A court document indicates most of the evidence that lead to the arrests was gathered on wiretaps, including a conversation in which Joseph Mastronardo discussed the upcoming NCAA tournament.
That's why investigators waited until now to raid Joseph Mastronardo's house in Jenkintown.
They were looking for cash taken in from sports bets and they found more than a million dollars.
They dug up his backyard shrubbery and unearthed four PVC pipe tubes capped at both ends. Sources say they were stuffed with cash.
When police arrived to search the house yesterday, one of them noticed unused PVC pipe and caps in the garage, and remembered that drug dealers often bury their supplies in PVC tubes.
So, they brought in a backhoe and started digging.
Joseph Mastronardo is married to former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo's daughter Joanne. She says her husband is not a mobster, never hurt anyone, and there was no need to destroy their property.
His brother John lives in a multi-million dollar home in Blue Bell. That house was searched yesterday and detectives seized close to $300,000.
Investigators executed more than 46 search warrants yesterday at other homes owned by the Mastronardos and at the homes of bookies in Philadelphia, suburban neighborhoods, and in Florida.
They also seized bank accounts in Florida, Tennessee and offshore.
Court documents name a number of associates who haven't been charged yet. At least one of them was cooperating with the investigation.
The documents spell out a far reaching enterprise with operations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Florida.
This is the fourth time the Mastronardo brothers have been arrested on gambling charges since 1983. Four years ago, they forfeited close to $3-million and received probation. Now, they are being held without bail for violating the terms of their probation and are looking at long jail terms.
