Board likely to close South End bar with suspected mob ties

The Boston Licensing Board is expected to vote tomorrow to close a longtime South End bar that Boston police believe is controlled by a reputed mobster under federal indictment on drug charges.

Boston police and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents allege they witnessed an employee of the Waltham Tavern on Shawmut Avenue allegedly sell Oxycontin pills five times since June.

At a hearing yesterday, Detective Sergeant Joseph MacDonald told the board that the bar is controlled by Philip ''Sonny" Baiona, 82, a convicted bookmaker, who was indicted in 2003 for allegedly selling cocaine and painkillers. Also indicted at the time was Richard Freedman, of South Boston, who was charged with conspiring with Baiona to sell cocaine.

In a four-month undercover operation at the Waltham Tavern, Boston police and DEA agents saw Freedman allegedly sell Oxycontin to an informant posing as a customer.

''This is the most outrageous violation I've seen as far as allowing illegality in a licensed premises in many, many years," said Boston Licensing Board chairman Daniel Pokaski. ''The testimony that certain undercover agents walked in and illegal drugs were readily available to them tells this board that this was nothing more than an illegal drug store."

In addition, Pokaski said, the two people listed on the license as the owners of the bar have been dead for several years.

It would be illegal for Baiona to own the bar, said Pokaski. People convicted of felonies are barred from holding liquor licenses.

Pokaski said the licensing board may vote to close the bar and revoke its liquor license.

A lawyer for the bar didn't return phone calls from the Globe. A man who answered a call to Baiona's home in Walpole hung up on a reporter seeking comment. Baiona's federal drug case is still pending.

Bartender Rose Lynch, who according to police reports was present when the drugs were sold, declined to comment.