were associates and soldiers of the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, and Luchese crime families. During the 1990s, Merlino began a mob war within the crime family and escaped numerous failed assassination attempts on his life.
Some of the crimes alleged to have occurred included extortion, arson, operating illegal gambling businesses, health care and credit card fraud, selling untaxed cigarettes, assault and firearms trafficking.
An indictment alleges the defendants put aside family animosity and joined forces, becoming “members of an organized criminal enterprise” known as “East Coast LCN Enterprise”.
Parrello, owner of an Italian restaurant on Arthur Ave.in the Bronx, allegedly ordered several underlings to break a nearby panhandler’s knees for bothering his customers. Two members of the enterprise working at the Yonkers Club set fire to a auto parked outside a nearby competitor’s operation, according to the indictment. His longtime lawyer Ed Jacobs, declined to comment on the allegations on account that he hadn’t yet examined the indictment.
Parello, 72, was also incriminated in an healthcare fraud scheme with Merlino and others that enlisted crooked doctors to build insurers for unnecessary and excessive prescriptions for costly compound creams in exchange for kickbacks.
Merlino, 54, was living in Florida after beating a pair of federal racketeering and murder cases in 2001 and 2004. He later served about three months in a Miami prison after he was caught associating with Philly mobster John “Johnny Chang” Ciancaglini at a Florida cigar bar in 2014. That violated the terms of his probation.
Advertisement
– FOX 29’s Dave Schratwieser reports reputed Philadelphia Mob boss Joey Merlino has been indicted by federal authorities. The other crimes happened within that time span.
