PHILADELPHIA -- Convicted mobster Lawrence 'Yogi' Merlino has become the fourth member of Nicodemo Scarfo's organized crime family to break the Mafia code of silence and cooperate with authorities, law enforcment officials said Tuesday.
Merlino, 42, of Margate, N.J., was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday on his November conviction in a federal racketeering trial, but the sentencing was postponed after prosecutors informed U.S. District Judge Franklin Van Antwerpen that Merlino had switched attorneys and needed more time to prepare for his sentencing hearing.
Afterward, word leaked out that Merlino, who was sentenced to life in prison last month for his role in the mob slaying of Frank 'Frankie Flowers' D'Alfonso, had started cooperating with authorities in an attempt to have his sentence reduced or serve time in a federal prison for protected witnesses.
Law enforcement officials said they are hopeful that Merlino, the brother of former mob underboss Salvatore 'Chuckie' Merlino, will provide them with information about the mob's union and construction activities in Atlantic City, where the Scarfos and the Merlinos lived.
Through their construction company, Nat Nat Inc., and its offshoot, Bayshore Rebar, the Merlinos handled millions of dollars worth of Atlantic City casino construction contracts which authorities believe were obtained through mob manipulation of the city's construction industry and building trade unions, officials said.
Law enforcement officials said they hope Merlino can also help them solve several murders.
Earlier this month, Lawrence Merlino's son, Joseph, who operates Rebar, was barred by gaming regulators from doing business with Atlantic City casinos.
Merlino becomes the fourth active mob member in the Philadelphia-South Jersey La Cosa Nostra to break the Mafia's code of silence -- 'omerta' -- and turn mob informant.
Nicholas 'Nicky Crow' Caramandi and Thomas DelGiorno became government informants in November 1986 and Eugene Milano began cooperating with the government at the start of the Flowers murder trial in March.
News of the most recent defection came shortly after Van Antwerpen began imposing stiff sentences on the 18 defendants convicted in the multi-count federal indictment which included charges of murder, attempted murder, extortion, illegal gambling and loansharking.
Eleven mob members, most of them receiving between 30 to 40 years in prison, have been sentenced so far in the wide-sweeping racketeering case. Seven more members, including Merlino, his brother Salvatore, and Scarfo, remain to be sentenced.
