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TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Acting
Criminal Justice Director Deborah Gramiccioni
announced that a Cherry Hill man pleaded
guilty today and was sentenced to state
prison for running a gambling operation
and possessing outlawed weapons.
According
to Acting Director Gramiccioni, Vincent
Filipelli, 54, pleaded guilty today to promoting
gambling, a third-degree offense, and possession
of prohibited weapons, a fourth-degree offense,
before Superior Court Judge William J. Cook
in Camden County. The charges were contained
in an indictment obtained by the Division
of Criminal Justice in November.
Filipelli
admitted he ran an Internet-based gambling
operation and possessed two billy clubs
and a dagger. Judge Cook immediately sentenced
Filipelli to three years in state prison
– including one year without possibility
of parole – on the gambling charge,
and 18 months on the weapons charge, to
be served concurrently. In March, Filipelli
was sentenced to 5 ½ years in federal
prison on a federal charge that he threatened
an undercover detective he believed owed
a gambling debt. Judge Cook ordered that
the state sentence run consecutive to the
federal sentence. He also ordered that Filipelli
pay a $6,000 fine.
“As
a result of today’s guilty plea, Mr.
Filipelli must serve substantial state prison
time upon his release from federal prison,”
said Attorney General Milgram. “This
is a fitting resolution to a case that involved
outstanding cooperation between the New
Jersey State Police Organized Crime Bureau
and the FBI.”
The state and federal charges resulted from
an undercover investigation by the New Jersey
State Police Organized Crime Bureau and
the FBI’s Philadelphia Division that
began in August 2005. The state case against
Filipelli was prosecuted by Deputy Attorney
General Jill S. Mayer.
The
investigation revealed that Filipelli controlled
an illegal gambling operation that accepted
bets on college and professional sports
through the Web site www.betoss.com. Filipelli
was arrested on Oct. 24, 2006 by New Jersey
state troopers and FBI agents. Investigators
executed a search warrant at his home and
seized, among other things, gambling records,
numerous vials of steroids, hypodermic needles,
two stun guns, a dagger, and two billy clubs.
Between March 9 and October 16, 2006, an
undercover New Jersey State Police detective
placed numerous bets on college basketball
games and professional football games with
Filipelli’s gambling operation through
the Internet site. As an approved bettor,
the detective was given a log-in number
and password to bet through the Web site.
On at least six occasions, the detective
met with Filipelli to pay off losses at
Filipelli’s farm in Atco or the parking
lot of a fast-food restaurant in Cherry
Hill.
Filipelli
was sentenced in federal court in March
after pleading guilty on April 27, 2007
to a charge of interstate travel in aid
of racketeering. According to a federal
complaint signed on Oct. 23, 2006, an investigation
of Filipelli, a Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra
Family member, began in August 2005 utilizing
two undercover New Jersey State Police detectives.
In pleading guilty, Filipelli admitted that
he, believing one of the undercover detectives
was a man who owed him a gambling debt,
threatened to put the detective in the hospital
for a year if the debt wasn’t paid.
A
second man pleaded guilty to a state charge
on Sept. 19, 2007 for his role in the gambling
operation. William Motto, 52, of Cherry
Hill, pleaded guilty to a third-degree charge
of promoting gambling. Motto faces a sentence
of probation conditioned on him serving
six months in jail and paying a $5,000 fine.
Attorney
General Milgram credited detectives in the
New Jersey State Police Organized Crime
Bureau, under the direction of Colonel Rick
Fuentes, Superintendent, and special agents
of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division,
under the direction of Special Agent in
Charge J.P.Weis, for their work on the investigation.
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