Alleged Mafia Boss Held in Loan-Sharking Case

Five years after he was acquitted of ordering killings from prison in a Mafia war, the alleged head of the Colombo crime family was back in federal custody Sunday facing charges of loan-sharking.

Prosecutors say FBI agents found papers suggesting that Alphonse “Allie Boy” Persico, 45, was involved in loan-sharking, extortion and bank fraud. Persico allegedly heads the Colombo family, which his jailed father once ran.

Persico surrendered early Saturday, and a federal magistrate Sunday ordered that he be held without bail and taken to Florida, where his trial on a separate weapons charge is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

If convicted of the new charges, he could be sentenced to 70 years in prison, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jim Walden said.

He said the crimes violated terms of Persico’s bail in Florida, and he told the court that investigators had seen Persico with high-ranking members of the Colombo family.

“It is an overwhelming case against Mr. Persico,” Walden said.

Persico’s lawyer, Barry Levin, said his client had done nothing illegal, and that prosecutors were out to get him.

“The search warrant was a pretext to harass him,” Levin said. “They stayed in the house for 16 hours, tearing the place up and down, and they came up with a lot of nothing.”

The complaint against Persico says investigators discovered $25,000 in cash hidden in his apartment and what appeared to be loan-sharking records, false pieces of identification bearing Persico’s picture and legal papers relating to other Colombo court cases.

Persico, who previously served seven years in prison for racketeering, was acquitted in 1994 in a racketeering and murder case stemming from a reported war for control of the Colombo family.

Levin said Persico now spends most of his time in South Florida and runs family businesses, including a limousine company, a coffee wholesaling operation and several restaurants.

He said the Florida weapons possession charge involved a shotgun that belonged to the owner of a yacht Persico was on and that Persico is innocent.

“He is not involved in any criminal activity,” Levin said. Most of the time “you’ll find him in a pair of shorts and slippers on a boat in Florida.”