Sunday, February 21, 2010
Just say no to drug kingpins
A
T-P story from February 13th provided updated information to some of the details presented in a recent far-flung
YRHT post.
STANDING DOWN: A real-estate developer has withdrawn a suit he filed last week in an attempt to stop criticism during the District A City Council campaign that, he said, "unlawfully ridiculed and derided" him.
Vincent Marcello Jr. had sued candidate Susan Guidry and Keith Hardie, the leader of Anybody But Batt, a political action committee designed to keep Jay Batt, a Guidry opponent, from regaining the council seat he held from 2002 to 2006.
...
Marcello said Thursday that he decided not to pursue the suit because he had "other legal remedies." But he declined to specify what those might be.
Good! I think legal remedies are preferable to illegal ones.
Here's a
T-P story from 2 years ago about a French Quarter restaurant mentioned in that
YRHT post:
Maximo's Italian Grill has officially reopened after being closed for almost 3 years. The original chef, Paul Cattoche is back and is running the restaurant. The previous owner, Jason Anixter relocated to California and the new owner is Vincent Marcello.
The restaurant will serve the same high quality, fresh food as before the storm.
Good! I love restaurants that serve fresh, high quality food.
Thanks to a dot-connecting anonymous
commenter, we'll link to this
extremely brief story in today's T-P Metro section. The online title is "Alleged kingpin of New Orleans drug-trafficking ring arrested in Atlanta".
Authorities investigating a drug-trafficking ring suspected of shipping high-grade marijuana from California and Atlanta to the New Orleans area have arrested the operation's alleged kingpin and seized more than five pounds of pot and other substances, according to the Louisiana State Police.
Paul Cattoche, 57, of New Orleans, was arrested Wednesday in Atlanta at one of at least five locations in Louisiana and Georgia where state and federal agents executed search warrants as part of a probe that began last month...
Good! I think drug-trafficking kingpins should be arrested and probed. (Though we should perhaps begin with big Pharma.) A different sort of racketeering occurred at another Vincent Marcello-owned property at Canal Street, where madames participated in a sophisticated
nationwide prostitute-swapping exchange for the pleasure of various doctors, lawyers and indian chiefs. Aren't those madames savvy? Must be due to their hard-knock upbringing. (Jeanette Maier, for example,
grew up in and around a beloved French Quarter restaurant-- Toney's Spaghetti House.)
Darn the luck of poor Vincent Marcello, though! Allegedly, his (former) employees and tenants keep getting involved in these large, lucrative, sophisticated, nationwide criminal enterprises. I hate it when that happens.
Will these (no doubt coincidental) connections (continue to) escape the eagle eyes of local media and federal investigators?
===
Update: Georgia
media has more information.
Labels: Canal Street Madam, crime, Cronies, Food
8 Comments:
Actually, it was not so different a kind of racketeering at Jeanette Maier's Canal St. brothel, just in addition to the obvious prostitution ring one: The feds charged Maier with "possession and intent to distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana" but only a minor marijuana charge stuck. It'll be interesting to see if Vinny Mosca represents Paul Cattoche. That wouldn't be obvious, would it. Good link to the Georgia story, which is much better than the TP's...this was a huge organized deal (not just some piddly 5 lb. thing)with multi-state connections. I'd love to be a fly on the wall you know where.
As a former New Orleanian living in Atlanta, I saw that story in our local paper. As I am from New Orleans, I google the names of people from the Big Easy caught up in mayhem and foolishness and did see that Paul Cattoche was listed as the chef at Maximos, but did'nt connect it since no mention of his employment was made in the arrest story. I digress, so anyway did you also notice that Jason Anixter, the former owner of Maximos, relocated to California after selling Maximos to Vince Marcillo who hired Paul Cattoche who relocated from California after previously being the chef and proprietor of a San Francisco restaurant? Oh, by the way did I mention that this high grade marijuana was allegedly transported to New Orleans from California? (and Atlanta).
Thanks for citing those relevant points. Yeah, the pot was grown in Cali, distributed in Atlanta and New Orleans.
Now, Cattoche only worked a few months at Maximo's after it reopened 2 years ago. He resigned as executive chef due to "health issues" according to a restaurant article I read. Now he's (suddenly?) a big interstate drug trafficking kingpin.
"other legal remedies," translation: "other legal remedies that have at least some chance of not being immediately thrown out of court under Louisiana's anti-SLAPP statute.
Is Vincent related to Carlos?
If you want to dig into restaurants being used as Mafia fronts, you should also look into Leonardo Trattoria in the CBD. It's owned by a couple Mafia members and seems on the way towards a bust-out operation, as I understand they've stopped paying their suppliers and their employees. For obvious reasons, I will remain anonymous!
Oh, one more tip, since I'm in a tipster-ish mood. A certain Leon Cannizzaro is a regular patron of the Hustler Club.
Apparently he's so well-known there that he's usually waved in without paying a cover.
But occasionally, when someone of more recent employ is working the door, he's been forced to show his ID.
I would be greatly amused (as I'm sure others would be) if Mr. Cannizzaro were asked (preferably on video) about his Hustler escapades.
Not sure I want to "dig in", but I appreciate tips. You can gmail them privately at oystersliq.
The Hustler thing is amusing, but not something I'll make hay with, unless he starts preaching family values or wants to make strip clubs illegal.
