Feds charge 9 in loan-sharking, gambling operation
Alfred Lubrano, Inquirer Staff Writer
August 23, 2013


Nine members of an Albanian-run gang from Northeast Philadelphia that specialized in loan-sharking and illegal gambling - backed by intimidation with a gun and a hatchet - were arrested Friday morning, federal officials said.

All nine appeared in federal court Friday afternoon in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Lynne A. Sitarski, who set an arraignment for Wednesday. The men were to be held in custody until then.

The defendants, allegedly led by Northeast residents Ylli Gjeli, 48, and Fatimir Mustafaraj, 41, were indicted on racketeering, extortion, and other charges and are accused of running a criminal enterprise that federal authorities said thrived for more than a decade.

Gjeli, known as Willie, ruled with an iron fist, physically assaulting subordinates and associates, according to the indictment.

Gjeli, who would often search customers for weapons and recording devices, once grabbed a hatchet in one hand and a customer's arm in the other, the indictment said. He then slammed the hatchet onto a table right after the customer had pulled his hand away.

That same customer had placed at least $800,000 in bets with one of the gang members over one 10-month period, the indictment said.

Some of the defendants were charged with lending tens of thousands of dollars at high rates of interest, then threatening to break the arms and legs of anyone who did not pay. In one case, according to the 84-page indictment, a man who placed sports bets with the gang was told that if he did not pay his gambling debts, someone would be sent "to push [his] dad around."

In court, most of the nine appeared in T-shirts, cargo shorts, and flip-flops and did not have lawyers, indicative of their sudden and unexpected arrests at 6 a.m. Friday.

The only defendant with a lawyer present was Gjeli. Before the judge appeared, the lawyer, David Glassman, asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Salvatore Astolfi about various aspects of the case.

"No human trafficking, right?" Glassman asked.

"Right. You want us to add it?" Astolfi responded.

"Oh, no, no," Glassman said.

Later, speaking with a man sitting in the courtroom identified as Gjeli's brother, Glassman said Gjeli would not be released Friday: "Jesus Christ couldn't get him out," Glassman said. The brother held his head in his hands, in obvious distress.

Federal authorities say the men often used the basement of the Lion Bar & Grill, on the 7000 block of Frankford Avenue in the Northeast, to meet with customers. No one from the bar could be reached for comment Friday.

The gang also used other bars, coffee shops, and a pizza place, many of them in the Northeast, authorities said.

Employing cryptic language and using code words such as pizza to describe a loan, the men threatened anyone in their debt that "people from New York" would handle enforcement, the indictment said.

Federal authorities say the operation was active from the late 1990s through this month and involved loans and bets of up to $50,000. One person who received a $30,000 loan from the gang was required to make interest payments of $600 every week, authorities said.

Soccer was one of the sports on which the group took bets, according to the indictment.

If convicted of all charges, Gjeli and Mustafaraj face a maximum sentence of life in prison. The remaining defendants each face a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Charged along with Gjeli were George Markakis, 43; Gezim Asllani, 34; Rezart Rahmi Telushi, 40; Eneo Jahaj, 26; and Ardit Pone, all of Philadelphia; Erion Murataj, 35, of Huntingdon Valley; and Brian Jackson, 35, of Harleysville.

Seven of the nine men are Albanian, and two are American, Astolfi said outside the courtroom.

"This is a violent and corrupt organization that preyed on the community for many years," he said.

The multiagency investigation included the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Pennsylvania State Police, Montgomery County Detectives, and the New Jersey State Police and the U.S. Attorney's Office, which will prosecute the case.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaki...g__betting.html

Thanks for posting that Ivy. Can't believe i missed this one, i was on the philly.com site earlier this morning.

Wonder if the guys in south philly know theres Albanians in town taking away business from them?

Seems like they had a nice little operation

Probably $5-$10m + betting volume and maybe $500k shy book

Doubt philly LCN got any tribute but maybe they worked with them in a bookmaking capacity . Interesting they specifically mentioned soccer as that is definately a growth area for books . I live right by Newark and soccer is huge these days

Besides the Albanians operating in a different part of the city, they probably cater to a different clientele as well.

I am getting tired of these cops poking there noses around..somebody got to do somethin...

What in the hell are you talking about?

why is the lawyer asking that, like he was expecting it.

A different clintele??
You mean like where they have a clientele that will gamble 800k in 10months.

heck yeah we do!

i'm sure that they're aware that they can't do shit about the albanians

Yes they should start shooting cops that would teach those nosy cops a leason.

A different clientele as in other Albanians. I'm not sure how much Americans really bet on soccer. And if you've paid attention to LCN gambling busts in recent years, they also have big bettors.

Is their a sizeable albanian community in philly?

Also i dont think the ny families go around trying to shake down or get involved with evry crime group that happens to be loan sharking so expecting a small weaker ligambi and co to do it is a bit much.

800k in ten months... Best case scenario the top guy took home 80k.... (Unlikely). How succesful of a shy book do they have if they are threatening all these ppl? If these guys are making six figures why do none of them have lawyers or homes out side the city? Booking in pa is wide open

The A.C. area has no five fam. presence around , The Albanians quietly have taken over the oc thing.

I agree skinny. My guess is they were bringing in $500k a year at most, spread over 10-15 guys , not much at all . I like reading about these small busts as alot of this stuff is still out there.

I bet soccer sometime , the spread gap is usually big , wonder if the margins are a lil better

800k was from ONE bettor

Any connecting to lcn?

Doesnt seem to be any, different part of town, and like ivy said different clientel.

I didn't even know there was Albanian oc in philly. I know a bunch of russians, a few are in the jewelry biz but never heard about any Albanian OC guys. Years ago i think there was a crew of them doing high end burglaries. In one job they rented a space above a coin shop or jewelry store....then they went straight down into the walk in vault and got away with a real nice haul. This was back in the 90's. The press said the feds thought it was pro's funding the war in the Balkans. Never heard anything afterwards though and i don't think anyone was ever charged.

And the ones here all have legit income ,And keep to then self well like five fam did 50 and 60s

i dont know much about bookmaking, but you guys are sort of assuming the two top guys paid the help fairly. Also im sort of still a bit puzzled as to why the lawyer asked about human trafficking which leads me to believe these guys probably had other ventures on the side.

$500k in earnings

Books only profit maybe 5 % of the total volume bet

I can't see this book being bigger than $5-10m max

Seemed to be a smaller operation but these type of shops are all over

Some shops only have 20-30 bettors

They had hundreds of players
And 1 of them alone bet AT LEAST 800k in 10months

Where is Ralph Natale when u need em

2 years ago they had the 2 mastronardo brothers who ran a big time book for the main line folks and in bucks county that wasn't mobbed up and hit the big money people in philly and they got nabbed running it online through costa rica, I am guessing that the albanian clientel and the main line people were different but $800,000 for one person in 10 months is a huge take for any operation

@ Serpiente: You're supposed to take your yellow pill in the morning, your green pill at night. When you mix them up you tend to make posts like this.

I'm only thinking of your well being. Now go have a nice glass of warm milk .

Same thing happening in Nola, except it's the Russians. Albanians and Russians slowly taking over OC, and the Italians aren't gonna be able to fight back because of the lack of a gene pool to recruit from and the unwillingness to make non-Italians...the Roman Empire is a fallin' gentlemen..

800k in bets from one guy is about 100k in losses

I don't see how they're taking over, they're simply operating in their own communities.

Football/soccer and tennis are btw by far the most popular with European bettors. As far as I know Albanians are more recent immigrants and probably still rather follow European sports than American. Albanians were always big football/soccer fans.

I was always wondering, do Italian-American bookies even offer you to bet on European soccer leagues? I guess they don't know that much about this sport because it's not so popular in America. They would have to copy the odds from someone else or something. Would an American bookie accept some bets on let's say some German 2nd division games even though he knows nothing about those teams and soccer in general?