Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 2015
Source: New York Post (NY)
Contact: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/letters_editor.htm
Copyright: 2015 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Website: http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Toby Rogers
Note: Rogers is the author of "The Ganja Godfather: The Untold Story 
of NYC's Weed Kingpin" (Trine Day), out now.

MODERN 'FAMILY'

Heir to the Infamous Eboli Mafia Family Claims to Be One of Nyc's 
Biggest Marijuana Dealers

During Prohibition, it was booze. Then gambling, racketeering and 
cocaine. But today, the New York mob makes big money from an unlikely 
product - marijuana.

And the godfather of ganja is from one of the storied names in Mafia 
lore: Eboli.

Silvio Eboli, 44, is the grandson of Tommy Eboli, who ruled the 
Genovese crime family from 1969-72, and grandnephew of Patsy Eboli, a 
Genovese capo and head of the what the family called the Greenwich 
Village Crew.

Tommy Eboli was killed, his family believes by Vincent "The Chin" 
Gigante, ak a the "Oddfather," who replaced him as boss of the 
Genovese. Patsy, the family tells me, figured he was next, so he fled 
to Lagos, Nigeria, then made his way over land and by boat to Sicily, 
where he lived in exile.

But the Ebolis were already part of the pop-culture mafia before 
their fall. Actor Al Lettieri - whose sister, Jean, married Patsy - 
played Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo in "The Godfather." Lettieri had to 
ask Tommy Eboli for permission to take the role, and during filming, 
the cast and crew came over to Patsy's house in Fort Lee, NJ, for 
dinner. Legend has it Al Pacino leaned over into the crib of infant 
Silvio and kissed the ring finger of the "little Don" as a joke.

It was a bit of foreshadowing. In 2013, during the Feast of San 
Gennaro, Silvio took over what was left of the Eboli crime family - 
forging his own enterprise outside the Genovese.

Silvio Eboli has been steadily building his marijuana-delivery empire 
since the 1980s. He started at the bottom, "muling" bud in from 
Jamaica strapped to his legs. When Rudy Giuliani cracked down on 
street dealing in the mid- 1990s, the rise of the marijuana 
home-delivery market began.

Silvio rode a bike throughout Manhattan delivering bud to customers 
earning $250 a day. One day Silvio met Chris Farley at a party and he 
introduced Silvio to others in the "Saturday Night Cast" cast, all of 
whom became clients of Silvio. Some of them, even the ones who 
branched out into big film stars, still remain in contact with Silvio 
and buy weed from him regularly.

Besides celebrities, Silvio delivers regularly to many professional 
athletes in the tri-state area. Silvio personally handles all his 
"star" clients orders and over time has developed deep friendships 
with many of them.

Silvio has recently launched a new business venture where the rich 
and famous he knows that have either moved out of New York or drop in 
for business can purchase a whole weekend or two-three day package 
deal that includes hotel rooms, escort girls, the type of drugs they 
want and invites to VIP parties. Pictures of escort girls are neatly 
arranged in a binder for clients to look over and select women like 
they would a meal off a menu.

Silvio personally picks the client up at the airport in a limousine, 
gets them to the hotel, hands them the drugs they requested, picks 
them up to hit a nightclub or a party and introduces the girls to the clients.

He is really proud of what he has created and looks at himself as 
successful business man or a CEO, despite the blatant illegality of it all.

How much money he makes is a mystery, but he has several storage 
closets in Westchester filled with locked trunks of cash.

But Silvio says the best way for a mobster to wash his dirty money is 
to spend it, which he certainly does a lot of. When we go out to eat, 
sometimes he orders several dinners at once, eating just a little off 
each plate. Why? Silvio doesn't like to make choices. He wants it all.

Why tell me all of it? I have come to conclusion that Silvio Eboli is 
blinded by pure narcissism. He wants people to know his position in 
the mob, to know how powerful he is - that's why he let me follow him 
around as a reporter (though his brazenness does have limits - he 
refuses to be photographed). His personal life is the "live today, 
die tomorrow" mentally, the daily revolving door of escort girls and 
heavy drug use.

Silvio Eboli has made Eboli a name again in crime; but for how long? 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom