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D’Elia
Reputed Mafia boss William “Billy” D’Elia was transferred by the federal Bureau of Prisons to a medium security facility in south-central Texas, according to the bureau’s Web site.
The recent transfer ignored a federal judge’s recommendation that D’Elia, 63, formerly of Hughestown, serve his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Minersville, Schuylkill County, where he had been housed.
D’Elia was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie in November 2008 to nine years in federal prison on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and attempted witness tampering. D’Elia pleaded guilty to the charges in March 2008.
At the time of his sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod said the amount of time D’Elia spends behind bars could be reduced if he cooperated with authorities in other investigations.
According to the federal Bureau of Prison’s Web site, D’Elia’s expected release from prison is Aug. 13, 2014.
D’Elia’s attorney, James A. Swetz, declined to comment on the reason why D’Elia was transferred.
A spokesperson from FCI-Schuylkill said on Wednesday that inmate transfers are not public record.
D’Elia is housed at FCI-Three Rivers, a medium security facility located about 80 miles south of San Antonio.
A federal grand jury first indicted D’Elia in May 2006 on charges he played a role in aiding convicted drug dealer John Doncses launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds to make it seem as though the money was legitimately earned.
A second indictment in October 2006 alleged D’Elia, who was free on bail in the first case, continued to launder money and that he ordered the murder of an associate after learning the associate was cooperating with authorities.
Under a negotiated plea deal, federal authorities dismissed the second indictment in November 2008, according to federal court records.