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By: Christopher Ruvo, phillyBurbs.com
A leopard doesn't change its spots, the saying goes. The same could be said of the Mastronardo brothers if what authorities say is true.
The Montgomery County men were arrested again Wednesday night after authorities seized about $2 million cash from them and their alleged associates during a sweeping raid aimed at crippling the purported ongoing operation of a sports betting ring that stretches south to Florida and west to Las Vegas.
The arrests came as Joseph V. Mastronardo Jr., 60, and John Mastronardo, 54, were on probation following their 2006 guilty plea to bookmaking charges that stemmed from their alleged running a multi-state gambling empire.
More than $1 million, bookmaking records and computers were seized from the Meadowbrook mansion of the ring's alleged kingpin Joseph Mastronardo Jr., who is the son-in-law of Frank L. Rizzo, the late mayor and police commissioner of Philadelphia.
Much of the money, which is believed to be the proceeds of illegal bookmaking and standing capital to pay off winning bettors, was stuffed in PVC pipe that was buried in Mastronardo's backyard on the 1600 block of Stockton Road, records said.
Authorities found betting records and cash to the tune of $242,690 in the Blue Bell home of John Mastronardo, a 54-year-old who was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles after a standout college football career at Villanova University. The home on Devonshires Court belongs to John and his father, Joe Sr.
An investigation by Montgomery County Detectives determined the brothers never stopped running their high-end betting operation despite their 2006 guilty pleas to charges of conspiracy and bookmaking, according an affidavit of probable cause filed Wednesday.
"Times like this, I'm happy I'm still a bookmaker," Joseph Mastronardo Jr. reportedly said in a wire-tapped conversation last Saturday. He was referring to the financial struggles of others during the nation's economic downturn, records said.
Wiretaps on five cellular phones, two confidential sources and the raid helped detectives determine the Mastronardos have continued to manage a gambling syndicate that takes sports bets from bettors in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Florida, records said.
"Our investigation revealed the Mastronardo Bookmaking Enterprise is substantial, extremely profitable," detectives wrote in the affidavit.
Montgomery County Detectives were by joined local police departments, state police and FBI agents from Fort Washington and Florida in the massive Wednesday raid that saw 46 search warrants executed in Montgomery County, Philadelphia and Boca Raton, Fla.
John Mastronardo and Joseph Mastronardo Jr. are incarcerated in Montgomery County Prison on charges that include corrupt organizations, pool selling and bookmaking and conspiracy.
