A federal jury on Dec. 15 found four area men guilty of racketeering for their roles in a gambling and loan-sharking ring that operated in several Mayfair businesses.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office identified Ylli Gjeli, 49, as the “boss” of the operation and Fatimir “Tony” Mustafaraj, 42, as the “muscle.” Those two directed other members of the conspiracy in loan-sharking and illegal gambling activities, including Gezim “Sam” Asllani, 35, and Rezart Rahmu “Luigi” Telushi, 41. All four defendants were Philadelphia residents. At the time of their August 2013 indictment, authorities identified them as natives of Albania or of Albanian heritage, although all are naturalized citizens of the United States.
Gjeli and Mustafaraj “approved loans, used intimidation and threats of violence against customers, collected weekly loan payments, physically assaulted subordinate members (of the conspiracy) and associates, supervised the illegal gambling business, provided cash to pay customers’ gambling wins and otherwise financed the gambling business, collected gambling debts and made loans to customers whose debts were incurred through the illegal gambling business,” the U.S. Attorney said. Asllani and Telushi collected loan payments for the ring.
Authorities said that the ring operated at several businesses on the 7000 block of Frankford Ave. including Lion Bar & Grill, First England Pizza, the former Blackbird Cafe and its successor, Ylli’s 2 Brothers.
The four defendants will be sentenced in March by U.S. District Court Judge William Yohn. Their possible sentences range from 80 years to 105 years in prison. The U.S. Attorney did not disclose the status of charges against three other men who were also charged in the same indictment. ••
