A drug kingpin from Lynn, Mass. who flooded the North Shore space with fentanyl drugs whereas washing proceeds at a New Hampshire on line casino, was despatched to jail for greater than 20 years Thursday.
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 choose 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 offences.
Tablet Presses
Caruso’s operation had hyperlinks to the Lil Crip and Tiny Rascal avenue gangs. He’s additionally carefully related to a hip-hop outfit known as Epic Nation the Label. Caruso was lately sentenced to fifteen days in jail for breaking right into a property to shoot a music video with the group.
On social media, he bragged about proudly owning six tablet presses, which allowed him to distribute Fentanyl disguised as Percocet drugs, in keeping with prosecutors.
Certainly one of these machines may produce round 15,000 drugs an hour, which bought 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 obtainable. Ninety-two % of those have 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 giant community of distributors and runners.
The duo was cautious solely to guess quantities beneath $10,000, the edge at which a on line casino should report money transactions to monetary authorities, in keeping with courtroom paperwork. They favored accumulator bets that includes favorites, as a result of these provided 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, dropping round $20,000. This transformed $380,000 in soiled cash into “legit” 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 tons of of 1000’s of lethal counterfeit prescription drugs containing fentanyl,” mentioned First Assistant United States Legal professional 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 damaging felony conduct,” he added.
Levy mentioned it was “much more appalling” that a few of Caruso’s Instagram brags have been posted whereas he was on pretrial launch.
Caruso has prior arrests for firearms, dwelling invasion, theft, assault, and drug offenses.