'Nicky the Hat' gets jail in Delco gambling case

Nicholas "Nicky the Hat" Cimino may have operated an illegal gambling enterprise based in Delaware County, but he's not about to engage in the notoriously risky business of diming out Philly mobsters.

"He's not a rat," Cimino's attorney, Stephen Patrizio, said yesterday as he left the courthouse in Media, after Cimino, 49, had pleaded guilty to participating in a corrupt organization, money laundering, bookmaking and related counts, and was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison.

Patrizio felt compelled - probably with good reason - to explain to Judge Frank Hazel that his client hasn't flipped and won't be testifying against any co-defendants, including reputed Philadelphia mob associate Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello, who prosecutors say answers to jailed former consigliere George Borgesi.

"He didn't give anybody else up, he gave himself up?" Hazel asked.

"You got that right," the defense attorney answered.

Cimino and 16 others were busted last summer as a result of the "Operation Delco Nostra" organized-crime investigation.

Authorities say the gambling and loan-sharking operation took in more than $200,000 in wagers per week and included a secret casino, which operated below a Ridley Township gynecologist's office and featured card games, gambling and prostitutes.

Yesterday's guilty plea was the first major conviction stemming from the probe.

Last month, Daniel Diedrich, a low-level member of Cimino's crew and former supervisor in the Delaware County Domestic Relations Department, pleaded guilty to bookmaking.

As part of his plea deal, Cimino must forfeit $90,000 that state troopers seized from his Cadillac Escalade in 2007 during March Madness, and another $10,000 found in his home office in Wallingford.

"You don't want to come before me again," Hazel said. "What I'm going to remember is how long it took me to identify the elements of all the crimes."

Monacello also has been charged in Philadelphia with soliciting aggravated assault for allegedly attempting to hire someone to beat up mobster Marty Angelina.

Monacello's friend-turned-informant, Francis "Frankie the Fixer" DiGiacomo, recorded the plot last July while wearing a body wire.

On the tape, which was played in court last month, Monacello is heard offering $2,000 to have Angelina "beat up really bad," describing him as the "most hated m-----f----- in the mob." *