William D'Elia

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Billy D'Elia

Born	June 24, 1946 (1946-06-24) (age 61) Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.

William "Big Billy" D'Elia (b, June 24, 1946) is a Pennsylvania mobster and current leader of the Bufalino Crime Family.

D'Elia began working with the Bufalino family in the late 1960s as Russell Bufalino's driver. D'Elia's business background in solid waste brokering and other areas would later be useful in making contacts in New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Rising through the ranks, D'Elia represented the family resolving various disputes with rival organizations. Succeeding Edward Sciandra in 1994, D'Elia expanded the organization into legitimate operations such as waste management and controlling shares of Spanel Transportation and the Newcastle Group, the latter of which is a suspected money laundering operation.

In 1990, Bufalino was involved in a money laundering operation involving the Exeter, Pennsylvania based newspaper The Metro. The IRS charged that over $3.0 million was laundered from drug and prostitution rings from which nonexistent advertisements and subscribers were purchased until the Metro's eventual closing in 1998.

On May 31, 2001, IRS agents, US Postal Service Inspectors, and Pennsylvania State Police obtained search warrants for the homes of several Bufalino crime family members, including D'Elia and his mistress. They seized various records regarding a tax evasion investigation from which D'Elia claimed a loss of $6 million while reporting $8,000 in gambling operations in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On February 26, 2003, D'Elia was banned from entering Atlantic City casinos by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

On May 31, 2006 D'Elia was indicted on federal charges of laundering $600,000 in illegal drugs proceeds and trying to have a co-defendant in the case killed. In March of 2008, D'Elia pleaded guilty to reduced charges, a possible sign that he has agreed to testify against Louis A. DeNaples, owner of the recently opened Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos and accused of lying to get a casino license.

D'Elia had been facing 18 counts, including solicitation of murder, but pleaded guilty to only two, witness tampering and conspiracy to launder money. D'Elia's attorney, James Swetz, refused to say Friday whether D'Elia received a deal in exchange for his guilty plea, or whether he agreed to testify against DeNaples.

[edit] Further reading

Capecci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
Pennsylvania Crime Commission. St. Davids, Pennsylvania: DIANE Publishing, 1984. ISBN 0-8182-0000-6 [1]

[edit] References

Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0