Back in the Slammer Again
Former Stanfa bodyguard pinched on racketeering, steroid-possession charges.
Do handcuffs come in extra large? Last week, FBI agents and the New Jersey State Police arrested Vincent "Vince" Filipelli, a hulking 260-pound bodybuilder and ex-bodyguard for onetime Philly mob boss John Stanfa. The feds are claiming the 53-year-old Cherry Hill resident ran an illegal sports-betting operation.
The former Mr. Universe and Mr. America contestant is charged with racketeering and possession of anabolic steroids and drug paraphernalia. Officials claim they found two stun guns, gambling records and cash while searching Filipelli's home.
Filipelli had been out of jail eight years and had been keeping a low profile until the bust.
In 1994, he was indicted for his role in robbing and kidnapping two businessmen on the orders of Sicilian-born crime boss Stanfa. One of the other men indicted for the crime was Stanfa soldier Ronald Previte; both men sided with Stanfa during a bloody mob civil war in the early 1990s.
During the internecine struggle, Filipelli befriended someone from Fox 29's news department and convinced him to share a copy of their video of a mob rival's funeral. The Stanfa crew used the news footage to identify rival gangsters.
Stanfa was eventually arrested, convicted and sent off to jail and Filipelli did four years after pleading guilty to extortion. Previte, however, was welcomed into the reorganized organized-crime family headed by former enemies Ralph Natale and Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino. Previte was such a money maker that old grudges were soon forgotten, at least by Natale and Stanfa. Previte was promoted to capo and given his own South Jersey crew, but it turned out that he was wearing a wire the whole time. The recordings helped convince Natale to flip on his friends and, ultimately, to help convict Merlino.
Because of his past association with Stanfa and Previte, Filipelli was not immediately welcomed back after his 1998 release. A local wiseguy told City Paper that Filipelli was a "stupid fuck. He got muscles everywhere but his brain. I'd slap that cocksucker stupid if he came around here."
Mob watchers were surprised to learn that he was claiming he was a fully initiated member of the local crime family; undercover detectives who infiltrated Filipelli's illegal gambling ring claim he bragged he was a "made guy" in the Philadelphia Mafia. Well-placed sources won't comment on Filipelli's underworld status but say they're not surprised. "If you can make money," one says, "you're in."
The investigator points out that under the low-key leadership of reputed Philadelphia Mafia boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, former associates and soldiers from previous regimes run by Merlino, Stanfa and Nicky Scarfo have been welcomed into the fold. "You went to jail and kept your mouth shut," he explains. "You came out and kept your mouth shut. You might make some money for everybody? Fuck it! Welcome back. That's how it works now."
The End is Nigh? (Originally posted Friday at citypaper.net/clog)
Philadelphia is on a terrorist hit list according to an FBI bulletin sent last week to all bureau field offices as well as to an alphabet soup of federal agencies including the CIA, ATF, NSA, DEA, TSA, Nuclear Regulatory Agency, White House National Security Council and a dozen other federal agencies involved in law enforcement, intelligence-gathering and anti-terrorism efforts.City Paper has obtained a copy of the memo, which claims that "repeated statements by a suspected drug trafficker/con artist to avoid major US cities, including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, between 31 October 2006 and 25 December 2006."
The drug trafficker is identified in the bulletin as Seyed Ahmad Ziabari, aka Alex Ziabari. Ziabari is one of two sources cited in the warning but the second source is not identified. In the memo, the FBI alleges that "the proceeds from Ziabari's drug operation are suspected to be going to Iran in support of terrorism."
Ziabari is also quoted as warning four people on four separate occasions to "stay out of all big cities between 31 October 2006 and 25 December 2006 and indicated that unspecified weapons have already been brought into the U.S. through Mexico."
The FBI bulletin states that last month "Ziabari stated that 'eight of them' came over from Mexico. Ziabari said his Iranian friends were entering the U.S. through Canada and Cuba, and told the individual not to 'go around' big cities 'around Christmas or Halloween,' and to be very careful ... Ziabari also said to stay out of Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C."
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