From The My Criminal Italian Cousins Department:

Crippling the Scranton-Wilkes Barre mob!

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Man accused of trying to have witnesses killed

Reputed Scranton mob boss William "Big Billy" D'Elia has been charged with unknowingly soliciting a federal informant to murder two witnesses against him in a pending money-laundering case while at the same time offering to kidnap and kill a "smuggler" who had stolen more than $400,000 from the informant.

D'Elia was arrested last week on the charges, which were detailed in an 18-count indictment that reads like a plot from The Sopranos.

Yeah, that's good reporting. Bring up HBO.

The major difference is that the witnesses D'Elia wanted killed are real.

The smuggler, on the other hand, didn't exist, but was part of an elaborate sting operation set up by investigators with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Pennsylvania State Police.

The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Scranton, was made public yesterday. D'Elia is being held without bail.

The 60-year-old reputed gang leader has been identified by mob informants as the head of the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre crime family. For years he has been described as a "Mafia diplomat" who has served as a go-between for leaders of other major crime families.

D'Elia has been an associate of every Philadelphia mob boss for the last 20 years, according to investigators and court testimony. Most recently he has been spotted meeting with members of the Philadelphia organization now reputedly headed by Joseph Ligambi, according to a federal affidavit that is part of the current case.

BTW, it is not ethnic hatred when I attack the wise guys, kiddies. It is me doing my little part in the battle to clean up the image of Italian-Americans.

The affidavit details part of the investigation into D'Elia's money-laundering activities on behalf of a "confidential informant" who is not identified, but who was posing as a Dominican drug dealer who wanted to send drug proceeds back to Santo Domingo.

Several meetings between the informant and D'Elia were audiotaped and videotaped, according to the affidavit submitted by Special Agent Maureen Meschke of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Trooper David Swartz of the Pennsylvania State Police.

D'Elia, indicted on money-laundering charges in another alleged scheme back in May, was free on bail during part of the time that authorities say he was plotting with the informant.

According to the affidavit, D'Elia agreed on two different occasions to have $50,000 wired to a bank in Santo Domingo for the informant. The first $50,000 was allegedly to cover the cost of having two of the informant's "nieces" smuggled into the United States. A second $50,000 was also transferred via bank wire.

The money was earmarked for "Sabino Cotto," who the informant said was engaged in smuggling illegal aliens into the United States.

In fact, Cotto did not exist.

Investigators surveilled several meetings between D'Elia and the informant, including meetings in which the informant gave D'Elia the cash to be wired.

D'Elia charged $2,500 for handling the transactions.

The money-laundering charges are similar to those filed against D'Elia earlier this year. In all, the government alleges the mob boss has laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds for associates.

During the course of his conversations with the informant, the indictment handed up yesterday alleges, D'Elia, who had learned the identities of two of the witnesses against him in the original case, asked the informant to kill them.

At one point, he supplied the informant with a picture of one of the witnesses and photos of his home, business and vehicle.

Earlier this month, learning that federal authorities were investigating the two $50,000 wire transfers to "Sabino Cotto," D'Elia met with the informant to warn him. During that meeting, the informant complained about Cotto, claiming he had stolen $400,000 from him. D'Elia then allegedly offered to have the smuggler kidnapped and murdered.

"If I decide to kill this guy, do you have the people over there to wipe him out overnight?" the informant asked in a conversation taped by authorities.

"Yeah, you just gotta tell me what to do," D'Elia replied, according to the indictment.

At a meeting the next day, Oct. 6, the informant offered D'Elia $200,000 for the murder. And on Oct. 9 he supplied D'Elia with a photo of Sabino Cotto and photos of his residence and boat in the Dominican Republic.

D'Elia was also given $5,000 to cover "travel expenses" and a key to a locker at the bus station in Santo Domingo, where, the informant said, D'Elia's hit men would find an additional $20,000 to cover their expenses.

All of it was a fiction. The photo of Sabino Cotto, in fact, was the picture of a federal agent.

Three days later, on Oct. 12, D'Elia was arrested.