Mass. Drug Lord and His Mother Imprisoned Aftter On line casino Cash Laundering
A drug kingpin from Lynn, Mass. who flooded the North Shore space with fentanyl tablets whereas washing proceeds at a New Hampshire on line casino, was despatched to jail for greater than 20 years Thursday.
Vincent “Fatz” Caruso, pictured above, boasted about his drug-dealing way of life on social media whereas he was on pretrial launch. (Picture: Instagram)
His mom, who was additionally a regulator patron on the similar playing institution, the Brook On line casino in Seabrook, NH, was handed 9 years by the federal decide in Boston.
Vincent “Fatz” Caruso, 29, pleaded responsible in March to conspiracy to fabricate, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or extra of fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, and different managed substances. He additionally admitted to firearms, theft, and cash laundering offenses.
Caruso’s operation had hyperlinks to the Lil Crip and Tiny Rascal avenue gangs. He’s additionally intently related to a hip-hop outfit referred to as Epic Nation the Label. Caruso was just lately sentenced to fifteen days in jail for breaking right into a property to shoot a music video with the group.
Tablet Presses
On social media, he bragged about proudly owning six capsule presses, which allowed him to distribute Fentanyl disguised as Percocet tablets, in line with prosecutors. Certainly one of these machines may produce round 15,000 tablets an hour, which had been offered on the road for $10 to $23 every.
There have been 1,895 opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts in 2020, the place a toxicology display was additionally out there. Ninety-two p.c of those had been linked to fentanyl.
Caruso made frequent journeys to the Brook On line casino along with his mom, Laurie Caruso, 52, who was additionally a member of his massive community of distributors and runners.
The duo was cautious solely to wager quantities beneath $10,000, the brink at which a on line casino should report money transactions to monetary authorities, in line with court docket paperwork. They favored accumulator bets that includes favorites as a result of these supplied excessive returns on comparatively low stakes once they got here in.
Between February and June 2021, they positioned 150 money bets totaling greater than $400,000 on the on line casino sportsbook, shedding round $20,000. This transformed $380,000 in soiled cash into “reliable” on line casino winnings.
Instagram Bragging
“This household enterprise has been shut down for good. Vincent Caruso was a prolific and violent drug trafficker who flooded North Shore communities with a whole bunch of hundreds of lethal counterfeit prescription tablets containing fentanyl,” stated First Assistant United States Lawyer Joshua S. Levy in an official assertion.
Caruso and his associates orchestrated quite a few shootings and armed robberies utilizing an arsenal of firearms – together with machine weapons – after which took to social media to brag about their extremely harmful felony conduct,” he added.
Levy stated it was “much more appalling” that a few of Caruso’s Instagram brags had been posted whereas he was on pretrial launch.
Caruso has prior arrests for firearms, house invasion, theft, assault, and drug offenses.
