Joey Merlino before he was made?

Does anyone know much about Joey's life prior to getting inducted. When he was inducted? Did he run his own crew before earning his button? Who was he kicking up to? Is this stuff known and if so could somebody please share some insight onto it.

Thanks.

Merlino was made by john stanfa , I do know that in his younger life he was a horse jockey for a short time , my bet is he kicked up to his dad and his crew mainly consisted of the ciancaglinis , George borgesi and the mazzone's

Him and his childhood friends of ''youngsters'' also sold a lot of weed. They took regular trips to AC and I think one of Joey's associates was arrested for trying to extort a casino manager.

Joey was dreaming and talking about becoming boss ever since he started that line of work.

He held up an armored truck when he was younger and got caught as well