Tuesday June 15 5:52 PM ET

Feds: No Bug in 'Mobster's' Butt

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - There's no bug in a reputed mobster's buttocks, the government says.

For years, Vincent "Gigi Portalla" Marino claims, a federal drug agent had told him that a tracking device was inserted in Marino's rear end when he underwent surgery to remove a bullet.

This week, a federal judge ordered authorities to say whether they did, in fact, implant such a device.

"We can confirm that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration did not implant a tracking device in defendant Vincent M. `Gigi Portalla' Marino's buttocks," U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern said in a statement. "But we cannot speak, however, for any extraterrestrial beings."

Marino had claimed that he was once asked by a DEA agent to sign a form so the government could remove the device from his body.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton said the situation "sounds like some DEA agent trying to be funny," but he granted Marino's request to force the government to tell him the truth.

Gorton's order came during a hearing in preparation for a racketeering trial scheduled to start in the fall. Marino and six other defendants are accused of waging a murderous battle to seize control of the New England Mafia. Marino is in prison awaiting trial.

In 1996, Marino was caught in a hail of gunfire at a club in Revere. He was shot in the buttocks.

A legal expert said it is highly unlikely the government could legally implant a device in a person's body.

"Theoretically, if you wanted to put a tracking device in someone's body you would have to have court authority to do that, and I imagine the courts would be reluctant to do that," said Randy Chapman, former head of the Massachusetts Bar Association's criminal justice division.

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