Why Philly mob never tried to expand in Pennsylvan

In 1999 after Merlino won the war and Ligambi was rebuilding the family,why nobody tried to expand in the State? The Bufalino of Wilkes Barres was dead for sure there was racketsand people to extort. Was the weakness ofcthe family or was too far to try to put a flag?

I could be wrong but Scarfo Sr. had relatives in Western PA but I have no idea if they were active in the mob or not.

good question furio...i'll take a stab.

the pittsburgh family at that time was still active (post 1999- ). michael genovese was still boss along with a partial administration. so i dont think at that point philly would have felt the need to expand and start steeping on an existing families toes. the same could be said for the bufalino family or remnants of. william d'elia was still active up until his 2008 cooperation. d'elia didnt exactly have a large group of associates that is for sure and mostly allied with several different families on a variety of rackets. so there may have been crews or members who did business with d'elia but there doesnt seem to be any evidence that philly moved on that territory.

back to pittsburgh, the last known made member and boss, thomas ciancutti only died july.8 2021. up until ciancuttis death despite the position he held in the family there was several large gambling busts extending across the pittsburgh area and the state mostly all relating back to him. ronald melocchi in 2013, the ianelli father and son, robert and rodney with busts in 2000 and 2019, ralph maselli, kirk mollica and john conley jr all getting pinched for a litany of gambling charges. so it would appear as far as the city of pittsburgh and surrounding areas ciancutti mostly had it locked down as far as gambling goes. fast forward to present day it could be that any remnants of family have consolidated under a yet unknown group of members or same group now works direct for a philly crew if not in the least pays a street tax.

however the family ciancutti seemed to mostly be focused on gambling of all kinds. now enter the pagans mc. like most biker groups there focus is on drugs. cocaine, meth etc. along with your regular skims and scams. there was a crossover in territory and i'm sure both groups worked together at times...ex= biker mc members being used to collect gambling debts...mafia gambling rings taking in gamblers steered there way by pagans. the pagans mc are also strong and present in philly. philly pagans have in the past worked along with crews of the philly family. there doesnt appear to have ever been a war or conflict among all these groups so they must have been working together or had divied up territory across state.

hope some of this helps.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdpa/p...s-motorcycle-club-facing-federal-charges

just to give an idea of pagans mc scope and influence in state.

Conflict of interests.

Philly guys all live in philly or south jersey ( for the most part). Its a smaller family and plenty of money in and around philly and AC.
That part of PA is unfamiliar and why run the risk of dealing with an undercover. Its also boring up there.

Thanks, you were very clear.

I think that maybe they should create a large bookmaking ring abd maybe take what remained of Bufalinos and Pittsburgh.
But if they was still active in post 1999.
And anyway try to expand in new territories its what the oc gruops do,why Philly can watch over the city and the NJ?