Rat Trapped?

Rat trapped?

by Brendan McGarvey and Gabriele J. Valentine

Local mobsters worry that an old friend might turn.

"Big" Billy D'Elia is making a lot of people in the underworld very, very nervous these days. They're wondering whether the reputed boss of the Scranton crime family is thinking about talking to the feds about his close relationship with the Mafia in both Philadelphia and New York.

D'Elia's been a good friend to the Philly mob for several decades, including a close relationship with reputed crime boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. But Big Billy's been sitting in jail for more than a year while awaiting trial on federal charges of soliciting murder, money laundering, witness tampering and 15 other counts.

"Some guys get tired of waiting," a mob associate tells City Paper. "You got to wonder if he's flipped."

Despite the worries, a source close to D'Elia says the crime boss is Mr. Omerta all the way. "He isn't talking to anyone about anything," the source says. "Billy is old-school. They even dragged him before a grand jury in Harrisburg and he didn't say a damn word."

To be sure, lots of people are hoping that D'Elia keeps his mouth shut. Last year, he was called to testify before a Dauphin County grand jury about his relationship with multimillionaire businessman and Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis DeNaples. Since grand-jury testimony is secret, no one really knows if Billy blabbed, but last week DeNaples was indicted for allegedly lying about his relationship with D'Elia and Russell Bufalino, the upstate mob boss who died in 1994. (D'Elia is said to have taken over after Bufalino's successor, Edward Sciandra, grew too old to run the family.)

DeNaples is also charged with perjury for supposedly fibbing to casino license investigators about his relationships with the late Ron White and Shamsud-Din Ali, who was found guilty of public-corruption-related charges. The Dauphin County district attorney claims that Ali and DeNaples discussed using DeNaples' landfill to accept debris from demolished houses in Philly and that Ali arranged for DeNaples' daughter to get a prime parking space at Temple University. The DA also alleges that DeNaples met with White and former Mayor John Street in 1999 when Street was running for mayor. The men supposedly got together at the Radisson Hotel in Scranton where DeNaples allegedly gave White $50,000.

Law enforcement photographed D'Elia visiting DeNaples at his auto parts store in a Scranton suburb, and Pennsylvania Crime Commission reports allege that in the 1980s, D'Elia was a salesman for DeNaples' Keystone Sanitary Landfill. In 1977, DeNaples and three Lackawanna County employees went on trial for fraud; they were charged with falsifying records to obtain $525,000 in federal reimbursements for the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood. Their trial ended in a mistrial when one of the jurors voted to acquit.

However, DeNaples decided to plead no contest to conspiracy, pay a $10,000 fine and spend three years on probation. Five years later, the feds convicted Scranton mob underboss James Osticco of bribing the lone holdout juror in the DeNaples case.

The 1978 felony conviction didn't disqualify DeNaples from getting a casino license because it happened more than 15 years ago. Now, DeNaples is banned from his own casino while gaming officials argue with Pennsylvania State Police about why they chose not to share information that DeNaples allegedly lied about mob contacts to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

"The staties [state police] have been following around D'Elia and his pals for decades," one law enforcement source tells City Paper. "They have photos of him with politicians and businessmen. They have photos of D'Elia meeting with Philly mobsters on Main Street in Manayunk, in South Philly and on Jeweler's Row. They just wouldn't share their info with the gaming commission. They think they should be doing the background checks, so it's a pissing contest between the state police and the commission."

Hide-and-Found

He's the godfather of Russian organized crime, but two weeks ago, Semion Mogilevich was arrested in Moscow where he was hiding in plain sight. In 2003, Mogilevich and two others were indicted in federal court here on charges stemming from a multimillion-dollar stock fraud scam involving a front company. YBM Magnex in Newtown, Bucks County was allegedly used by the Russian mob to defraud investors of millions. Mogilevich was untouchable for years because the Russian government apparently allowed him to operate openly until a recent shift in political alliances made him expendable. The charges are still active, but it seems highly unlikely that the Russians would extradite.

(editorial@citypaper.net)