All language subtitles for Mob.War.Philadelphia.vs.The.Mafia.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-GRACE

Am I to turn at all, or I'm good?

I start as the Mob reporter
at Fox 29 in 1994,

and I spend a lot of time
covering Joey Merlino.

Merlino's parole may be over,

but his days in the spotlight
certainly aren't.

A member of the Merlino Mob
got his hands on a stolen Lamborghini.

Merli… There's a truck. Hold it.

Joey Merlino gets a lot of headlines
'cause he's a young swashbuckler.

He dresses well. He carries himself well.

He's cocky.

Joe, how you feeling
about parole being over?

-Good. We're going to Disney World.
-You're going to Disney World?

When he walked in a room,
he took the room.

When he went to a nightclub,

the lines parted, the velvet ropes opened,

and in went Joey Merlino.

Joey became something of a celebrity.

Joey was not afraid of a camera,
wasn't afraid of a reporter.

In any give-and-take conversation,
he could get the last word.

One time, I said, "Joe, we're hearing
that there's a hit on your head."

The number we're hearing
is half a million dollars.

And he paused for a second, and he's like…

Half a million dollars, I'd kill myself.

I mean, it's classic.

He knows how to manipulate
the streets, the media,

and he's just a bright guy
when it comes to being a gangster.

Ten years ago, if anybody had predicted

you were going to stand on lot
the day before Thanksgiving

and give away 500 turkeys,
would you have believed them?

Yeah.

The media, they love the idea
of the don in the neighborhood

who's taking care of the locals.

It makes a great story
that sells newspapers.

But to the FBI, he was a mobster,
not a philanthropist.

And he had to be stopped.

For homeless kids,
you know, they have nothing.

I always give to people.
Don't make me a bad guy, does it?

I started off
as a uniformed police officer

with a canine partner.

It was fun, quite frankly,

being out on the street,
chasing down bad guys.

But I joined the FBI because I wanted
to investigate organized crime.

After Stanfa went to jail,

there was a tremendous amount of concern

about Merlino and the young guns
still being on the street.

Illegal bookmaking, illegal loan-sharking,

drug dealing, murders.

And it was down to me and my team

to make arrests
and get them off the streets.

We had assets
that were following Joey continuously.

Trying to get information
about where Joey was going,

who he was hanging out with,
and if they could,

what he was doing.

The issue was that Joey Merlino
doesn't wanna go back to jail.

Nobody does.

So he's very difficult to surveil.

9-5-7.

They live with the mirrors.

Always in a back mirror,

always in a side mirror.

He's driving his car,
making a radical turn.

And if you make that turn,
he knows that you're on him.

Joey became very hard to catch,
hard to outsmart.

Joey's always ten steps ahead
of all these guys.

A lot of it's intelligence,
a lot of it's luck.

But a mixture of both
makes you very dangerous.

My team,
we are putting together a RICO case.

We believe Merlino is involved

in a racketeering-influenced
corrupt organization.

First, we have to show
there's an organization.

We then prove it's corrupt
because of criminal activity.

There wasn't much headway
in terms of getting inside information.

The decision was made to capture on video

who was coming and going from Avenue Café.

The Avenue Café was Joey's place,
his little hangout,

where he sold cigars and stuff like that.

We used to play cards or dice
in the back room.

It's a place where guys break balls,
tease each other.

That's what it's about.

Just because it's a hangout doesn't mean
there's nefarious activity going on there.

Joey and his associates
were in and out of there every day.

Angelo Lutz, Danny D'Ambrosia,

Stevie Mazzone, George Borgesi.

The list goes on and on.

The camera at the Avenue Café
helped us understand

who Joey was associating with
and how frequently.

For a RICO prosecution,

we have to establish
there's an organization.

And showing that he's the boss

and enough people
recognize and respect that

was the singular most important
piece of evidence.

But we weren't getting evidence of crimes.

It was very challenging.

You got a bunch of guys
that grew up together,

got punished together,

went to school together,
went to dances together.

Their families had deaths in the families,
and they went through all that together.

That bond was like this.
The government could never break that.

Joey Merlino and his crew…

they knew what had led to other members
and family members before them

going to jail.

And they learned from that.

They were very safe
in how they discussed their business

and who they would talk to.

The FBI became enamored with the idea
of a cooperating witness,

a mobster they were able to flip.

And I think at that point,

the FBI tries to approach Ron Previte.

Previte had worked
at the casinos in Atlantic City

as a security officer.

Eventually, he got fired for stealing.

He ultimately was arrested
for shaking someone down

by the New Jersey State Police.

You've described yourself
as a general practitioner of crime.

Uh, what did you mean by that?

Well, I never specialize in anything,
but there wasn't much that I haven't done.

We decided to try
and make him a cooperating witness.

Working for the US Attorney's Office,
I had no illusions about Ron Previte.

He was a flat-out criminal.

But we could use him
to help get evidence against Joey Merlino.

I went to meet with Previte
just outside Hammonton in South Jersey.

And I just remember thinking,

when he walked in,
that he was a very large man.

Previte was rough around the edges.

He was a little tough.
He was a street guy.

He was what a wise guy should be.

We decided to offer him a contract
that we thought was fair,

$2,000 every week
in exchange for him wearing a wire,

gathering evidence at our direction

of the different activities
of the Philadelphia Mob.

His life would be in danger.

He knew that. We knew that.

But ultimately, he agreed to do it.

Why?

Because he didn't wanna go to jail,
and he was all about the cash.

But the problem was
that Previte and Merlino,

they just weren't that close.

Merlino was a little cautious
about Previte.

There were obstacles
that we had to overcome.

Joey never trusted Ron Previte.
No one trusted Ron Previte.

If you ever saw a guy
that you just don't trust, that's him.

But people did business with Ron Previte
because they saw a way to earn.

Ron Previte, he's a hustler,
he's a maneuverer.

And for Joey Merlino,
everything's about the dollar bill.

The goal was to get Previte
to have access to Merlino,

to win Merlino's trust
through tribute and respect.

That's all that was important to Joey,

was money and "They think I'm somebody."

We gave Ron a Rolex Submariner watch

with diamonds encrusted around the face

to give to Merlino as a gift,
as a show of respect.

Joey fell for the bait
hook, line, and sinker.

Merlino invited Previte
to talk about doing business.

It felt like, finally,
we were on the right track.

And that prompted the FBI
to expand the team.

I showed up in Philadelphia,

and they assigned me
to the Organized Crime Squad.

I was 27 years old,
my first day in the FBI,

and it felt like I'd walked into a movie.

One of the agents says to me,
"We're gonna go meet Previte."

"He's meeting Joe Merlino.
Let's get Ron wired up."

Titcombe was brand new.

I thought wiring Ron Previte
was a great opportunity

for Titcombe to see that this isn't
book learning down at the Academy.

This is what we do every day.

So I walk into his bedroom, and he's
wearing a bathrobe and boxer shorts.

And he's got a jockstrap on.

Ron was about six foot,
he was about 320 pounds, bald head.

He's standing there like this,

his bathrobe open,
and he said, "Who's this kid?"

I put tape from his navel to his chest,

put the recorder in the jockstrap,

and I'm looking around
like, "Is this for real?

"Is this how this works?
Am I being punked?"

I guess this is the FBI.

Ron goes to meet with Merlino
at the Avenue Café.

And they start talking business.

And whatever distrust Merlino may have had
of Previte was coming down.

Previte's sitting in the meeting.
He's got his feet up on a desk.

He looks down.

And he sees a piece
from the recording device

dangling out of the bottom of his jeans,

where anyone who wanted to could see it.

This is incredibly risky

because if they find out
that he's cooperating,

certainly they would try to kill him.

Without missing a beat,

he just crossed his legs,
put his feet down on the floor,

concealing it completely.

It takes nerves of steel
to do something like that.

At the end of the meeting,
Merlino tells him that

they've come into a load
of stolen bicycles and baby formula

and asks Previte
if he thinks he can move them.

They had people
who were breaking into the rail yard

down in South Philadelphia
and stealing conex boxes.

They didn't know
what was in the conex boxes.

They'd just hook a trailer up,
drive it out.

The deal happened.

Previte goes back to Merlino
with an envelope

and says, "This is your cut."

Now you've established
we can do business together.

It's now Merlino directing Previte
to buy stolen goods.

It's a checkmark that goes towards
convicting Merlino and others

of being involved

in a racketeer-influenced
corrupt organization.

It was a great result.

Previte was becoming more trusted
by Merlino.

We thought it was only a matter of time
until Merlino

brought something more serious to Previte.

Ron meets with Joey Merlino one day.

He comes back after the meeting,

and he tells us that Joey introduced him
to "his guy" in Boston.

Bobby Luisi.

Bobby's one of the major players
in the Mob.

Bobby's got a history of narcotics.

Bobby Luisi was well-known
for selling drugs.

And we believed
he was still selling drugs.

Why does Merlino want Previte
to deal with Luisi?

'Cause he knows Luisi can move cocaine.

Why is that important?
Because Merlino's gonna profit from it.

When Joey makes that introduction,

Previte, in a strategic stroke of genius,

responds to Joey,

"Well, that's great.
I've got a guy in Boston too."

Thinking that that was an opportunity
for us to introduce an undercover agent.

John Terry called me.

He said, "We have
this golden opportunity."

"We got a chance to make a case
against Luisi in Boston

and Merlino in Philadelphia."

Right away,
those are two magic names to the FBI.

That adrenaline kicked in,
and I was like, "Yeah."

"Where do I sign up?"

The idea is Luisi sells cocaine
to Mike McGowan,

and Luisi would give the portion
of the proceeds to Merlino.

So it links Merlino
to the drug sale to McGowan.

The cover story was
that Mike's an import-export guy,

which is code for,
"I can do drugs. I can do stolen stuff."

It's tailor-made
for anything you want it to be.

I have a business out at Logan Airport.

The Irish International Office.

And because I'm supposed
to be involved in Irish goods,

it was packed with Irish flags,
dolls, leprechauns.

I got so sick of Irish stuff.

When we were preparing
for the first meeting,

the technical squad
had come into my office

and wired it for audio and video,

and the camera had been placed
behind the desk inside a clock.

We can capture video
looking directly at the wise guys.

Very clear and easy
to identify who they are.

And the audio, you just don't get
opportunities like this very often.

The first meeting, that was a big day

because I was basically auditioning
in front of them.

And if I had flunked the audition,

we were done in Boston in one day.

If the initial meeting is not successful,

not only is the undercover operation dead,

but there's a significant risk
to Previte and Mike McGowan

of being hurt or killed.

Yeah.

You're on a tightrope,
and there's no safety net.

One slip, you can get killed.

I'm trying to convince them
that I worked well with Previte,

made him a lot of money in Philadelphia.
I can do the same in Boston.

At that point,
Luisi and Previte had asked me

to leave the room
so they could talk privately.

Yeah.

I was very nervous.

There are thousands of thoughts
going through your mind.

They talked for about five minutes,
and then I came back in.

And then he says…

…"You're with us."

In the Mafia, "You're with us"
is a very important statement.

He's saying, "You will work for me
under my protection."

Inside, I was like, "Boom."

We couldn't have had a better result.

Now it's time to turn it on
and set up some deals.

Mike was now on the inside,
and we were making significant headway.

Eh…

We can now move to the next phase,

which is to introduce the cocaine deal.

I told Luisi the person
who had given me the diamonds

wanted to exchange it
not in cash but in cocaine.

-He wants to swap.
-He wants to swap.

He wants three bricks for the diamonds.

Three bricks are street slang
for three kilograms of cocaine.

We were in trouble.

I followed him outside
down into a stairwell.

That meeting is critical,

and if it doesn't work,
there's a lot at stake.

Yeah.

That was a bad day.

The deal didn't come together.

We're working hard to make this happen,

but if I can't do my job, we're done.

The cocaine deal, it's not happening.

It's a big black hole in the operation.

That's when Previte
set up a three-way call

between Luisi in Boston
and Merlino in Philadelphia

to try to get the deal back on track.

All the chips were pushed into the center
of the table on that one meeting.

"That guy, do what you got to do for him."

"That guy" is our undercover agent,
Mike McGowan.

Joey Merlino, by asking that question,

just gave approval
for the drug deal to happen.

In very coded language,

but very clear language
to FBI agents and mobsters,

Merlino gave the green light
for the drug deal.

Joey, in his own words, is now involved.

We have that phone call on the 28th.

And on April 30th,

I'm literally sitting in my office,

and there's a knock on the door.

And there's a stranger there.

And he says he was sent by Luisi.

Hey, traffic was brutal.

I'll tell ya. Oof.

When he introduced himself,
he introduced himself as Bobby Carrozza.

And I immediately recognized the name
because of his father,

who was also in the Mob.

-Okay.
-Okay?

-Bye.
-Okay, bye.

All right.

He makes a comment about the window.

He's being careful.

And he puts the briefcase on my desk

and opens it up.

There's two packages in there,
two kilos of cocaine.

They both have 215 written on them.

215 is the area code for Philadelphia.

As far as I'm concerned, as an FBI agent,

that's just like putting
Joey Merlino's signature on those kilos.

Worked out well.

It's all on video.

Cocaine exchanged,
deal done, deal consummated.

But, on its own,
it wasn't gonna be sufficient.

That surveillance video

had the potential
to be very damning evidence.

But Luisi did not handle
the drugs or the money.

So there was still not enough
to connect the dots.

In Philadelphia,

there were unsolved serious crimes

that we were trying
to get information about…

…to see if Joey Merlino
had any connection to them.

We were receiving information about
his longtime Mob associate Ralph Natale…

…who was out of jail after serving
15 years on a drug conviction.

Natale and Merlino
were housed together in jail.

They hatched a plan

that they were gonna ultimately take over
the Philadelphia Mafia.

Joey Merlino was actually
under Ralph Natale.

Ralph Natale got the kiss
from the five families

to take over after Stanfa.

But Joey Merlino

was the real power.

How about Joe? Can I ask you about him?

Joe is a good, solid young man.
That's all I can say.

I know if I was in trouble,
or in a foxhole,

I'd like to be with Joe Merlino.

Ralph Natale is the boss,
and Joey Merlino is the underboss.

But like any other puppet,

you know, Joey's pulling the strings
behind Ralph's back.

And he had no loyalty to Joey.

While we're still
keeping track of Merlino,

I authored
18 consecutive wiretap affidavits

to bug Ralph Natale.

As a tech agent,

you're a legalized burglar.

So if someone happens to walk in,

you never know what can happen.

The Ralph Natale apartment,

it was a high-rise building.

He was on the top floor.
They called it the penthouse.

Ralph was down in Atlantic City,

and they expected him
to be there all night.

Our job was to do a surreptitious entry

to put microphones
into his living room area.

The lock guys,
they were able to open the door.

And a cat made a beeline for the door.

At the last second,

one of the lock guys
was able to block the cat.

Or we would've been chasing him
all over the building.

That wouldn't have been good.

We're in there placing the microphones.

And the surveillance agent lets us know…

…"Gotta get outta here.

"Natale's heading back."

We don't have much time.

Everybody stopped and started tidying up.

Getting out of there
before he made it home.

We picked up some snippets
of conversation on the wiretaps.

We found out
that Natale and his son-in-law

were making and selling methamphetamine.

The audio didn't implicate Merlino,

but it was a significant development.

We made a decision to arrest Natale
at that point in time.

Today, the FBI announced
the arrest of Philadelphia, South Jersey,

La Cosa Nostra boss, Ralph Natale,

this time
for a methamphetamine sales conspiracy

involving five other
reputed local gangsters.

Ralph's involvement in the methamphetamine

is a death sentence for him.

He's a convicted drug dealer.

He's going to jail longer than he'll live.

So it was a strategic decision on our part

to make sure that we plant the seeds,

that he knew if he decided he wanted
to talk about any possible cooperation,

we were receptive to that.

But he had given his life to the Mafia,

and he wasn't gonna talk.

So the pressure to get to Merlino
just got ratcheted up.

We felt like we wanted more,
and we needed more.

So now it was all up to Mike McGowan.

The US Attorney's Office weren't satisfied

that we had tied Luisi
to the cocaine deal,

even though he set it up, even though
we had the phone call two days earlier.

But I also had to tell them

there was no way that Luisi
was gonna physically touch the cocaine.

That's how these bosses think,

that if they don't touch it, they're okay.

And the plan at that point was
if we were able to get more cocaine,

that I would try to pay Luisi directly.

That day I was in my office,
and just like Carrozza in April,

there's a knock on my door.

It's Tommy Wilson,
a member of Luisi's crew.

Yeah?

Wilson had a paper bag with him,

and inside,
there was another kilo of cocaine.

He comes into the office,
takes a kilo of cocaine out of his bag,

and then he puts it
in the bag that Mike gave him.

That is beyond a reasonable doubt.

We wanted to make sure that Luisi
was directly tied to that delivery.

So when Luisi calls,

I told him
I didn't trust Wilson with the cash.

He would have to come meet me
outside of my office.

Special Agent Robert Callen.

We are in the vicinity of 171 Milk Street,

approximately 2:05 p.m.,

videotaping an undercover agent

at the intersection
of Milk and India Street,

Boston, Massachusetts.

Mike would get there early
as the undercover agent.

He wants to make sure
that he's comfortable.

This is an ideal location.
There's people walking around.

Where no one's gonna see us.

Within the hour,
Luisi came strutting down the street.

This is our one shot

to get Luisi taking drug money.

Just as I went to hand him the 24,000,

a van blocked the surveillance post.

So I pull the money back.

Once the van cleared,

I paid him.

And it's crystal clear.

Approximately 2:10 p.m.,

Bobby Luisi departs after making pickup

from undercover agent
in a Dodge pickup truck.

Doesn't get any better than that.
That's a home run.

We had him.

We now had Luisi on tape
taking cocaine money.

The US Attorney's Office decided

that there was enough evidence
to go forward.

We had evidence of serious crimes,

racketeering, drug trafficking,

and now, finally,
it's time to arrest Joey Merlino.

At seven o'clock this morning,

FBI agents went
to a second-floor apartment

and arrested 37-year-old Joey Merlino.

Why don't you put in your newspaper
they gave me a warrant with nothing on it?

-Are you related?
-I'm the mother.

-You're the mother?
-Get out.

He was off the street,

as were several
of his associates and members

that made up the hierarchy
of the Philadelphia Mob.

We're here today to announce
the arrest of 11 individuals,

including Joseph Merlino,

following long-term
intensive investigations

of La Cosa Nostra activity.

It is alleged that Merlino
and three others conspired

to distribute cocaine,

and the cocaine was distributed

to an individual who was, in fact,
an FBI undercover agent.

The shadow of the Mob had been hanging
over Philadelphia for a long, long time.

Maybe it was time to see the light.

It was a big deal.

Merlino was finally going to face justice.

After Merlino's arrest,

I was told to be over
to the Camden County courthouse.

Ralph Natale was brought up
into one of the witness rooms.

He said to me that he wanted to cooperate.

It was just an incredible moment.

Ralph Natale was
the first sitting Mob boss

in the history of the American Mafia

to come in to cooperate.

And we accepted his cooperation.

Ralph Natale realized

that if he was convicted
on this drug case,

that he would get a sentence

which would make it very difficult
for him to ever get out of jail.

The fact that Natale is cooperating
may be the worst-kept secret in the world.

Law-enforcement sources indicate
that Natale is saying plenty.

He's talking about Mob murders
and about other Mob activity.

Ralph, the rat, traitor.

It was sickening.

Thank God he wasn't involved
over there with Vietnam.

He'd have gave up
the whole United States, this guy.

It's beyond me.

I mean, I did 32-plus years.
It never entered my mind to be a rat.

Uh, and I can't stand 'em.
I can't stand 'em.

So many rats now, they all have podcasts.

Flipping Ralph helped us
to add murder and attempted murder

to the charges
against Merlino and his crew.

Now we have to prove
what we allege they did

in front of a jury of 12 people
who have no idea about any of this.

-Don't trip.
-Joey, how you doing?

As big as the Stanfa trial was,
this was even bigger.

Lots of media.

How are you doing today?

-Do you have anything to say?
-No.

It was tough to get a seat.

Because Mob boss Ralph Natale
was gonna testify

against Joey Merlino and his crew.

Ralph was brought up on the witness stand.

Now the challenge was
to tape his testimony

so the jury would believe him.

Were you a member
of a criminal organization?

Yes, I was.

-What was the name?
-La Cosa Nostra.

And what is La Cosa Nostra?

La Cosa Nostra is a descent into hell.

And whether it was an extortion,

whether it was a beating

or a murder,

when you rise to the position of the boss,

you rule over everybody and everything.

That would be Joey Merlino.

The 65-year-old Natale
admitted shooting two men to death.

He says he conspired with fellow mobsters
to kill six others.

Natale even detailed
his own Mob initiation ceremony.

He says it was none other
than Joey Merlino

who administered the Mafia's secret oath.

Ralph Natale was one piece of a puzzle.

But you need the entire picture
to convict.

With Mike's videotape

and Previte's wire,

we felt we had enough.

Now we have to wait
until the jury comes back with a verdict.

It was a four-month trial,

and when the jury
came back with the verdict,

I would call it surprising.

Joey Merlino,
the hard-charging young Mob boss,

is headed to prison tonight
but not for life.

In a stunning decision,

the jury rejected murder
and drug-dealing charges

and convicted Merlino
and his colleagues of racketeering.

Joey got convicted of the extortion,
the loan-sharking, the gambling,

but not of the murders,
attempted murders, or drugs.

The drug dealing they lost
because Joey was, on tape, very vague.

Do what you gotta do for him?

You didn't know
what Joey was talking about.

Where on the tape
was he talking about cocaine?

Joey was able to walk away
from the drug case

even though his guys in Boston
were convicted.

Jurors rejected the testimony
of Mob boss-turned-informant Ralph Natale

when they acquitted Merlino
and his six codefendants

of 11 Mob hits or attempted murders.

Ralph was tainted by his criminal past.

He was looking at life in prison,

and I think the jury felt
he would say anything to avoid that.

The verdict was indicative of that.

We were disappointed
not to get the murder and drug charges.

But Joey Merlino and others
received jail sentences

up to 14 years in federal prison.

And the city was definitely safer
with Merlino behind bars.

Every boss is dead or in jail.

It's as simple as that,
and I'm sure that will continue.

We will continue
to investigate organized crime,

and we will continue
to successfully prosecute.

What the feds accomplished
through that period of time,

it's one after the other,

a victory for law enforcement
against organized crime.

And each conviction
diminishes the crime family.

Does the Mob still exist
to this day? Yes, it does.

Does it have the same clout?
Does it make the same money?

Do they commit the same violence
and murders that they used to?

No, they do not.

In the 1990s,

the FBI took out the leadership
of the Philadelphia Mob

as well as several made members
and associates.

The Philadelphia Mafia was decimated
and has never been the same.