Court documents say FBI has "thousands of hours" of tapes on Joey Merlino & other wiseguys.

Documents say "cooperating witness" worked for Merlino & Genovese Capo Pasquale Patsy Parrello.

Who's the Boss? Court document: Merlino "believed to be the Boss of Philadelphia Crime family"

Document :Merlino on tape as he "discussed crimes he was committing and exhibited role as leader"

Mob Boss Joey Merlino's bail hearing in Florida continued til Friday.He remains behind bars

In a memo seeking to have him and 10 others held without bail, prosecutors argued that “Merlino has been captured on recordings supervising a number of individuals, questioning whether certain associates were 'rats,’ collecting illegal gambling debts and engaging in fraud against health insurers.”

Authorities also allege that Merlino, from Florida, was “working in earnest to rebuild the Philadelphia crime family.”

I would like to comment that while some early in this thread gave me shit for saying the Feds had a hard on for Joey, let me refer you to pages 84-85 of The Last Gangster (which I'm currently reading).

"Getting Joey- wiping that silly smirk off his face, sticking his fancy clothes and lavish lifestyle up his ass- became as important as building a criminal case. It wasn't about justice. It was about winning. It was personal. The FBI had a hard-on for Joey Merlino."

Some guys here remind me of Angelo Lutz for some reason.

Man, if Joey was in Philly more, he wouldn't have had to talk to so many unknowns. Go figure. Staying away from Philly might have accelerated his downfall.

Also, this medical scam sounds pretty lucrative.

I wonder if the Perna that Joey was with in Florida was in on any of this?

Joey was certainly living a beyond lavish lifestyle, I bet that cream scam was VERY lucrative.

The insurance fraud, according to sources, was a scheme involving corrupt doctors and pharmaceutical suppliers and a medication known as a compounded pain management cream – a multi-ingredient topical cream described in a recent article from the Coalition for Insurance Fraud as the “snake oil” of the 21st century. It is used to treat joint and muscle pain.

Insurance companies have been billed millions of dollars for the cream, according to government reports and investigations from various parts of the country. How and when the mob got involved remains unclear, but sources say New York mobsters brought the scam to Florida where Merlino and his associates set up a system in which “patients” would visit doctors who wrote prescriptions for the cream, which was then supplied by mob-linked “compounding pharmacies.” Those suppliers would then bill insurance companies hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“A single tube can retail for up to $10,000,” according to an article that appeared in June in the Journal for Insurance Fraud in America. “Each new prescription — often offered as a 'trial’ — authorizes 10 refills. One 'trial prescription’ for one patient thus can generate nearly $100,000.”