City waiver could aid site linked to mobster
The
wife of a reputed mobster who has been banned from the trash industry in New
Jersey stands to profit from a proposal before the Street administration to
open a construction-waste plant in Southwest Philadelphia, according to city
and court records. The facility is being
proposed by a Philadelphia-based firm, Philly-Wide Recycling Inc., and would
operate on eight acres along the Schuylkill on South 49th Street. That
property, according to legal documents, is owned by Mary Franco, wife of
Carmine Franco, whose alleged ties to organized crime have long attracted law
enforcement investigators. In testimony before
crime commissions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, law enforcement authorities
have identified Carmine Franco as an associate of the Genovese crime family,
and as one of several reputed links between the mob and the multimillion-dollar
trash-hauling industry. Franco has denied the allegations. Philly-Wide Recycling
has been trying since January to obtain a city waiver, needed because the
property lies just steps from Bartram's Garden,
established three centuries ago by famed botanist John Bartram.
State law prohibits companies from operating trash facilities within 300 yards
of a public park or playground without a waiver. If the company gets the
necessary approvals - starting with the waiver - the land, now worth about $4
million, could become worth several million dollars more, reaping Franco a
windfall, according to people familiar with the trash industry and property
site. Daniel Pellicciotti, who runs Philly-Wide Recycling, said last
week that he leases the property from Mary Franco but that he barely knows her
or her husband. "She is just my landlord," he said. As for Carmine
Franco's alleged mob ties, Pellicciotti said:
"This is the first I'm hearing of it." "That's not my
business," added Pellicciotti, a former
Laborers' Union official who ran for City Council last year. "The less I
know about that, the better." Through her attorney,
Harry R. Blackburn, Mary Franco said she was not aware of any waiver pending
from the city, and added that she intended to sell the property whether or not
any waiver was granted. Salvatore T. Alfano represents Carmine Franco in a federal lawsuit filed
by Audubon, Montgomery County, resident David Della, who claims the Francos effectively stole the 49th Street property from
him. Alfano said allegations about his client's mob
ties "are totally unsubstantiated and never resulted in any criminal
charges." Alfano also said the Francos dispute all allegations in the lawsuit. The Mayor's Office said
last week it had not decided on the waiver but added that it was unaware of the
lawsuit or of Franco's involvement. Street spokeswoman Barbara Grant said the
city would seek details. Over the last two
decades, the eight-acre property has been home to a number of businesses,
including a food waste-processing plant. Since the late 1990s, several
companies have tried to open construction waste-processing plants there. The Francos'
interest in the property can be traced to 1999, when Philadelphia Waste
Services Inc., run by Della, bought the property for $2.6 million. Della intended to have
the property licensed as a waste-transfer station and then sell it for a
"significant profit," his suit alleges. Della contends in his
suit that Carmine Franco, an acquaintance and onetime competitor, financed the
purchase under an agreement that allowed Della to repay him, without interest,
once the property was resold. Any profit would be split evenly between them. Della states in the
suit that, at the time, he did not know details about Franco's history. Franco has been the
focus of intense regulatory scrutiny for decades. He figured prominently in the
1995 prosecution of Philadelphia-South Jersey mob boss John Stanfa.
During one secretly taped conversation, Franco's name elicited what became the
signature phrase of the trial and a classic line in the Philadelphia
underworld: "Goodfellas don't sue goodfellas. Goodfellas kill goodfellas." The words were spoken by a New York
mobster counseling an acquaintance who was suing Franco. On another tape, that
same mob leader described Franco as the "number-one earner" for the
Genovese organization. In 1998, Franco and two
sons pleaded guilty to operating an illegal solid-waste business in New Jersey
and were barred from the state's solid-waste industry. Della's lawyer, George Bochetto, said last week that neither he nor his client
would comment because of the pending litigation. Della alleges Franco
wanted to "remain invisible" and arranged to have his wife's name
appear on loan documents. For a while, the
lawsuit states, Philadelphia Waste was doing a good business recycling
cardboard and hauling trash, even as it was working to get the waiver to
process construction debris. In the lawsuit, Della,
who is suing with several partners, contends that Franco began meddling in the
business and using it to benefit friends and family, threatening to pull his
financing if Della didn't go along. When Della complained,
the suit claims, Franco allegedly said: "I'm a shotgun player, get it? I
come in, I take over, I run things and take a little, but give a lot." According to the suit,
he also said: "I take care of John Gotti's
girlfriend by delivering money to her monthly. So you had better be concerned
with your family's welfare." In the meantime, the
effort to get the waiver was falling apart. And in May 2001, the state
Department of Environmental Protection denied the company a permit - in part because
the city had not granted the waiver that would have allowed the DEP to sidestep
regulations and issue a permit. By September 2002,
Della was removed as an officer and director of the company. Since then, Mary Franco
has filed suit in federal court and foreclosed on the property's mortgage - and
at least one other company aside from Pellicciotti's
has tried to obtain a city waiver to operate there. Meanwhile, Philadelphia
Waste Services is still listed on paperwork as operating at 49th Street, although
it is unclear what kind of business it is conducting. But in May, the DEP
wrote a letter to Philadelphia Waste Services. It was addressed to "Ms.
Carmine Franco," and in it DEP officials wrote that they had recently
inspected the property. They then informed
Franco that they were citing her for illegally storing waste materials. |
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