Sentencing for mob enforcer delayed

Following a daylong hearing, a federal judge today delayed until next week the sentencing of mob enforcer Vincent "Big Vince" Filipelli.

Filipelli faces four to seven years in prison on extortion charges after he was caught on tape threatening a deadbeat "gambler" who, in fact, was a New Jersey State Police undercover investigator.

Caught in a sting set up by state investigators and the FBI, Filipelli, 54, secretly recorded telling the gambler that he would put him "in the hospital" if he didn't pay a bookmaking debt of several thousand dollars.

"This ain't 'The Sopranos,' this is real life," Filipelli told the undercover agent during a conversation recorded on May 25, 2006 in the parking lot of a South Philadelphia go-go bar.

Filipelli was arrested in October 2006 and pleaded guilty to extortion charges in April 2007.

U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman, in federal court in Camden, delayed the sentencing after hearing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

The former professional body-builder has two prior convictions for extortion. He was sentenced for 54 months in prison in 1996 after admitting his role as an enforcer and debt collector for then mob boss John Stanfa.