PB is 100% correct. Forget jersey, NY would have immediately gave the order-approval to have Merlino killed and he would have been gone. I'm a jersey guy but jersey does whatever the guys up in the bronx and westchester tell them to do.
Merlino can do time and has balls, no doubt. that said, if he was in new york, no one would ever even know who he was, thats a fact. He is a very big fish in a small pond. Although i do give him credit, he is stand up all the way.