Still home for holidays

Reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi celebrated the holidays in comfort this year, despite persistent rumors that he and members of his organization were about to be indicted on federal racketeering charges.

Authorities say Ligambi, 71, remains the target of a probe, but they would not comment on what has held up the potential indictment.

"It's not if, but when," said a frustrated law enforcement source familiar with the case, which has been in the works for at least three years.

The delays, according to individuals familiar with the investigation, were due in part to philosophical differences between former leadership in the U.S. Attorney's Office - Patrick Meehan and his interim successor, Laurie Magid - and prosecutors and FBI agents assigned to the case.

The low priority assigned by Meehan to organized-crime cases apparently ended with the swearing in of Zane Memeger as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in September.

Soft-spoken and intensely focused, Memeger was a prosecutor in the last high-profile Philadelphia mob case: the 2001 trial of Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and six codefendants. Those who know Memeger say he is a stickler for detail who wants any indictment brought during his watch to be as strong as previous mob cases.

Documents and testimony from other investigations have said the probe is focused on the mob's gambling and loan-sharking operations. A federal grand jury sitting in Philadelphia continues to hear testimony from witnesses.

Informants, wiretaps, and evidence from cases developed by state law enforcement agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania - including an investigation into the illegal video-poker machine business in South Philadelphia - also could be used in the racketeering investigation.

In the meantime, authorities say, Ligambi continues to run the family in a way that reflects his stay-in-the-shadows philosophy.

"He's an old-school wiseguy," said Stephen LaPenta, who worked organized-crime cases for the Philadelphia Police Department and later the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice before retiring three years ago.

"He's from the Angelo Bruno mold. . . . Make money, not headlines."

Just a few months ago, law enforcement sources claimed that Ligambi and his top associates would be "eating their [Thanksgiving] turkey at Seventh and Arch," the site of the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia.