Report Claims Entire Borgesi Crew Booted from Bruno-Scarfo Crime Family

Original Gangsters News with Scott Bernstein. >> Welcome to the Original Gangsters News Network and podcast. I'm your host, Scott Bernstein. We got to go back out to South Philly. A bomb dropped on Broad Street. Uh today was uh on Thursday uh August 6th um a bombshell news report uh from Mob Talk Radio and uh we're going to we're going to discuss it. Um, and this comes on the heels of our previous podcast where we broke the news about uh Mikey Lancelotti becoming the new boss officially of the Philadelphia LCN Group, the Bruno Scarell Crime Family, and giving the uh inside details on what happened with Joey Molino and the sale of the cheese steak spot and pushing back on the notion that was coming from Mafia Roundt that Joey Merino had reclaimed the the throne which uh we threw some cold water on. Right now, there has been a stick of dynamite, a grenade thrown right into the living room of the Philadelphia mafia. And I think we're probably, you know, I don't think this is going to really be settled or we're going to have definitive answers anytime probably this summer. Uh it will all come out in the wash eventually. will know what exactly happened, but uh it just keeps on getting kind of more surreal. And this uh this click of guys, this crew of guys that had been together since they were in elementary school, came up together in both in life uh in school and in the underworld, fought a war together as the quote unquote young Turks, the Joey Marino faction of the family, which for decades we've been told will uh never turn on each other, will stay as thick as thick as thieves until the day they die. There really seems to be some frame and some erosion of that, you know, of that Mount Olympus that was that group where they were just rock solid and they were always going to have each other's backs. And there appears to be some serious chinks in the armor and acrimony and and dissension and bitterness and resentment. We've been at the forefront of this reporting over the last couple years uh talking about the fallout from the Joey Marino podcast and now the latest development according to Mob Talk Radio. Georgie Borghazi, the former consiliary, the former acting boss, the former official boss of the Philadelphia Mafia, according to Mob Talk Radio. Him and his entire crew have been put on the shelf. They are persona nangrada. They are sidelined. They've had their stripes pulled and The straw that broke the camel's back, according to Mob Talk Radio, was an alleged meeting between George Borgghazi and Roger Vela. for people that, you know, don't have a a deep knowledge of the history regarding this group and the Philadelphia mafia and all the, you know, all the ups and downs and the the roller coaster, the soap opera that's been the last 30, 35 years. Roger Vel was at one point in time Joey Merino's driver and gopher messenger and allegedly was involved in a couple murders at least. Some of these murders were allegedly ordered or involved some of the Merino crew and Roger flipped um around 2000 2001. Uh he testified a a couple cases but they never really rolled him out as a major uh weapon on the witness stand because there were credibility issues. But Roger Bella has been out of the life, out of the uh the inner sanctum of the Philly mafia, Philadelphia mafia for a quarter century. We've heard rumors that he uh lives in the Atlantic City area and according to Mob Talk Radio, there was a hour-long meeting on the boardwalk somewhere in the Jersey Shore between Georgie Borghazi and cooperator Roger Vel. This is uh if true, and I have not been able to confirm the validity of that report, but if true, it would be kind of the ultimate sin and could easily in a you know, in a former mafia era could lead to a homicide. And in the current mafia era, it would make sense that it would lead to to some type of punishment censor shelving. Uh this report from Mob Talk Radio was very specific. Um they didn't just name Georgie, they named pretty much every member of his, you know, his inner circle. uh the guys that he keeps close, the guys that do his bidding allegedly, and about seven or eight guys that Mob Talk Radio put on blast for being shelved along with Borghazi. Uh a lot to unpack here. I once again I want to be very upfront. I have not been able to confirm um at least in the you know the hours since Mob Talk Radio dropped this bombshell. I've not been able to confirm it. I can say that there are some anecdotal bits and pieces uh rumors, speculation, stories that I've heard that uh it doesn't necessarily and we'll kind of get into uh the delineation between my reporting last week and this reporting now, but I have heard some things that have, you know, questioned where Borghazi was heading this family. And although I have uh reported that he voluntarily left the boss's position in the last couple months, uh I I think there's a little bit possibly more than meets the eye in regards to that abdication. And you know sometimes whether you're talking about you know a regular job or uh a job in professional sports or uh you know in any corporation where you know does a guy leave or is he fired? There's sometimes some some gray area there where you did it of your own valition, but all things being even, you might not have done it. Uh, and I think that also applies to to where this all started when you go back three years ago when Joy Merino decided to start his podcast and and uh launch a social media brand, jump on the internet and, you know, defy all previous rules and regulations for for for mafia dons. You know, I've reported and I stand by my reporting that Joey stepped out. Now, did his stepping down uh if he hadn't have been feeling pressure uh would that have happened? I I sense no. I sense that if people uh who heard the idea that he was jumping in the podcast game, it was going to be all over the internet. Um, and if and if those people had had a different reaction and a more accepting vibe for for what he was intending to do, he wouldn't have stepped down. But because the reaction was overwhelmingly, at least from the Lakos Nostra standpoint, overwhelmingly negative, he saw it as necessary. And I think as I said last week, him leaving the uh the position, handing over the crown to to Georgie Borghazi and stepping back didn't really go the way a normal situation like that would go. There was still influence being exerted to the point where people said that Joey was actually puppeteering and that he was running a shadow government. I think there are times where multiple things can be true at once. I think there are situations and especially with Philadelphia where it's just like this is a group all to its own. It's very unique. South Philly does not represent other cities or communities or neighborhoods where the mafia has been. This is uh you know this is a this is a street corner gangster family. Um the whole world revolves around the neighborhood. There's nothing outside the neighborhood that matters. It's it's it's insular. It's it again it's its own universe and it's its own galaxy even though it's not that far of a drive from New York City where it's things are done completely different and and because of that and because Merino took over and those those guys that he came up with Joey Merino, Georgie Borghazi, Stevie Mazone, Mikey Lance, Marty Angelina um because those guys took over in a a very extraordinary way, pushing themselves into power in their 30s by winning a a shooting war against a established Sicilian boss who was being backed by the Gambino crime family. It was, you know, if you were going to again put it in sports terms, it was the upset of all upsets. Uh the odds would not have looked good for them in 1990 to do what they did by 1995. So everything is upside down mafia wise in in in South Philly and has been for 30 35 years. Black is white, up is down, right is left. Uh and and these guys march to the beat of their own drummer. I don't once again I don't have confirmation that Georgie Borgghazi has been shelved. I don't have information that confirming that he took this meeting with Roger Bella, but I'm taking this report seriously. I'm not dismissing it. The initial feedback that I got over the last couple hours is people saying some of this makes sense again without them saying that this definitively happened. And I want to be sure to, you know, point out the the nuance in this. I reported that Stevie and Georgie and Mikey Lance are all in lock step. And I think that at the very least was true. If Georgie really did take a meeting with Roger and that meeting, the knowledge of that meeting filtered out, then you know, I would say all bets are off for what I had reported in terms of Georgie, Stevie, and Mikey Lance being all on the same page. I have reported over the last couple years that Georgie and Stevie were not on the same page for a while. And then my most recent reporting was that they had come to some understanding and that they were kind of unified uh against Marino and what Marino was doing and that uh Georgie was starting to be a little bit more hardline in his dealings with with Joey. I don't think Georgie's spoken to Joey in over a year. Stevie hasn't talked to Joey since he got out of prison about two years ago, year and a half ago. But that everything is, you know, all all the cards are back on the table and everything goes out uh the window in regards to what I reported if what Mob Talk Radio is reporting is true. And let me, you know, address the elephant in the room. Mob Talk Radio has never been a big fan of mine. Uh I have no hard feelings. you know, those guys or Jeff Canari and those people over there, they don't owe me anything. Um, it's all, you know, all fair and loving YouTube. Uh, I appreciate Jeff Karsi and his team over there acknowledging that I had, you know, broke the news that Mikey Lance had taken over. um and explaining that, you know, me and him, if you believe what he's saying and if what he says comes true, are really the only ones that have been on top of this. Uh so I don't hold any grudges and you know honestly I I thought a lot of mob talk radio when I first became aware of it was a propaganda arm of Joey Marino and George Borghazi. At some point that changed. Um, and you can tell by the content that they've been putting out. It went from incredibly pro Merino to incredibly anti- Merolino. I think some of that is traced to a comment that Joey made during his first year uh being out in front in social media and and denying that he knew M Talk Radio and that offended them. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize, but I've never jumped behind a cosign a mob talk radio story before. And I'll say that this is the closest I've ever been to kind of viewing mob talk radio as being really in the no being objective and not slanting coverage. Now that the whole, you know, Merlinino propaganda game has moved from a small platform, which is Mob Talk Radio, I say that respectfully, to a much larger platform um that's connected to Bartool Sports and has had a a much bigger way to amplify the the Joey spin. Um I I don't know. I I I'm still kind of processing all this. I don't know exactly what to make of it, but I will say the follow that everybody that keeps their finger on the pulse of this crime family began to hear earlier this year that there were shakeups happening, that there were a re there was a reshuffleling that was on the horizon, that uh all was not copathetic in the leadership of the Philadelphia mafia and that there was a a reckoning, a kind of come to Jesus moment almost three years into the Joy Merino podcasting controversy and that it was finally being dealt with the way that people in New York wanted it to be dealt with. Um, I heard from good sources that Georgie went to New York at some point this early summer and took some meetings and that he got blowback from those meetings. Nothing told me that he was put on the shelf or that uh, you know, he was on the outs with people just that whatever he was going to talk about with the Gambinos, the West Side, that maybe he was being a little too slick. Uh kind of trying to being the smartest guy in the room, trying to do some stuff with one of those groups without the other group knowing, etc., etc. I I I don't really have specifics other than it it did not play well and that some people in New York were upset with him over whatever maneuvering he was attempting to do and these meetings that he took didn't go over well and some people didn't know he was taking them. So it was kind of looked at or viewed as a an an endound if you will. And this all happened around the time that we were all hearing that there was a shakeup in the midst and that Stevie Mazone was imposing his will. Um, and we've been saying, you know, we've been very consistent on Stevie being the one very vocal, 10 toes on the line, hardliner uh, when it when it comes to opposing Joey's social media endeavor and looking at it as something that diminishes him diminishes the organization, puts in jeopardy or or potentially sacrifices all of the literal blood, sweat, and tears that that this group shed in their early 30s. Now they're in their mid60s. But uh you know to take over the crime family, they fought a three, fouryear war. A lot of people died. you know, their close friend Mikey Chang, RIP to to Mikey Chang, you know, got gunned down on the street 30 three years ago this week. So, it's, you know, people died um for them to take over that crime family and and get a hold of uh the historical LCN organization in Philly, the the storied, you know, the hallowed halls of of Philly LCN were taken over by the young Marino group and they've held it for for 30 years. Uh Stevie Mazone is on a wiretap from 2015 telling a new group of initiates, you know, we're we ain't no suckers. This is this is our this is our thing and ain't nobody taking it from us. I mean, I'm paraphrasing. Um so it it's more I think more I think it's more fragile for Stevie. I think it's uh it means more to Stevie. it, the rules, the the reputations, the relationships with other groups, the stuff that Joey Marino doesn't really care about. Um, the stuff that Georgie Borgghazi these last three years has had to be like a trapeze artist at a circus, which I guess is is a is kind of an appropriate analogy because South Philly can sometimes be a three- ring circus, but that tightroppe act that Georgie has had to produce or or or engage in in order to keep everybody happy and not wanting to alienate Merino because of you know, it's been his his best friend and his closest friend and their brothers in arms, but Stevie has not subscribed to that to that same way of approaching this. Stevie has been, for lack of a better term, he's been [ __ ] Joey and [ __ ] what he's trying to do and and and [ __ ] him for all the consequences that that we're having to deal with because of his desire to go be a social media star. Uh, and he had a lot of [ __ ] dumped in his lap while he was locked up that he could do nothing about. And we mentioned it earlier that, you know, last week that Stevie took offense to the fact that Joey launched this new phase of his life while Stevie was locked up. I think Steve Stevie was is of the opinion and other people are of the opinion and that would have never happened if Stevie was on the street. So, you know, this could be viewed if what Jeff Canari and Mop Talk Radio is reporting is true. This could be Stevie Mazone putting his handprint on this organization as a boss. and consolidating power and removing any disscent and getting everybody that was kind of waffling or playing two sides of the fence here making sure that everybody's 10 toes on the line there. The last two years there been there have been two separate Christmas parties in in South Philly. One for Merino guys and one for non- Marino guys. I mean, that's where we are right now. And there have been a lot of guys that have wanted to be loyal to to Joey. One of them being Mikey Lance, who's the new boss, uh, who's been seen over at the, uh, Cheeseest spot. Um, Marty Angelina, Johnny Chang. So it this has been very difficult to navigate for them and for a crew that they're just for decades there was never any daylight with the from the outside they were all hand in hand and I know this I sound like a broken record and it gets redundant but it's true. The oath that they took was to each other. It wasn't uh well at least until now the oath to the oath that they took was was more to each other than to Losanostra um and their street corner gangster ways in South Philly that appears to be falling apart right now. And what what this thing looks like in a year from now or two years from now, I don't know. But I know that what came out today is as serious a situation. If true, then you know it's it's the the peril is right in front of your very eyes. The Titanic has hit the iceberg and you're either getting into the lifeboat with Stevie and New York or you're getting in the lifeboat with Joey and Snuff and Googs and the Wagner brothers and Ralphie Head. Um, and there's no nobody's staying on the ship as it goes down. You're getting in one you're getting in one of those lifeboats. So it I just the consequences here are very real. The ripple effects to this. I don't want to be hyperbolic. I don't want to be, you know, fanning the flames of war here, but this is the kind of stuff where wars can be ignited. In previous eras, people could end up dead. friendships could be irreparably damaged. Th this is uh there's a real there's there's a situation now that I don't think anybody ever anticipated. I know I didn't. You have a scenario here where this entire crew is, you know, on life support. They're in the emergency room. They're in the intensive care unit. If if this friendship, if this business relationship, the the blood ties of of Lakosa Nostra, you know, and I don't know if they're going to make it out. I don't know. They could flatline. And at the end of the day, it could just be Stevie Mazone standing because again, Steviey's been the most consistent here. And and for the most part, everybody loves Stevie. Stevie has love coast to coast definitely in all the five families. He's got the, you know, the hardcore old-timers and Philly behind him. And you know, if if Georgie really met with Roger Vela, I could see that being a line that once you cross, you can never come back from. Um, and I could see Stevie doing what is being reported was done. And I want to once again say that what Mob Talk Radio is reporting is not vague. It's not speaking in general terms. It is naming names. And either that is incredibly reckless or it's true. Um, so I I'm still again I'm still trying to process this, but uh this this could be the the real beginning of the end for the Merino crew where there's no turning back. There's no repairing. You know, we've had we've seen this group of guys get into little tiffs here and there, and we've seen little factions within factions and uh guys that were chirping at each other or just normal kind of, you know, friends, longtime friends sometimes fight. Doesn't mean they're not going to be friends anymore. doesn't mean that they're they're not uh still going to be closed. Sometimes they just have a difference of opinion and we've seen that, but we've never seen anything like this or what's being alleged here. So, this is uh this is real shocking stuff. I'm going to do my best to keep on running down leads trying to figure out what's true, what's rumor, what's speculation. But the news is not just that Georgie sheld, it's that him, his brother, and all of their loyalists are on the shelf. And then this narrative has been put out that he met with Roger Vela, which would be a proverbial death sentence, not literal, but it it could be the the difference between being allowed to come back as a soldier, as a capo, as an administrator, or forever being exiled. So it it appears if what Mob Talk Radio is reporting turns out to be accurate, my reporting on the change in leadership was half true in terms of there was a change, but that it wasn't as smooth or free of consternation as I reported that it that it wasn't Georgie having some come to Jesus moment where he realized that uh you know Stevie was right and he just wanted to kind of step back and let and and let Lance take a take a a swing at being the official boss and you know where wherever the chips fall, he would be okay. Um, I'm still going to stick with my initial reporting on this that Georgie is no longer the boss, but he's still in the administration, but there's questions now. And uh I I've I I I talked to a lot of people, a lot of people in South Philly, a lot of people in New Jersey, a lot of people in New York, and they've insisted to me that Georgie is still in the administration, that he's still in the top three. Is some of that spin? Was that the case initially and then that has somehow changed when when when some of this other information came to light? I don't know. I'm not ready to to completely abandon what I initially reported, but I have some questions and I and and only time will tell and we'll see. But it's not looking good for the Marino crew, whether you're talking Joey or Georgie or the people that have uh lined up behind them during the last two or three years and, you know, kind of said that this is our organization. We'll do what we want. [ __ ] New York. [ __ ] anybody that doesn't support Joey going off and and trying to live his best life as a social media persona podcaster. You know, I'll end with here's what I know to be true. Joey Marino can say that he's left the life. He's not a wise guy. There's no mafia. He's been, you know, targeted by rats and feds and all uh uh, you know, on all things that are kind of trumped up and has been painted in a bad light unfairly and has had to do time for things he never did. He He knows no other way of life. Being a gangster, being a wise guy is all Joey knows. So, I've never really bought into the he's just a podcaster now. He's just a social media person. This whole last three years, he's still trying to game the game. He's still playing in his mind, you know, four-dimensional, fivedimensional chess. um he's still rubbing elbows and doing business with guys in the underworld. Whether or not there have been edicts or mandates that have come from different bosses about being seen with him or or dining with him or doing business with him, he he's he's still doing what he's always done. Uh so there's always the possibility that this is a Merino tactic uh uh a game that he's playing that you know he's mad about being on the outside looking in feels betrayed by his his two closest friends and Georgie and Stevie and that he's pushing a lot of this negative stuff into the uh into the ether into the public consumption sphere to embarrass his friends who he feels betrayed by and that and that none of the stuff that we're hearing about uh Georgie is is is true. You know, we you said that Georgie and Joey haven't spoken in a while. So, there's always that possibility. And I I'll never believe that that Joy Merino isn't in some way, shape, or form still in the life. Uh this is just another way to kind of veil it or insulate himself. I do agree with Gene Barllo who made, I think, a very astute observation that Joey's hiding in front of the cameras. He knows if he's always on tape, people aren't going to try to do him harm. He also knows if he aligns with bikers and black gangsters and Albanian gangsters and people like that that people that want to do them harm might think twice because of those affiliations. So, I'm I'm still kind of just in shock. I mean, this is this is a lot to uh to process today and I I hope you kind of bear with me if I was a little all over the place in this pod, but I wanted to come on and and give my initial thoughts on this. Wow. That's all I can say is wow. Um never thought I'd see it. Never thought I'd see a day where I was saying that uh Georgie and Stevie and Joey weren't going to eventually walk hand in hand into the sunset. You know, it's like the Beatles breaking up. I mean, really, this is like George Oringo, John and Paul, circa 1970. You never thought you'd see it. And we'll uh we'll keep you updated with what we hear. Maybe in the next couple days I can come back on and and uh either confirm or disisconfirm the the reporting from Mob Talk Radio. Uh everyone please like, share, and subscribe. The Original Gangsters News Network and Podcast. Um, we're here 24/7 365 giving you the latest breaking news when it comes to the underworld in North America, Laos Nostra in the United States, all the biker bosses, the biker clubs, drug kingpins. We're doing more urban stuff now with our dope city series. Uh, we've got Canada on lockdown. So, anything related to uh the Hell's Angels or the Rudo Mob or Ryan Wedding or Blood Family Mafia, we're on top of all that stuff. We we we cover all our bases here and we love giving you the most elite access, knowledge, analysis that you're going to find on the internet. We are always going to be five, 10 steps ahead of the curve. Uh always at the forefront of of breaking news. We're always going to be a mile in front of the mainstream media. Just know that we've been talking about problems within the Merino camp for years now. Never at the point where they hit the iceberg though. There was like choppy waters and and people were uh taking Dramamine for the uh for seasickness, but never where iceberg hit boat going into the water, jump into a lifeboat or, you know, say goodbye. And and that's really I think we're either there or we're we're close to there. Again, like, share, and subscribe. Original Gangsters Newsmap Room podcast. I'm your host, Scott Bernstein. Please check out Gangster Report, our companion web magazine. Check out our Patreon members only. Scott Bernstein, original Gangsters News Network. Uncovering the underworld, one city, one region, one country at a time. We are out.