Four years after a federal grand jury in New York indicted Philly Mob Boss Joey Merlino on healthcare fraud, racketeering conspiracy and gambling charges, the 57 year old wiseguy is finally a free man, sort of.
While Merlino will wrap up his 2 year prison sentence on gambling charges on July 27th, he still has a year of supervised release, much to his disliking. Merlino was released a year early from a medium security prison camp to a halfway house in West Palm Beach, then to house arrest at the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic.
“Skinny Joey” plead guilty to the gambling charge after a federal jury deadlocked following his first trial on the charges in the now infamous East Coast LCN investigation.
While Merlino has received visits from some of his South Philly friends throughout his incarceration, the high profile Merlino has been relatively low profile during this two year period. He has shunned invitations for media interviews and stayed off the radar, at one point telling friends not to post photos to social media sites.
It is unclear what Merlino plans to do next, although several mob insiders say Merlino is not interested in leaving Florida any time soon and has insisted repeatedly his criminal days are over. Sources also say that Merlino is in daily contact with friends in Philadelphia.
Merlino and 45 others were charged in August 2016 in a “sprawling and long running racketeering conspiracy” with leaders and members of the Genovese, Lucchese, Gambino, Bonanno and Philadelphia crime families. Their alleged crimes spread from Massachusetts to South Florida, according to prosecutors.
The charges ranged from racketeering conspiracy to arson, illegal trafficking in firearms and conspiracy. All of the defendants, except Merlino, cut deals with prosecutors and plead guilty to receive reduced sentences.
The other big names in the indictment with Merlino were Pasquale Parrello aka “Patsy” a reputed Capo in the Genovese Crime Family and Eugene “Rooster” O’Nofrio, reputed to be an acting Capo in the Genovese Crime Family. Parrello runs a restaurant in Bronx, NY called Pasquale’s Rigoletto.
One of the highlights of Merlino’s trial was surveillance video from a Christmas Party at Rigoletto during the alleged conspiracy. Government informant J.R. Rubeo set up the December 2014 party with $25,000 supplied by the FBI to lure all the wiseguys to one big gathering.
Several Philadelphia mobsters attended the party along with Merlino, including a Capo and acting street boss.
FBI Agent William Inzerillo testified at Merlino’s trial that “We supplied the money. We paid for the party. Over 20 people attended the party and we paid for all of them.” The menu reportedly consisted of gnocchi Bolognese and fettuccine amatriciana
The FBI reportedly even paid for the air fare for Merlino to fly up from from Florida to attend the “spaghetti set-up”party. His attendance there allowed federal prosecutors in New York to then charged Merlino in the Big Apple.
Investigators say Patsy Parello and Eugene “Rooster” D’Nofrio were also in attendance. The only time the three high level wiseguys were in the same location during the investigation.
Rubeo also captured Merlino, Parello and others on tape throughout the investigation, which was crippled when prosecutors disclosed alleged wrongdoing by several FBI agents connected to the case. Major charges in the case were dropped and defendants plead to lesser crimes.
