from www.myfoxphilly.com – Where is the FBI probe into Philadelphia strip clubs, towing companies and city officials heading? Possibly to a big-time public trial in the near future.

Our Dave Schratwieser, who broke the first stories in this investigation, and the Philadelphia Inquirer’s George Anastasia think the first FBI search warrants are the tip on the iceberg in what potentially is a widespread probe into corruption in Philadelphia.

No one has been charged yet in the probe.

A Federal grand jury is looking at ties between two strip clubs, several towing companies, the Licenses and Inspections department of Philadelphia, a beer distributor and some Philadelphia police officers in the complex investigation.

For starters, the Oasis Gentleman’s Club in Philadelphia was raided by the FBI last Tuesday as the feds looked for records.

Anastasia said the FBI was looking for financial records at Oasis and a Christine’s, a nearby “cabaret.”

“According to some of the documents we’ve seen, they are looking for potential payoffs to city officials,” Anastasia said. (The Inquirer and Fox 29 have both seen the search warrants.)

“The bottom line is payoffs to public officials, L&I is mentioned, members of the Philadelphia police department, “ Anastasia says. “This thing goes in a lot of directions.”

The investigation is also connected to Chappy’s, a South Philadelphia beer distributor.

Schratwieser says his sources indicate the final result of the investigation “will be big.” Anastasia thinks it potentially could be big.

“You know how the feds operate, they want to squeeze from the bottom, and go up the ladder,” he says, indicating the FBI put the recipients of last week’s search warrants “in the cross-hairs.”

He also said there have been long-standing questions about who benefits financially when abandoned cars are towed away at the city’s request.

“I think the money is significant,” Anastasia says.

From 2000 to 2008, about 275,000 abandoned cars were removed from the city of Philadelphia. People get paid to tow the cars away and then the cars get salvaged for cash.

One connection is that the strip club and salvage businesses generate a lot of cash. That cash connection will also bring the Internal Revenue Service into the equation.

One person connected to the clubs and the salvage business is Robert Laflar of Blue Bell, Pa., who was visited by the FBI.

Laflar’s attorney refused comment this week on the corruption probe.

Another person, Henry Alfano, received a visit from the FBI. He owns the property where the strip clubs are located.

Sources tell Fox 29 that the FBI took away more than $500,000 in cash from Alfano’s house in South Jersey in addition to financial records.

Anastasia said Alfano has been a “major player” in the towing and salvage business.

“Mr. Alfano’s been involved in legitimate business enterprises for the past 40 years and he intends to fully comply with the government’s investigation in this matter,” said Fortunato Perri Jr., Alfano’s attorney.

“One of the fundamental questions that will be asked is, ‘did you pay taxes on this money,’” Anastasia says.

“Then it becomes a question of if you are jammed up, what do you do to get out from underneath it,” Anastasia says.

He believes the Feds would seek cooperation in the case.

The connection of Chappy’s beer distributorship, says Anastasia, to the clubs is that it was also connected to a city Licenses and Inspections official, who would have some say in licenses held by the clubs.

“It has nothing to do with towing and salvaging, it has to do with the same search warrant,” Anastasia says. “It is about corruption, it is about money.”

Schratwieser and Anastasia agree that this is the first step of what could be a long investigation.

The big question is how high for the feds want to go and does the probe go beyond the Licenses and Inspections department.

L&I official Dominick Verdi gave two weeks notice after Fox 29 broke the news about his demotion after he was connected to the probe.

Verdi’s name surfaced in the probe along with a police sergeant and a detective in the major crimes unit.