Joe scoops and mike perna were tight. When mike p went away in the early 90's scoops was working with ralphie p.
During this time, we all know what transpired between scarfo jr and merlino.
Scarfo sr and amuso met in prison, became friendly, and scarfo jr was transferred to the lucchese's so he was untouchable. Had he stayed with philly, he would have been killed. He gets killed as a made lucchese, merlino and about 10 other guys get killed. Thats a big rule to break.
Anyway, scarfo jr lays low in north jersey. Merlino and his crew do 10-15 year bids and scarfo jr goes back to the south jersey( his home) area where its now safe. He is making money down there and philly/ ligambi is making money with ralph perna. The old scarfo sr crew are all away and the new guys want to forget about the whole group. After a while, philly wants nothing to do with scarfo jr who is now a capo. They want to deal with north jersey directly, not through an intermediary ( scarfo jr) who they dont really like.
The north jersey guys with the ok from the bronx come up with some bullshit excuse to demote scarfo jr. That whole thing about scarfo jr saying he was taking over philly is overblown. They were looking for an excuse. If it wasnt that, he would have been demoted due to his shoe size or the fact that he writes right or left handed... Also, the fact that the bronx was now the power and the old brooklyn crew ( amuso/ casso) was history, they kind of sent a signal to amuso that they are demoting scarfo jr and amuso isnt the boss any longer. Had amuso had any real power, scarfo jr would still be a capo due to his strong relationship with nicky sr. It may seem trivial but as a boss( amuso), he was the one that put scarfo jr in that position, the fact that he gets demoted without consulting with amuso was an insult to him. It was also done as a direct favor to Ligambi in my view.
Really had nothing to do with joe perna and merlino being friends. When scarfo jr first came to north jersey, joe perna wasnt even a player. He may have been a very small time numbers guy if that.