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Scarfo faces jail weekend before his bail hearing

Charged in a sports-betting case, he is expected to seek his release Monday because of the delayed and nonviolent nature of the charges.

A bail hearing is expected to be held Monday for Nicodemo S. Scarfo, charged with being part of a mob-controlled international sports-betting operation that used websites, the Internet, passwords, and a wire room in Costa Rica to handle more than $2 billion in bets over 15 months.

Scarfo, 44, the son of jailed Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo D. "Little Nicky" Scarfo, was arrested Friday at his home outside Atlantic City and carted off to the Morris County Jail.

He was one of 34 reputed members or associates of New York's Lucchese crime family charged in the investigation, Operation Heat, conducted by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.

Many defendants in the case were arrested in December 2007. Scarfo was not.

His lawyer is expected to argue that because Scarfo was not charged when the case broke more than two years ago, and is not charged with any of the violent acts of extortion in the 33-count indictment, he should be freed on bail pending trial.

Scarfo faces racketeering, conspiracy, and gambling charges.

James Leonard Jr., his Atlantic City lawyer, said Friday that Scarfo had been "stunned" to learn he was indicted. Leonard said he and Scarfo had been on the phone discussing how to arrange his surrender when members of the New Jersey State Police knocked on the door of Scarfo's Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County, home and placed him under arrest.

Donald Manno, another Scarfo lawyer, said the timing of the Friday afternoon indictment announcement and arrest guaranteed that Scarfo would spend the weekend in jail. He implied the move had been calculated and called it "just outrageous."

The New Jersey indictment could prove to be the least of Scarfo's problems. He remains the target of a federal investigation into fraud and money-laundering charges tied to FirstPlus Financial, a Texas firm with a checkered past.

Scarfo and Salvatore Pelullo, an Elkins Park businessman, have been described as the behind-the-scenes operatives in what federal investigative sources allege was a scheme to loot the company of several million dollars.

In May 2008, the FBI conducted raids in Texas, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, seizing documents and records tied to FirstPlus. There have been no arrests.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Camden, which is coordinating that investigation, have declined to comment.

As in the just-announced gambling case, the FirstPlus investigation is said to be built, in part, around wiretapped conversations that authorities believe help outline schemes run from FirstPlus and subsidiaries.

At one point, the company had purchased several companies in the Philadelphia area that were involved in construction and rehab work. Most are now defunct.

New Jersey authorities alleged last week that the gambling operation detailed in the Operation Heat indictment had covered 15 months beginning in August 2006.

The FirstPlus investigation, according to a federal search warrant, alleges fraud and financial wheeling and dealing that began that same month.

A source familiar with his situation said last week that Scarfo, who in the summer of 2006 returned to South Jersey after serving the second of two jail terms on gambling charges, had tried to work legitimately for a concrete company.

But, the source said, Scarfo wasn't satisfied with the money he earned.

The Lucchese gambling operation and FirstPlus offered him opportunities to get rich quick, the source said.

"He was desperate, and he knew exactly what he was doing," said the law enforcement source, who predicted that a FirstPlus indictment would be returned this year.