OAKLAND TOWNSHIP (WWJ) – Federal agents are digging up a field in Northern Oakland Township in hopes of finding the remains of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa.

The feds Monday morning began their search of a property in northern Oakland County. The dig — the latest in what’s been nearly a 40-year search — is the result of extensive FBI interviews with a former mobster. Mafia underboss Tony Zerilli told WDIV-TV in an exclusive interview earlier this year that Hoffa was buried in a shallow grave on the property which is believed to be owned by a family with mob ties.

Zerilli, who was second in command with the Detroit mafia, said he was told by a mafia enforcer that Hoffa was abducted, killed, and brought to the Buhl Road site. The original plan, according to the mobster, was to bury him there temporarily, then later move his body near a hunting lodge in northern Michigan.

Zerilli, now 85, was convicted of organized crime as a reputed mafia captain. He was in prison on July, 30 1975 — when Hoffa disappeared from a Bloomfield Township restaurant — but says he was informed about Hoffa’s whereabouts after his release.

All these years later, why continue to search for Hoffa’s body?

WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke live Monday morning with local mob expert and author Scott Bernstein who said he doesn’t believe there is a body to be found, but, “… I think that the crime itself has taken on an unbelievable amount of legs to … keep the story in the headlines for 35 years-plus,” he said.

“It’s a giant black eye for the FBI. It’s a piece of local folklore that will always … beg the attention that it gets,” Bernstein said. “And I think in that regard, you know, it speaks for itself.”

Bernstein believes Hoffa’s body was disposed of in an incinerator.

“That said, you have to follow this lead because it’s probably the most credible lead that the FBI’s ever gotten … on this case,” said Bernstein, due to the fact that Zerilli, the son of Detroit mafia founder Joe Zerilli, is the most credible person ever to have come forward with information.