The Philadelphia mafia is in a state of resurgence, although some believe the infamous Cosa Nostra family may have fractured into multiple factions.
According to reports the Philly mafia has approx 25-35 made men on the streets the most since the Scarfo era in the late 1980’s. The fact that the family is once again growing seems obvious, although the big question by those with eyes on the organization is its stability. Some believe there may be as many as three or four factions currently operating on the streets each led by a veteran Philly wiseguy. The leaders of these factions are believed to possibly include Joseph Merlino, George Borgesi, Phil Narducci, and Joseph Pungitore.
“Joseph Ligambi, Joey Merlino, Phil Narducci“
Many, including some in law enforcement, still believe that Joseph Merlino is the official boss of the Philly mob from his new home down in Florida. Joseph Ligambi who was rumored to be semi-retired after beating a federal RICO case is thought to have resumed his role as acting boss of the resurgent Philly mob. The hierarchy of the mafia family is believed to also include underboss Steven Mazzone and consigliere Joseph “Chickie” Ciancaglini. Could this established hierarchy point to the fact that the family may not be as unstable as some have thought. The Merlino faction wiseguys still seem to have a grip on the core of the family, despite the historic rift between this faction and Scarfo era guys in Narducci and Pungitore.
Perhaps the high ranking posts of Ligambi, Mazzone, and Ciancaglini who seem to be respected across the board have been able to bring the family together under a single flag. If Ligambi and his current lieutenants have been able to calm the waters and dilute the bad blood between the old and new era factions the mafia in Philadelphia could be more organized than many believe. It seems just as likely that the crews led by Narducci and Pungitore could be on the streets doing their own things refusing to recognize the established hierarchy under Merlino. There have even been rumors of Borgesi with the help of a newly established crew making moves to re-establish his position within the family as well after internal disagreements with other high ranking wiseguys in the Merlino faction over his old rackets.
Perhaps Merlino is retired and no longer in the mob life as he has repeatedly said since being released from prison and is simply down in Florida living the good life. If so then the friction between the Scarfo era mobsters and his old faction may no longer exist, making the crime family a more tight nit group. Has the theory of the family being split into different factions been overblown? The Philly mafia may not be a well-oiled machine but perhaps it’s regained more of its traditional structure then recent theories suggest.
An interesting question. Perhaps the family over in Philly isn’t as dysfunctional as they seem these days. Sure seems like they are back to earning.
I can’t understand why people thnk thse guys cnt do thngs the rght way… Imo the only dysfunctional family award goes 2 the rizzuto family. The philly guys hve been on the streets together for almost a yr or so. Thre has been no violence only a few sit dwns. Even the guys frm NY has seen the change in the Philly gme plan to get bck on track and hve been traveling bck and forth hvng sit dwns wth sme of the higher ups wthin the family.The only concern one may hve is borgesi and his attempts to gain support inside and outsde the family, sme may see tht as trouble dwn the road. But other than tht everything and everyone seems to be doing just fine. They (reporters) seems to 4get tht the Bruno family still has the north jersey and south jersey crews which should mke current number of made guys slightly inaccurate… Ijs
i can count 30 made guys latest chart suggested around the early 30s still a joke of a family boss on social media poker machines and low scale gambling the piece of the pie has shrunk and i dont understand why these reporters act as if the real estate is a new thing nicdemeo was involved in real estate apparently worth 1mil when he went away in 2012 and stanio and ,ligambi were both heavily involved in it throughout the 2000s borgesi flipping homes is not a new thing and joey pung? how dumb are these reporters its not a new thing he is involved in that before he went away in the 80s he was involved in real estate
Ok I hre u, & yeah sure u can tlk about them not being powerful & all tht.hell u can even say they’re dead last in income compared 2 all the other families thts left in the country.no matter wht u say tht family is stll thre, u cnt compare everything to the NY families and how they run thre sht.NY has had more snitches in thse families than any others combine since the Rico was established..wht I was pointing out is tht everybdy including urself thght thse guys would strt shooting and killing eachother once everybdy was out & tht hsnt been the case.the pie cnt be but so small,they’re stll opening the books guys are joining for a reason……ijs
true i did believe there would have been violence i did not expect philip to go out on his own. Philly has had alot of rats over the years its nothing compared to NY but like you said it is viable and active but the feds are going to get them the clock is ticking its because of joey merlino and ligambi they will never accept that merlino and ligambi beat them the feds want revenge look at this
FBI Launches Major Probe Into Philadelphia Mob
The FBI has tripled the size of its squad in Philadelphia and has brought in a well-seasoned supervisory agent from New York to oversee what appears to be the formation of a new Organized Crime Strike Force, reliable sources have told Cosa Nostra News.
One of the operation’s key goals is reportedly to nail Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi and his top associates for three unsolved gangland hits in the city. Those murders were committed while Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, reputed official boss, and former consiglieri/Ligambi nephew George Borgesi were in prison.
The Fed’s also are aggressively investigating a mobster considered Ligambi’s chief shooter from back when “Uncle Joe” was tasked with holding together a badly battered and fractured Cosa Nostra family. That was the backdrop against which the three murders, now intensely being scrutinized, were committed.
That shooter is reputed Philadelphia captain Michael “Mikey Lance” Lancelotti, 51, who reportedly now assists in the running of the family’s daily operations after recovering from cancer. Lance was a shooter, likely for both Merlino and Ligambi.
Lancelotti “never came up in any of the major RICO trials that put lots of guys away, ” a source told CNN.
Merlino inducted Mikey Lance in the 1990s, bolstering Merlino and Stevie Mazzone’s efforts to win the family war with Sicilian-born boss John Stanfa, who is now serving life for racketeering and murder.
Gangster Report noted that it was told by a retired FBI agent that, “We heard Lance was possibly one of the shooters in the Joey Chang hit and Merlino planned it and was in a car nearby monitoring things.”
Ligambi, when he rose to acting boss after Merlino went away, created a tight-knit inner circle that included longtime Philadelphia mobsters such as Joseph Massimino, Gaeton Lucibello, and Lancelotti.
The three hits said to be part of a larger probe into the re-surging Philadelphia crime family are John “Johnny Gongs” Casasanto, a young mob soldier who couldn’t keep it in his pants and was reportedly seeking to join New York’s Gambino crime family; Ronnie Turchi, hit in 1999; and Raymond “Long John” Martorano, who was whacked in 2002.
Members of organized crime in Philadelphia have indeed kept law enforcement busy in recent months, as reported.
Federal, state and local law enforcement entities are indeed surveilling mobsters as they move in and out of the new social club on 11th and Jackson. They are monitoring the group’s moves into Philadelphia’s booming home building/home renovation business, which has fueled the vibrant construction work seen across the city.
Ligambi is back in harness, serving as acting boss, with Stevie Mazzone reportedly serving as underboss.
Beneath the seemingly tranquil surface there may be as many as four factions vying for control, with the very visible and very active Borgesi making moves all over the place.
Today, the crime family has about 30 to 40 members on the street; plus several new members, who were recently inducted. The Philly mob hasn’t been this large since the bloody days of Nicky Scarfo’s reign.
The FBI’s Philadelphia organized crime squad was enlarged from around 3 to 4 agents, to 12, and a veteran supervisor was brought in from New York. Sources wouldn’t identify him for non-disclosed reasons, but another source said the agent is believed to be a former head of the Gambino squad.
This enlargement of the FBI unit to monitor the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra clan, which interestingly hasn’t been named after a boss since the violent Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo era is likely part of a new Organized Crime Task Force that would include state and local law enforcement agencies, as well, sources said.
This follows a few moves made by elements of the Philadelphia-based Cosa Nostra clan that raised the Mafia family’s profile in both media reports as well as media reports. The Philadelphia mob recently opened up a social club and also inducted five new members last October. News of the ceremony was quickly leaked to the media.
“Borgesi is in full-throttle,” said one source, noting that he’s been very visible lately, visiting the club on 11th and Jackson Streets. He’s also been holding meetings there supposedly with gangsters from other regions of the country.
“Uncle Joe” has been seen going to the club less frequently.
Still, all of them are under major surveillance, sources said, with one noting, “The Feds are watching them like a hawk.”
Cosa Nostra Clan Made Five
Among the newly initiated members of the crime family (two appear specifically to have been put forth by Borgesi, sources told Cosa Nostra News) are:
George Borgesi’s younger brother, Anthony;
Steven “Handsome Stevie” Mazzone’s brother, Salvatore “Sonny” Mazzone;
David “Dave” Salvo, one of two brothers who served as Borgesi’s emissaries while he was on parole (David also allegedly was Ligambi’s driver for a time, earlier in “Uncle Joe’s” tenure as boss);
Anthony Accardo, a violent associate who was one of about a dozen local mobsters indicted in 2000 on a slew of racketeering charges.
Accardo pleaded guilty but refused to testify against reputed mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino and other mob members.
This is likely a key reason he got his button. As prosecutors said at the time, Accardo had bolstered his street cred exponentially and is now viewed by area gangsters as “a stand-up guy.”
“He will be in a perfect position to step right back into these criminal actions” when he gets out of prison, the prosecutor predicted.
Ligambi, 72, is known as the peaceful Don who cooled down flaring tempers and stabilized a crime family riven by decades of strife and rampant violence that began with the spectacular shotgun murder of Angelo Bruno in 1980 and continued on through the regimes of Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, John Stanfa, and Ralph Natale, then Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, who, along with the family’s young turks, had fought an open war against boss Stanfa for control. (Natale has been described as a front boss for Merlino when Merlino went off to prison.)
Ligambi, part of the Scarfo gang, also had ties to Merlino’s father and showed he had the chops to be boss and keep the family together. Ligambi gets kudos (ironically from both law enforcement and the Five Families) for stabilizing the troubled Philadelphia-South Jersey branch of the American Cosa Nostra, thereby ending the violence.
He also revived the crime family, which was close to extinction.
Compared to 2002 to 2012 the Philly mob has more muscle and wisdom nowadays…And serious and capable men then in long time. Yes agreed multiple factions….but Philly mob is still alive and breathing..
And in next year or so it will be extremely interesting how this situation with multiple factions play out..
definitely one of the more interesting families to follow through out the year esp if these factions are as split as it seems.
its alive and breathing i am not doubting that i am just saying the power of this family is being exaggerated. It was smaller between 2002 and 2012 but it was a small tight knit family who for the leaders made good amount of money apart from the scarfo trouble 2007-9 and the 10th and orgeon not many problems. Today there might be more guys but not a close a family whenever joey is there is trouble they even made sonny mazzone which tells you about the quality of guys getting made
Faffy’s out now too. Shit is gonna get real. If there smart they got to go underground, lay low. You know they got to be reading this shit. I would be if I was them. Let bigshot Georgie boy take the heat. Joey needs stay in Florida . Uncle Joe stay home.And shut that fuckin clubhouse down!
Yeah faffy has been out bout a month or so.interesting they hvent even mention him and he is a force….ijs
faffy i am hearing all sorts about some are telling me he promied his family he is planning to go straight i dont believe it faffy is a treacherous guy i am telling you know he will cause trouble he is a natural trouble maker a real tough guy he WILL NOT be with merlino joey hates faffy he never forgot how faffy treated chuckie back in 85 when scarfo was beefing with chuckie scarfo calls faffy and tommy del to ac faffy beefs on chuckie says he is drunk all the time running his own crew acting like a rat all of this faffy betrayed tommy del and i know he beefed on salvie.
i think he will work on his own really he might have some things going on with joey pung and that crew but i doubt he will go near philip.
but like i said he could do a charlie white ( a real gangster) and retire
Yeah he (faffy) may get bck into the gme b4 long, but I do thnk ths tme it’ll be smethng low key. I thnk the real issue is tht alot of thse guys hve dne long stretches in the Bing and I thnk they hve learn to let kooler heads prevail. They knw they are being watch by errbdy.it may be a good thng to hve it the way thngs are at ths point.the feds may be deep in philly but it seems they don’t hve a clue whre to strt rebuilding sme cases on the higher ups…ijs
I agree. There’s only 3 ways the Feds build cases-(1)Plant bug in a location(house, car,person), (2)Wiretap phone, (3)Get somebody to flip. When do they ever get caught in the act? Except for Anthony Nicodemo in the dumbest mob hit ever!
joey is a troublemaker whenever he is around there is trouble he came down to margate with the guys sonny mazzone battered his own ex wife in front of a bar full of guys embarrassing really trying to impress guys
and johnny chang having that kid joey baldino around is a mistake…
Yes, but Joey didn’t like that heat. I heard Mazzone got his ass chewed out for that. Scarfo liked guys who knew how to keep a broad tuned up..lol. I think Joey has matured, he’s smarter. No headlines. He knows they got a hard on for him. Joey’s not stupid. I heard they follow him 24/7. Say what you want Joey’s a streetguy. My guess is Georgie boy gets caught up in something before anybody.The rest of the guys just need to lay low
Exactly, Georgie is or will be the one who may be first on the feds sht list, he’s been in an uproar since he got out and the feds or the family may hve 2 deal wth ths guy b4 he really does smethng tht could hve major repercussions on errbdy…. Ijs.
I agree100%. The guy is a problem.
joey is good luck for himself bad luck for everyone around him just look back at history. Has he matured? when he was inside he was gambling in prison causing problems being joey there was the johnny gongs incident he is the boss and is in on social media…….
i agree he is smart he is a street corner gangster i agree with that balls yes but suitable for running a family a top guy in the late 90s from the westside came down telling joey to come to new york that tino f wanted to see him that the chin was asking tino to speak to him joey tells NY to go f**k themselves saying he is not going to end up like capringo new york couldent believe it haha. Ligambi repaired relations in the early 2000s but at first in 1999 gambino and genovese family backed pete caprio to kill ligambi borgesi and steve mazzone hit never went through though because casale a associate in caprios crew was wearing a wire caprio then flipped rest is history
joey back in the 90s him and his crew caused havoc bookies good guys getting terriorized joey could never run a book did not have the head for it had the muscle but he was a degenrate he would gamble tens of thousnads into books and never pay when he lost he became a real joke for alot of guys he then started betting into steve mazzone and johnny changs books danny Ds borgesis and prevites he ran up 212k in debts in prevtites book never paid. He forced several bookies to flip some fled the city the guy is trouble everyone around gets screwed over everyone
Good points. He was smart to get into Previte’s book though, and to not go to NY. That’s Joey. He says he’s got the devil on his shoulder, he might be right,lol. He knows the streets. Nobody gets away with shit like him , with the cops or the other families . The guy knows how to navigate.
Agreed and he seems to have learned along the way and will def be much harder for the feds to grab on to this time around as compared to round 1.
i amazed he has lasted so long he knows the streets and is very very lucky. He survived scarfo in the 80s after chuckie got shelved charlie white and nicky the crow told him he cant go around social clubs anymore that he was a dead man walking he was terrrified the scarfo mob were real killers marty angleni helped hide him when scarfo junior and tory scadfi found out on scarfo seniors orders they beat marty up with bats. If the feds had not busted the scarfo mob when they did joey would have got killed him chuckie and lawrence
joey did some bad stuff in the 80s betting robbing mob guys he even screwed lawrences wife and family its why alot of guys dont like him. Joey pung hates him as joey merlino robbed his mums house when he was in prison but guys toleraed joey because of his father
after the scarfo bust joey sucsess is owed to his father and mikey chang because joey knew no one i mean he knew some guys on the street corner but the mob was bigger than that chuckie told him who to go and see and mikey chang knew guys. Ralph helped with NY connections though he was really a proxy for joey
he does have balls and is smart a real street guy not many like him
This is hardly a happy camp i would not say it is a mess but it is still the most dyfunctional family in the country and its piece of the pie is shrinking as years go on look at that last indicment 11 year investigation hardly anything powerful a real shadow of itself poker machines and low level loans a bit of a joke
Philip has NOTHING to do with the mob. He is independent he has the 10th and orgeon backing him apart from that he has some guys who are not made. His brother frank he went with the flow i hear he is involved. Steve offered philip a piece of the pie but he said no philip could have been part of these guys but he hates them he thinks they are a joke i hear even fell out with ligambi recently he hates johnny chang borgesi merlino joey pung all of them only guy he has any respect for is steve and he is not kicking up anything anymore. Recently joey baldino got smashed in the head with a glass by one of the 10th and oregon at a strip club joey baldino is philips nephew but philip hates him his own nephew joey baldino is a made guy with johnny chang
Joey pung has a crew is he part of the mob who knows he has his own crew i doubt he involved with merlino and those guys philip hates him because joey pung and salvie testa killed his father back in 82
Borgesi is beefing with marty angleni and merlino and johnny chang but he is close with steve he has alot going on he will end up back in the can.
As for joey he is keeping a real low profile
the feds are watching though the clock is ticking a indictment is coming the amount of law enforcement on joey and those guys at the moment is crazy they are going to get busted
Makes sense, but the word is 1 or 2 guys from Narducci’s camp just got made. If that’s the case, he has to be involved somehow. There is no doubt Philip is the real deal. Anybody who does 25 years in the can and keeps their mouth shut has my respect.
If i had to bet i would bet that Narducci was still involved in some capacity even if its not to the extent of what it was before we went away.
these guys are doing ok now but its a matter of time the feds have never forgot and will never forget about merlino and ligambi they beat them embarrased them they want revenge look at this
cosanostranews
FBI Launches Major Probe Into Philadelphia Mob
The FBI has tripled the size of its squad in Philadelphia and has brought in a well-seasoned supervisory agent from New York to oversee what appears to be the formation of a new Organized Crime Strike Force, reliable sources have told Cosa Nostra News.
One of the operation’s key goals is reportedly to nail Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi and his top associates for three unsolved gangland hits in the city. Those murders were committed while Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, reputed official boss, and former consiglieri/Ligambi nephew George Borgesi were in prison.
The Fed’s also are aggressively investigating a mobster considered Ligambi’s chief shooter from back when “Uncle Joe” was tasked with holding together a badly battered and fractured Cosa Nostra family. That was the backdrop against which the three murders, now intensely being scrutinized, were committed.
That shooter is reputed Philadelphia captain Michael “Mikey Lance” Lancelotti, 51, who reportedly now assists in the running of the family’s daily operations after recovering from cancer. Lance was a shooter, likely for both Merlino and Ligambi.
Lancelotti “never came up in any of the major RICO trials that put lots of guys away, ” a source told CNN.
Merlino inducted Mikey Lance in the 1990s, bolstering Merlino and Stevie Mazzone’s efforts to win the family war with Sicilian-born boss John Stanfa, who is now serving life for racketeering and murder.
Gangster Report noted that it was told by a retired FBI agent that, “We heard Lance was possibly one of the shooters in the Joey Chang hit and Merlino planned it and was in a car nearby monitoring things.”
Ligambi, when he rose to acting boss after Merlino went away, created a tight-knit inner circle that included longtime Philadelphia mobsters such as Joseph Massimino, Gaeton Lucibello, and Lancelotti.
The three hits said to be part of a larger probe into the re-surging Philadelphia crime family are John “Johnny Gongs” Casasanto, a young mob soldier who couldn’t keep it in his pants and was reportedly seeking to join New York’s Gambino crime family; Ronnie Turchi, hit in 1999; and Raymond “Long John” Martorano, who was whacked in 2002.
Members of organized crime in Philadelphia have indeed kept law enforcement busy in recent months, as reported.
Federal, state and local law enforcement entities are indeed surveilling mobsters as they move in and out of the new social club on 11th and Jackson. They are monitoring the group’s moves into Philadelphia’s booming home building/home renovation business, which has fueled the vibrant construction work seen across the city.
Ligambi is back in harness, serving as acting boss, with Stevie Mazzone reportedly serving as underboss.
Beneath the seemingly tranquil surface there may be as many as four factions vying for control, with the very visible and very active Borgesi making moves all over the place.
Today, the crime family has about 30 to 40 members on the street; plus several new members, who were recently inducted. The Philly mob hasn’t been this large since the bloody days of Nicky Scarfo’s reign.
The FBI’s Philadelphia organized crime squad was enlarged from around 3 to 4 agents, to 12, and a veteran supervisor was brought in from New York. Sources wouldn’t identify him for non-disclosed reasons, but another source said the agent is believed to be a former head of the Gambino squad.
This enlargement of the FBI unit to monitor the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra clan, which interestingly hasn’t been named after a boss since the violent Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo era is likely part of a new Organized Crime Task Force that would include state and local law enforcement agencies, as well, sources said.
This follows a few moves made by elements of the Philadelphia-based Cosa Nostra clan that raised the Mafia family’s profile in both media reports as well as media reports. The Philadelphia mob recently opened up a social club and also inducted five new members last October. News of the ceremony was quickly leaked to the media.
“Borgesi is in full-throttle,” said one source, noting that he’s been very visible lately, visiting the club on 11th and Jackson Streets. He’s also been holding meetings there supposedly with gangsters from other regions of the country.
“Uncle Joe” has been seen going to the club less frequently.
Still, all of them are under major surveillance, sources said, with one noting, “The Feds are watching them like a hawk.”
Cosa Nostra Clan Made Five
Among the newly initiated members of the crime family (two appear specifically to have been put forth by Borgesi, sources told Cosa Nostra News) are:
George Borgesi’s younger brother, Anthony;
Steven “Handsome Stevie” Mazzone’s brother, Salvatore “Sonny” Mazzone;
David “Dave” Salvo, one of two brothers who served as Borgesi’s emissaries while he was on parole (David also allegedly was Ligambi’s driver for a time, earlier in “Uncle Joe’s” tenure as boss);
Anthony Accardo, a violent associate who was one of about a dozen local mobsters indicted in 2000 on a slew of racketeering charges.
Accardo pleaded guilty but refused to testify against reputed mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino and other mob members.
This is likely a key reason he got his button. As prosecutors said at the time, Accardo had bolstered his street cred exponentially and is now viewed by area gangsters as “a stand-up guy.”
“He will be in a perfect position to step right back into these criminal actions” when he gets out of prison, the prosecutor predicted.
Ligambi, 72, is known as the peaceful Don who cooled down flaring tempers and stabilized a crime family riven by decades of strife and rampant violence that began with the spectacular shotgun murder of Angelo Bruno in 1980 and continued on through the regimes of Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, John Stanfa, and Ralph Natale, then Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, who, along with the family’s young turks, had fought an open war against boss Stanfa for control. (Natale has been described as a front boss for Merlino when Merlino went off to prison.)
Ligambi, part of the Scarfo gang, also had ties to Merlino’s father and showed he had the chops to be boss and keep the family together. Ligambi gets kudos (ironically from both law enforcement and the Five Families) for stabilizing the troubled Philadelphia-South Jersey branch of the American Cosa Nostra, thereby ending the violence.
He also revived the crime family, which was close to extinction.
Until i see Dave or George report this major probe well lets say i have some doubt. Are they being watched sure but i also dont trust these so called sources Ed always quotes out of no where. I have no doubt the families growth and all the made guys back on the streets have attracted some extra views from the feds, its nothing more so then normal until a proven source out in Philly confirms it. Just my two cents.
i agree john ed talks alot of rubbish he kicked me of that site ages ago because i disputed one of his facts but this is probably true the feds never ever forget about joey merlino and ligambi embarrased them they have a real hardon watch these two are going to end up in the can the feds never forget only guys they have ever hated more than joey is the gottis
Yes i def don’t doubt the feds are on Joey’s trail still and they are def keeping an eye on those other guys but that has been common knowledge forever now and not a breaking story of any kind. I just don’t think the rest of that stuff is well “accurate” as it comes from Ed who has def proven to be unreliable on multiple occasions in the past.
thats what scott reported i dont believe it i have high respect for scott but his information on philly has been proven to be inaccreute not surprising he should stick to Detroit stuff
philip hates these guys he despises johnny chang and joey baldino his own nephew and hates merlino.
He is not kicking up and to be honest he is not involved in the mob he has his own thing going on his own rackets but not with the mob he could have been with the mob they asked him to get back involved he said no he does not understand why frank followed them when he got out
he does not even like the other scarfo guys he hates everyone and things have gone too far now those guys merlino they are tired of him things have gone too far for that