UPDATE: Las Vegas Police Arrest Suspect in Piero’s Bombing

UPDATE:  This article is no longer up to date. Click here to read the latest on the Piero’s bombing.

EARLIER: Las Vegas police say an improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated outside Piero’s Italian Cuisine at 2:19 a.m. Thursday. The Las Vegas culinary institution has been linked to criminal activity in both its very recent and distant past.

Piero’s was closed for the night at the time of the blast, which wasn’t reported to police until a cleaning crew arrived for work about eight hours later.

The incident is under investigation by the FBI, the police department’s hazards and counterterrorism units, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Piero’s is owned by Las Vegas entrepreneur Stephen Siegel and his wife, Judi Perez Siegel. The couple — who also own the local Siegel Suites chain of extended-stay apartment hotels and the local food chains Bagelmania and Pinkbox Doughnuts — purchased the eatery in May from its original owner.

Criminal Past

Freddie Glusman opened the original Piero’s in 1982 at 3555 S. Karen Avenue, near downtown, then relocated to its current location, the former Villa D’Este Italian Restaurant at 355 Convention Center Drive, in 1987.

Back when it was Villa D‘Este, the restaurant was reportedly owned by Chicago mob associate Joe Pignatello and frequented by mafia members, including Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro and Herbert “Fat Herbie” Blitzstein, both of whom were later victims of gangland-style assassinations.

This is what got Piero’s featured in the 1995 movie, “Casino.”

More recently, former New York Police Department detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were about to dine at Piero’s on March 9, 2005, when they were arrested by FBI and DEA officers for working as secret assassins for the Lucchese crime family

They were convicted on eight counts of murder and conspiracy to murder, two attempted murders, obstruction of justice, extortion, money laundering, and drug distribution. Eppolito received life plus 100 years, Caracappa life plus 80 years, and each was fined $4 million.

We’re Not Done Yet …

This April, Evan Glusman, Freddie’s son and the restaurant’s former operating manager, was arrested for making threats to shoot up Piero’s.

It was revealed in the younger Glusman’s arrest report that he had taken out a $1.5 million loan against the restaurant, committing fraud by claiming to be its owner when he was only its operating manager. When Freddie discovered this, he fired his son.

This reportedly made Evan unstable enough to send the following text, according to his arrest report: “I hope you realize I’m drinking and I’m going home to get a gun and fucking kill them in the middle of Piero’s.”

That earned him a stayed adjudication, meaning no formal conviction would be recorded if he complied with unspecified conditions imposed by the court.