Lebanon Levi is a convicted criminal.
Lebanon Levi and his crew (Alvin: Alvin Stoltzfus Lantz, Jolin: Jolin Zimmerman, John Schmucker) operate much like an organized crime group in Lancaster Pennsylvania.
See video: Amish Mafia season 1 highlights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuPvn_vxbh8
They are engaged in a wide assortment of nefarious criminal activities to include: 1) Blackmail, 2) Extortion, 3) Gambling, 4) Destruction of property, 5) Use of explosives, 6) Criminal assault, 7) Criminal damage to property, 8) Contributing to the delinquency of minors and facilitating the use of alcohol and illegal drugs to people under the age of 18 within the Amish community…
All of these crimes, by the way, have been documented on film and aired on the cable channel Discovery as part of the reality TV show “Amish Mafia.”
How exactly they are able to get away with such criminal activities and suffer no real repercussions from the local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania remain a complete mystery.
Needless to say they bring a great deal of shame and embarrassment to one of the oldest and most respected Amish communities in the United States. The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches (source: Amish Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish).
An unofficial representative of the Amish community in Lancaster (who refused permission to be identified in this report) was quick to point out that Lebanon Levi – the reputed leader of the Amish Mafia has never been “baptized” officially in the Amish church.
See video: Lebanon Levi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ5P-FaL2Us
While this may be technically true, it is not to say that Levi and his crew doesn’t operate within the Amish community without the expressed consent and permission of the Amish church and the bishop.
In the case of Levi, in particular, he did, for a time, collect and administer Amish Aid.
Amish Aid is a self supporting program within the Amish community designed as a type of social welfare and insurance program for its members – so they don’t have to rely on the “English”, meaning the state of Pennsylvania welfare and assistance program. It takes care of those Amish that are hurt, injured or who can’t work.
The representative, while admitting this was true, insisted that Levi no longer administers Amish Aid in any capacity and has been shunned by the Amish church.
The Amish church in Lancaster refused comment on this report. So did Lancaster county officials and state police.