Has Joe Ligambi retired?

as somebody thats not from Philly and has zero inside info, from everything Ive read and heard it sounds like he's either retired or very close to it.

From what I've gathered, I think he's partially retired, and may be ready to full step aside soon, if he hasn't already done so and the general public just doesn't know it.

But, to my understanding, Ligambi is currently serving as the consigliere in the family, whether it be in an acting capacity or on a long-term basis.

Interim consig

in semi retirement

who is the boss now?

I'm sure the two federal trials probably beat the hell out of him, and with the chance of future impending charges that could put him away for life, I'm sure he just wants to enjoy whatever free time he really has left at this point.

I'd imagine the advisor role at the moment is to try to keep what's left of the guys on the street in one piece, kind of a guy to bridge the gap between the younger faction and some of the older guys. Once he fully retires, I could see one of Lucibello, Mikey Lance, or possibly even Borgesi (his old spot) stepping into the consigliere position.

Steven Mazzone is the acting/street boss. One of Merlino's must trusted guys. And it is still believed at this point (although never proven) that Skinny Joey has been the actual "official" boss all along.

Are there not a few guys now coming back out of jail that hold some sway in the Philly family?


Ligambi will have an FBI target on his back so no surprise he wants the quiet life..

he loves the life, he is going no where..he stood up and should keep his position..just don't kill anyone

And more may come out with his violation of parole court date next week...if the FBI was involved with the watching of him and not just the Broward cops.....does anyone know if the federal government or even the state of florida is allowed to just follow him around because he is on parole? PB would know better but it seems the place he got caught was a higher end place for Broward detectives to be hanging out in, or obvioulsly they had his routine down when they caught him with chang and the others

Quite a few of the old time, Scarfo era guys have come out of jail in the last few years. Phil and Frank Narducci, Tony and Joey Pung, and Salvatore Scafidi just to name a few. It is believed that the Pungitore's are completely out of the "life". Some claimed Scafidi was put on the shelf by Ligambi, but is now involved again. Others say that both of the Narducci's are out of the life as well, and then others say that Phil still remains a very heavy hitter and runs his own crew.

There are also a few more due out soon, including Joseph "Chickie" Ciancaglini (Johnny/Mikey/Joey Chang's dad) in 2015 and Francis "Faffy" Iannarella in 2016. However, both are in their 80's and I couldn't imagine them having much, if any, involvement in the family at that point.

Most people believed Phil Narducci was the one to watch when he was released, that he may try to make a power play for the family after doing so much time and feeling like he deserved it. If he is still in fact involved, it seems that he has fallen in line for the time being.

I can't say I know for sure, but I'm under the impression that law enforcement can basically put anyone they want under surveillance at anytime, including you and I, if they suspect us of doing something illegal. And, I'd imagine that while on federal supervised release, Joey was probably under FBI surveillance (along with Broward County) for quite some time. Like everyone else has said, law enforcement nation wide has an enormous hard-on for this guy. It shows in this case here; they want to put him away for something so petty as meeting Johnny Chang in a cigar bar a week before his parole restrictions are set to expire. However, I can agree that Joey shouldn't have been so stupid to put himself in that position with only several days to go until he was set to be a completely free man. What could have been so important to him at that time that he had to meet them? He also should have been smart enough to know that he had a target on his back and that he was most likely going to be under constant surveillance from the day he walked out of prison and the halfway house.

Seems like sour grapes behalf of law enforcement to me, especially after losing the racketeering trial in Philadelphia that included Ligambi and Borgesi. They're not going to stop until they've put all of these guys away for good.

Well we dont know for sure if they were even tailing merlino. The resturant where merlino was spotted got raided by the cops and the owner got arrested for selling drugs out of the place like a month after merlino was surveilled there. So it could very well be that the place was already under surveillance and merlino just got unlucky and chose the wrong place to have a meeting.

Ya the government cannot just start looking into any citizen for whatever because that 100% violates your constitutional rights but if you are in an area where stuff went bad like dellacroce is saying that makes sense....i mean merlino is not the average citizen, but a drug bust brings the heat on a place no matter what, so it was just the wrong place at the wrong time for him to have that meeting, and like KING said he could have probably waited

Well that stuff that went bad there happened AFTER the Merlino/Chang meeting. I believe it was about a month after the meeting that the place was raided. If I remember correctly, Frank Fiore was the owner and it was some sort of prescription or counterfeit drugs as to why the place got raided. So they can't say they had Merlino under surveillance because he was at a spot that they had just raided previously. I believe either Broward County or the FBI (maybe both) had him under surveillance for quite some time.

Don Anthony Danza

Of course they did. Broward has a relationship with the Feds that goes back forever. Just last year there was a bullshit sports bust that became a fucking RICO down there, which is ridiculous (and the State of Florida has their own version of RICO, by the way).

If Merlino's out, then he has nothing to worry about. But if he's back in the game, he's eventually going back to jail. Because the Feds are NEVER going to give him any peace. EVER.

I thought Judith Light was The Boss?

Pasty faced waspy women scare the shit out of me.

Danza must have been front boss. He was fat tony salerno to Judith's Gigante

Mona's the real power.

no delly, last article i read they followed merlino to the restaurant and then the club from his house. he is def on close supervision. im not going to go digging for the article but u know my word is good.

and I dont know if Ligambi is in the game or not but I would highly doubt he doesnt have his hands in a book. he was a bookie under scarfo if im correct. once a bookie always a bookie. and im sure he has some money on the street

Hell yes.....and with the pittsburgh loss last week at -7.5 and the Falcons loss to Minny...he along with the rest are buying more land for bigger buildings

Don't forget the 2011 indictment. 2 or 3 guys that pled out have already been released. Both Lucibello and Angelina get out in 2015.

She's the chick who beats up her husband in Men Don't Tell. She's/was a very attractive woman imo. Uber milf.

I'm no fanboy but I saw Ligambi on the streets a few weeks ago and he had a couple of goons with him, definitely watching his back. WTF he need that for if he's out?

Maybe they were his kids Big Joey, Little Joey, Joe Joe and Bitch Joey.

Not true

How do you know they were 'goons' could just be personal family members?

People say he's Consigliere, where exactly is that info coming from?

To be honest I'd be surprised if they have an official UB/Consig.