Philadelphia Mob News: Mazzone Seizes Power, George Borgesi's Current Standing, and More

Original Gangsters News with Scott Bernstein. >> Hello, welcome to the Original Gangsters News Network and podcast. I'm your host, Scott Bernstein. We got to go back out to South Philly and chime in on what we've been learning these last couple weeks with all this uh additional drama exploding at the beginning of the month. The last time that uh we came on and and discussed Philly, we were responding to the reports coming out of Mob Talk Radio as well as the Mafia Roundt that uh George Borghazi, the longtime Philly mafia figure, had been put on the shelf and his whole crew had been put on the shelf and that this was punishment for taking a meeting with cooperator and former Philly mob gopher and underling Roger Vela. Uh we weren't able to confirm any of that stuff a couple weeks ago when we came in and discussed it, but it did come on the heels of us here at Original Gangsters first reporting that there had been a reshuffle at the top of the Bruno Scarful crime family and that George Borgasey was no longer the boss. So now we're going to, you know, uh cut through some of this noise. We're going to clarify. We're going to separate fact from fiction from what we've learned in the last couple weeks doing our due diligence. So, first off, I want to go back to one of the things that we originally reported when we talked about the the uh restructuring that's been going on in the Philly mob throughout the summer of 26 before we even knew that there were these uh allegations about Borghazi no longer having his stripes. Um, we reported that he voluntarily stepped down but was still a part of the administration. That was a week or two before uh the allegations of the shelving came out. Um, but I want to go back to something that I said back then that I'm reaffirming now and it's it's something that we've been talking about and reporting uh as something that was kind of on the horizon in the uh or in the background and now is you know fully at the forefront of the discussion and that is this uh all of this restructuring all of these seismic shifts in Philly mafia politics are a result of handsome Stevie Mazone taking control of this family. And uh it is I can officially say I believe and and I'm confident in saying that uh 2026 is the beginning of the mone era of the Philly LCN group. And Stevie was uh you know the longtime under boss. I believe he has he was acting boss for a short period of time in the late uh or early 2010s when when Uncle Joe and Georgie were fighting their case, but he came out of prison uh on the proverbial war path about 18 months ago very angered by all of the Joey Merino podcasting controversy, which you know was the powder keg of all powder kegs and has really erupted like a volcano and some of it's been a slow drip. Some of it has has come in kind of uh uh gushers and then we're, you know, there was there were some stop gaps, but this has been three years of just a complete three- ring circus with what's been going on in Philly, their relationship with New York, Joey Merino's position in the family, going from undisputed boss for three decades to stepping down uh under pressure to being shelved to, you know, if it looks like a duck and it acts like a duck and it quacks like a duck. At the very least, there was the appearance that Joey was, you know, kind of running a shadow government. Um, through George Borgghazi, George Borgghese became the boss uh of the Philly LCN in 2023. uh officially had been the acting boss before that and it was a you know I've said it numerous times it was it was a very une unenviable position to be put in it's very precarious situation it's been a tightroppe act and I think at the end of the day frankly if I can you know kind of speak freely here we're always going to give you news you know raw uncut uh we don't you know We don't sugarcoat. We don't spin. We call balls and strikes. And I think Georgie Borgghazi and I I would think that he might be admitting this to himself right now. Well, whatever his actual stature is within the pecking order or on the shelf, off the shelf. I think he learned a a a hard lesson in that if you try to please everybody at the end of the day a lot of times you're not going to please anybody. And um he he he you know was was doing a balancing act trying to keep Joey happy, trying to keep New York happy, trying to keep all the developing factions within the the Philly Mafia happy. And at the end of the day, it just it it led to him either stepping down voluntarily or being pressured off the throne and stepping down the way his predecessor, Joy Molino, uh was uh back in in 2023. All of this is being masterminded. Uh all the strings are being pulled by Stevie here. This is Stevie imposing his will on this crime family, taking it back and doing a remodel. And unfortunately, this is it's not just the start or the the the beginning of the Mazone era. It's the end of the Joey Stevie Georgie era. And this is a a a gangline, a gangland triumvirate. Uh a a you know, the three amigos, a a group that has been firmly aligned with each other for 35 years. Guys that grew up together, that fought a war together, that shed blood together, were in the foxholes together. And the narrative was that that holy union was never going to break apart. And now, you know, again, call them balls and strikes. It's broken apart into a million pieces. And I don't know if it will ever be pieced back together. I don't know if if these three guys can ever find their way uh to be friends again, let alone run a mob family together again. It it uh it imploded and Steviey's the is the last man standing and the family is his right now. Now Mikey Lance Mikey Lancelotti is the official boss. That's what we reported. Stevie put him in place. Stevie has not taken the position uh as official boss because he's on paper, but he will and uh the family will be restructured and is in the middle of a restructure. Okay, so let's get to what was reported a couple weeks ago and what we've learned about that reporting and that is is regarding Georgie Borghasey's alleged shelving. So, and his alleged meeting with Roger Velop, I I can say that I think there are, you know, a lot of times when when there's bad reporting or false reporting, and I'm not I'm not saying that the reporting that was being put out by Mafia Roundt or Mop Talk Radio was necessarily false or bad, but Uh I I think there's always some kernels of truth and sometimes those kernels of truth can get warped or mislabeled or or mis misinfor mis misformed mismanaged manipulated by people that are trying to push a certain agenda or or certain angle. Uh, I will say that at least when it comes to Borghazi standing in the family, there's some truth to what was reported. Uh, I don't I still can't firmly lock down any shelving. Um, but I can lock down reporting on the fact that Georgie Borghazi is on the outs with people. He's on the outs with people in Philadelphia and he's on the outs with people in New York City. Um, I have heard contrasting things uh regarding a shelving, but sometimes we're just talking semantics. And really at the end of the day, if you're, you know, the big takeaway from that reporting a couple weeks ago was that Georgie is in a different position than he's been in a long time. that he he's really not holding many cards and he is being questioned and uh there's there's some, you know, diminishing of of of, you know, the the shine on on him as a as a mafia leader. Uh he's somebody that I know really valued the position as boss and he came in at a very difficult time and there's a lot of questions about how he handled it and there's a lot of questions about where he stands going forward and there's a lot of rumors that more than just he's on the shelf. Uh and again I don't know how to officially place him. I in the previous video I said he was still in the administration. I'm going to pull back on that and say that he's no longer in the administration, but I'm not going to go as far as to say he's definitively on the shelf. I think he's he's fighting for his proverbial LCN life right now. And I'm not talking literally. I'm not saying that he's he's going to be killed. They don't really kill people in the 2020s anymore. They definitely don't kill people in the 2020s anymore really. um you know, minus what what was going on in Buffalo, but uh he is he's he's scrapping to maintain standing in this Philadelphia mob family and he is politicking. He's having people politic for himself. He's having to fight multiple battles on multiple fronts in in regards to public relations. So, I I think it it's it's very tenuous. Uh, I can't speak for the guys uh that were named, the other five or six guys that were named in the early reporting about them being shelved with Georgie, but I can I can say that there are pushes from certain groups in this situation for Georgie to leave um at least temporarily to to leave the New Jersey, Philadelphia area and go down to Florida and uh kind of wait this thing out. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's on the shelf, but I have heard there have been conversations that that uh he should remove himself from the uh uh the ground zero, you know, the the uh the actual territory that that the Bruno Scarfl crime family controls and let it let this all work itself out and then possibly come back by the end of the year and either come back as a a cop O as an administrator, as a soldier, but this is this is what's being discussed. And you know, it it's it's a it's a sad twist of events here where you have these again that you know, the this the holy trinity there. you know, the guys that had that that won the war together 35 30 years ago, uh, Joey, Stevie, and Georgie. Um, and you know, I mentioned it in I made the analogy in the last pod. It's like the Beatles breaking up. You never thought you'd see it. Uh, some people are still having a hard time believing it and processing it. Uh, and then it's like when when when you're chronicling the uh the downfall of Merino, at least LCN downfall, it was like telling people there there was no Santa Claus and a lot of people had trouble swallowing that pill. Uh, now when you you see the fracturing of this once you know, incredibly tight cohesive unit. Um, and it's it's in it's just shattered. You know, there are shards of glass all over the floor. It so you you follow up telling people there is no Santa Claus and then a couple years later you're like, "Oh, by the way, there's no Easter Bunny and there's no uh Tooth Fairy either." So, a lot of people's realities are being flipped upside down. The drama level in South Philly right now is, you know, minus the bodies. It it it's at the same level as it was in the '9s, maybe even worse. Because in the 90s at least you had these guys as uh you know a united front against uh they were the insurgents you know against the the the Stanford regime and uh there was a lot of dysfunction there. It was more you know kind of more generational. Now, it's that that group that fought for power and and fought side by side in their 20s and 30s to take over a crime family and then led it for three decades harmoniously for the most part. Uh everything slipping through their fingers, falling apart, Humpty Dumpty being splattered on the ground, and you know, all the kings I don't How's that uh that nursing rhyme going? all all the king's men can, you know, can't put them back together again. Um, so let's uh let's switch let's switch gears now and talk about the Roger thing. We reported after we did our podcast, we reported in our web magazine, the gangster report, uh, that the Borgaci camp was pushing back hard on the Vela narrative. It's interesting to note there wasn't really push back on the shelving narrative. The most of the push back for everybody that was reporting this um including you know the legends uh Dave and George who who get a lot of information to them and then they kind of are judicious in what they come out with in their uh bimonthly pods. You know, there wasn't there hasn't been a lot of push back on the fact that that Georgie is is uh on the outs. There's a lot of push back on that he met with Roger Vela on the boardwalk somewhere near the shore in Jersey for an hour. And I I want to just throw some cold water on the narrative that there was some type of deliberate hour-long meeting out in the open between Georgie and Roger. I don't think that happened. I think it's possible that there was a inadvertent bump in where they were both in the same place at the same time and spoke for a short period of time and then went their separate ways. I think that's possible. Can't confirm that either, but I can confirm that there was no hourong meeting between Georgie and Roger Vela. Uh there is no picture. or I heard rumors that there's some image being passed around. I don't think that's true, but uh I think it is possible that that someone took liberties with what was a a runin that had that wasn't planned and turned it into something it wasn't. Now, I want to address where a lot of this is coming from. And I'm not going to get into specifics about who's stirring the pot with these Borghazi rumors. I'll say that I know who it is. I I'll say that a lot of people know who it is. I would say everybody knows who it is. You know, everybody on the street knows who it is and most people that are uh in the reporting game know know who it is. But uh I'm not going to name names. I don't feel comfortable doing that. I'll say it's it's somebody uh you know a made guy in in Philly LCN of some stature. That that's what I'll say. And uh I don't know what you know motive is but I know that there was a letter that was sent a couple weeks ago. That letter is getting passed around and I knew about it pretty quickly. uh within I'd say 24 hours or of of that report coming out earlier this month. But as the weeks have gone on, we get more into August now into the end of August. uh that letter which is was a type letter without a I don't think there was a return address but a lot of people have knowledge of where that letter came from and it's getting circulated and it's you know some of the stuff in that letter is salacious and some of the stuff in that letter isn't true. Maybe a majority of the stuff in that letter isn't true. But that's where a lot of this is coming from. And it it it will it will shake out in the wash. If that name comes out, it's not going to come out from us. Uh but if it comes out, we'll address it. But there's a lot of people trying to play, you know, four or five dimensional chess here. And a lot of people that are uh maneuvering and angling and looking to leverage information or leverage certain disputes and and certain uh relationships whether they be in New York or Philadelphia to their own benefit. And a lot of times I think there are uh misdirection being put out and and people saying one thing but trying to push maybe uh you know their motive might be actually trying to push another thing but they're putting out one thing to get people away from another thing. And it it's just uh uh kind of a ball of confusion and the the the zone is being flooded with information and you you have to really parse through that information to to have an idea of what's going on and that's why there's nothing really definitive here. There's a lot of moving parts. It's very fluid. But here are my big takeaways and then we're going to get into some of the fallout and and and some of the the meetings that have been taking place in the last couple weeks. But first, I want to touch on my big takeaways here. Uh takeaway one, and I've been reporting this for a while. We reported it earlier. Stevie Mazone is the number one guy for all intents and purposes in Philly right now. Mikey Lance is the boss. He's the official boss. But Stevie is putting his handprint on this crime family and is going to be taking the the crime family into the future. Uh and there's going to be at least right now there's going to be no influence or say from George Borghazi or Joey Marino. This is not the uh you know business as usual with those three guys being in lock step and running the family together like they did for 30 years. This is Stevie on his own piloting this ship um or this this aircraft, captaining this ship. Um, Georgie Borghazi is in a a tough spot right now and is having to, you know, fight tooth and nail just to keep his stripes. And then I'll say that I think the wild card here in all of this could be Phil Narduchi. It's a name that we haven't heard much in regards to the Marino group. You know, Narduchi is a a scarflow guy, even though he's the same age as the the young Turks that are [snorts] now the OG Turks in the in the Marino camp. Uh went away to prison for 27 years, came home. You know, we describe him as a faction boss. Doesn't have uh a lot of made guys under him, but has had a lot of younger guys kind of gravitate to him. had an alliance at a period of time with the 10th and O guys. Got into some trouble in the late 20110s for some lone sharking. Had to go to go back to prison for a couple years. And he's kind of just, you know, laid low and bited his time since he came out. There was a lot of people that were predicting that he could have been a um you know a thorn in in Joey Merino or or Uncle Joe the Gamby's acting boss for 20 years. Uh you know could have been a thorn in their side and and and might try to you know seize control of the fan. That never happened. you know, he he just uh waited he waited in the wings and with all of this consternation, all of these moving parts, you know, people playing the proverbial musical chairs here and when the music stops, I think Phil Narduchi could be in the number two spot or the number three spot and could be leveraging some of his connections in New York to achieve that. Uh just based on, you know, some of the meetings I know that he's been taking and the fact that New York loves Phil Narduchi. New York loves Phil Narduchi. New York loves Stevie Mazone. Those are the guys that the Genevase, the Gambinos, the Bananos, the Columbos, the Lucas, those are the guys that they trust the most. and they look at Stevie and Phil Narduchi at a a whole other level of mobster. Phil Narduchi is very well connected from his time behind bars. Knows all the, you know, all the players and all the and all the families. Um, you know, Duchi was caught, you know, meeting with Georgie Nexapola a couple years ago and passing envelopes. He wasn't charged, but uh, Zapola was charged in the state gambling case. So, those are the two guys that I can say New York wants to be run of the family. Now, if I have no idea if Stevie and Phil Narduchi are in any uh, you know, in cahoots. I don't know. I don't know that to be true, but I think Phil Narduchi is angling for a spot in the administration. I'll say that, you know, his people, his attorney push back on that and say that he is, [snorts] you know, he is a a very content regular civilian, just got married, just had a kid. At one point, he was running a restaurant in a gastrop pub that I don't believe is if it's open, he doesn't own it anymore. but uh just trying to live a quiet life is what you know his his representatives say. And so we'll we'll we'll give them uh you know the opportunity to say that and push back on uh the possibility that that Phil Narduchi is politicking here and and trying to maneuver his way into the Stevie Mazone regime. We know that Narduchi was kind of a natural rival of of Joy Molino. I guess you could call them at the best you could call them frenemies. At the worst you could call them rivals. I know that Phil showed up at his at Joey's mother's wake back in uh 2023 to pay his respects. They grew up together. You know, their dads worked together. Um I think in the 80s, if if you're going to make an analogy to kind of sports or youth sports, Phil made varsity before Joey Marino did. Joey Marino was like the captain of the JV when Phil Phil Narduchi was scoring touchdowns for the varsity. Um so that I think produced a natural uh rivalry or or you know each efforting to one you know oneups oneupsmanship. Uh so just something that you know when I'm talking to people uh both in New York and Philly they kind of say you know Phil Narduchi could be the dark horse here. So you know let's you keep that in mind going forward. And I want to close close out this pod by talking about the you know the immediate fallout from those allegations that came out about Borghazi being sheld and possibly meeting with Vela. And what I know to be fact is about 10 days ago, um, second beginning of second week of August, Joe Leambi, Uncle Joe, the elder statesman, the oracle of the uh, the Philly LCN family, the guy that came in after all the drama and all the bloodshed in the 90s and came in in the late 90s and through the 2000s in 2010 stabilized the family, made them respectable, you know, rebuilt those relationships with New York that had frayed. You know, Uncle Joe had to go into New York to meet with Gambino acting boss Lorenzo Manino and Genevase acting boss Danny Pagano. Uh so it was it was a boss's summit if you will at least you know three bosses two current one former uh sitting down in the back of a a restaurant banquet hall in in Brooklyn and trying to sort all this out. And I know the the uncle was going in, you know, part of uh part of his intentions in going and taking that meeting was to fight for his nephews and fight for them not to be shelved because whether or not they're sheld or not, the shelving is being discussed. It's it's up for debate and everybody's chiming in. and the uncle came and and and made a a made an argument, made a pitch for his his nephews not to be shelved and [clears throat] for them to be allowed to to stay in town. Um, I'm hearing in that meeting you also had a hard line coming from the New York guys that they want Joey to leave town. That I don't see that ever happening. Joey's got, you know, businesses in New Jersey and Philadelphia, but it's like all of this, it's in some ways it's like this delayed reaction where everybody was kind of playing hot potato pass the buck for the last three years and they were complaining about it, the Marino podcasting controversy and and all the ripple effects in into the Philly mob uh hierarchy and into the rank and file and how it was affecting business relationships with with New York. Um, but there wasn't a lot done. There was a lot of lip service to Joey being on the shelf or no longer the boss, but you know, Joey's running around going anywhere he wants and and chronicling it on social media and hashtagging it. I can go anywhere I want. We can go anywhere. I saw him go uh into a UFC fight a couple days ago and as he's walking in, you know, into the UFC fight, as he's walking into the Morgan Wong concert, as he's walking into the Phillies game, he says, "I'm the camera. We can go anywhere." And he can't. Nobody's preventing him. Uh but it's like all of a sudden now since the summer when all this drama started to coalesce and and you started to have this kind of a domino effect of change. It seems to have kind of lit a fuse under some people's uh you know lit a fuse for some people to re litigate what should happen to Merina and and people you know angry that three years later this thing has not been buttoned up and it still lingers and it still looms and it's still uh affecting a lot of things. You got to remember all these families work together. And when it comes to specifically Philly and some of their territory in New Jersey, you have guys in New York that are invested, you're talking tens of millions of dollars in, you know, construction just just that one space. So, it's not like anybody can really just be cut off because that would cut off a money spigot. It has to be reworked or or remodeled. It's not as easy as just kind of pulling a plug. So, you know, from what I'm hearing, both sides of this, both Philly and New York are, I guess, in a delayed reaction, trying to implement safeguards and implement protocol and implement policy in the in the in the post Joey Marino boss era. where Joey is no longer really in the mob, at least on the surface, but is kind of snubbing his nose at everybody and causing all these issues. Now, there seems to be this collective push on both sides of this, from Stevie in Philly and from uh Danny Pagano and Lorenzo Manino in New York to finally put this issue to bed and have some consequences, have some accountability, and and set a set a tone, set an example, and make it so something like this never happens again. Because that's the worry that this is a slippery slope with with Joey jumping on the internet being either a boss or a former boss that this could then open the door for what you see in mom tube where you have all these people. Now granted most of these people are out of the life if not all of them but it it's like a feeding frenzy for everybody airing everybody else's dirty laundry and it looks bad for it looks bad for everyone. Stevie I just keep on being told he's on the war path. He's looking to make up for lost time. He had, you know, he had to go to prison for a few years, came out, has been under a lot of scrutiny, uh, restriction-wise, and now I think he's finally got his his sea legs, if you will, and, uh, is back up, moving and grooving, and is really angry about what's happened to the Borgata. And I'm told that there's been some um, altercations with a number of people not just Georgie um that there was an issue with him and Johnny Chang. There was an issue with him and the uncle that was brought up at this New York meeting where the the New York guys told the uncle that him and Stevie had to kind of get on the same page. And what I'm told the common theme in all these, you know, little dustups with Stevie, which proved to be kind of the impetus for Stevie to fully embrace taking over the family, is that he blames the people that were on the street while he was incarcerated. When Joey started his his podcasting in the fall of 2023, he blames Georgie and Johnny Chang and the uncle for enabling it and for letting this thing get getting out of hand and for not being able to wrap their arms around it. uh to the point where I've said for the you know the last couple podcast for the past couple years two Christmas parties two different Christmas parties in Philly for the pro Joey guys and for the anti-Joey guys. So, this is this is this is serious. And even though, you know, it's not what it was in the past. You don't have uh guys running into uh lunchonets and and shooting up under bosses like you did or or you know, having all the reckless violence that was erupting in the 90s. You don't have any of that. But you have the same Um, you have you have the same vibe in regards to all of these squables and and people getting at odds with each other, getting adversarial, and positioning themselves as, you know, going into kind of last resort measures. Uh, and we hope that it doesn't go past that, but it it's getting really it's getting really serious. And only time will tell how it gets worked out. But what I can say for sure is it's never going to go back to the way it was. That's over. That ship has sailed. Toothpaste is out of the tube. Horse is out of the barn. Um, so Stevie Mazone's crime family. Mikey Lance is the official boss. Stevie will step into that role uh when he feels like he's ready to do so. I think when he's off restriction, his his supervised release restriction. Mike Lance will stay in the administration in some in some regards. I don't think the rest of that administration has been filled yet. I think this is all being discussed about where, you know, all the pieces are going to land um in the uh you know, as the the way it was is now being transitioned to the way it is. And I know New York's in favor of of Stevie and Phil Narduchi taking this family um by the horns and and directing it in a completely different direction. I don't know where Phil stands. I know where Stevie stands. Um so that's where we are right now. I hope everybody appreciated this uh this pod where we could kind of give some insight and analysis and update everybody on what we're learning. Georgie Borgghazi. I I'm not comfortable at this second to say he's shelved, but I can say he's on the outs. Um, and I can say that that his uncle went to New York to try to keep him from being shelved and from him and his brother being kicked out of town. And then there was discussion about wanting to get Joey out of town as well. Uh, you know, the the one thing I'll say as I'm closing up here, when it was I'm told when it was presented to Lorenzo and Danny that it was unrealistic for Joey Merino to leave town because of the his business interests. It was the response from the the New York bosses was we don't care if he wants to run a cheese steak spot. open one down in Florida. Give authority to whoever you need to give authority to to run the ones in Philly and New Jersey, but we don't want to see your face anymore. Take that for for what it is. Um, we know there's been a lot of lip service these last couple years and a lot of like we want this to get done, we want that to get done. It doesn't necessarily get done. So, all right, everybody, like, share, and subscribe. The Original Gangsters News Network and Podcast. We're here 365 24/7 breaking down the latest news coming out of the North American underworld. 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