Virelli's son Michael also flipped. He ratted out some texas drug people he met in prison.
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Jail time reduced for Philadelphia area drug dealer
George Anastasia
06/28/2006.
Jun. 28--A jailed drug dealer and organized crime associate once involved in a plot to murder mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino had five years knocked off his current prison sentence today because of information his son provided to federal investigators about a Texas drug network.
As a result, Dennis Virelli, once a major methamphetamine distributor in Philadelphia, South Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania, could be out of prison in about 17 months, his lawyer said.
Virelli, 62, thanked his son, Michael and FBI agent Mario Campana, who, he said, gave him the opportunity to have his sentence reduced.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Baylinson resentenced Virelli based on a motion filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
While the motion was filed under seal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Ehlers disclosed some of the details during a brief hearing attended by Virelli's elderly mother and several other family members.
Ehlers said the government sought a re-sentencing because of Virelli's ongoing cooperation and because of information his son, who is also serving time for drug dealing, provided federal authorities.
Ehlers said that while serving time in a federal prison Michael Virelli "by chance" learned details about a drug trafficking ring in South Texas.
"At the urging of his father," Ehlers said, Michael Virelli provided authorities with information that resulted in the arrest of 12 drug dealers and the seizure of 19 kilograms of cocaine.
Both Dennis Virelli and his son were serving time for manufacturing and distributing meth. Both began cooperating with authorities after pleading guilty in 2000.
Michael Virelli, 39, is about to complete a six-year sentence.
Dennis Virelli has a history of narcotics trafficking in the Philadelphia area that included connections with drug dealers, mob figures and outlaw biker gangs.
His first drug conviction was in 1984.
At one point he was a key associate of Louie Turra, a young South Philadelphia drug kingpin and rival of Joey Merlino. The Turra group plotted, but failed to carry out, a hit on Merlino in the mid 1990s.
Dennis Virelli was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1999 for drug trafficking. He began cooperating after being charged in another drug case a year later.
Today's hearing focused on a five-year sentence imposed after he began cooperating. That sentence was originally set to begin after Virelli completed his 10-year sentence.
But Baylinson, at the urging of both the U.S. Attorney's Office and Virelli's lawyer Craig R. Mitnick agreed to re-sentence.
"I very much support cooperation and think it should be rewarded," the judge said.
Baylinson reduced the five-year sentence to 42 months and, more important, ruled that it was to run concurrently with the 10-year sentence from the date in October 2002 when the five-year term was imposed.
As a result, Virelli has completed that sentence and will be freed once he has finished serving time for the 1999 case.
