Cherry Gets Popped by the Feds

[willychichi]

Investigators are looking into an organized crime connection at one of the country’s largest maraschino cherry factories after the company’s owner shot himself in the head as he was about to be busted for harboring a hidden drug den. “That’s why he shot himself. He knew the mob would kill him,” a law enforcement source said of Dell’s Maraschino Cherries owner Arthur Mondella, 57, who killed himself Tuesday as authorities opened a secret door leading to a huge basement grow house. “Why else would you shoot yourself over 100 pounds of weed? It was the multimillion operation he lost.” The probe is part of a larger investigation, sources said.


http://nypost.com/2015/02/25/investigat ... SocialFlow

[NYNighthawk]

This was a great collar and it was all by accident. EPA and the Brooklyn DA Investigators? Come on- they were no heavyweights and as soon as they hit the mother lode they called in the NYPD and the Feds to take over. This will become a financial accounting investigation. They will have to look at all of Mondella's bank books and depositis for the past few years to lead to others.I'm sure his contact people in the Mob are trying to distance themselves. ps- look at his cell phone records.

[Wiseguy]

It wouldnt surprise me at all if there was a mob connection to this.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Gotta say I did chuckle at the threads title

[willychichi]

More on the story.

The sister of maraschino cherry king Arthur Mondella is blaming authorities for his suicide

Joanne Capece ripped into the investigators at the scene, saying: “The search was f–ked up. Why wasn’t he searched?” a source close to the Mondella family said. “She didn’t hold back in telling the investigators that the search wasn’t conducted properly and because they dropped the ball, Arthur wasn’t disarmed and he was able to kill himself in [next to] a room full of cops,” the source said.

Read more: http://nypost.com/2015/03/02/cherry-kin ... s-suicide/

[NYNighthawk]

I hate when people blame the cops for the suicide. Yes he probably should have been searched but yet the legal warrant was only for the premises not for a person.And they already found his licensed handgun in a drawer which he had a permit for so to blame the cop's for his suicide - that's a stretch. But you have lawyers ad's that say- if you think you been wronged- call 1-800- ouch!

[willychichi]

The father is a bully’: Queens family charged with using pizzeria as cocaine front undone by family feuding

Stick a fork in the apparently mob-connected Queens family charged with using their Italian restaurant and pizzeria as a front for cocaine trafficking.

The Gigliottis, who own Cucino a Modo Mio in Corona, appear to be done in by intra-family squabbling that climaxed with a fight between father Gregorio and son Angelo during a recent legal meeting in jail, according to court papers.

“The father is a bully,” Angelo Gigliotti’s lawyer Gerald McMahon declared at a bail hearing in Brooklyn Federal Court on Monday.

“He bullies the mother and all his sons,” McMahon said. “My client is not happy that this bully has gotten him involved in this case.”

Federal prosecutors charged the Gigliottis with importing 55 kilos of cocaine in a shipment of yucca from Costa Rica.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.2268828

[willychichi]

Pot-growing ‘Cherry king’ who killed himself when busted leaves $8.5M to family

The Brooklyn maraschino-cherry magnate who killed himself as cops uncovered his secret pot-growing operation earlier this year left his $8.5 million estate to his family, according to new court documents.

But that money’s up in the air pending an investigation into whether Arthur Mondella obtained funds illegally through the marijuana business he ran at Dell’s Maraschino Cherries in Red Hook, authorities said.

“This matter is still under ongoing investigation. We seek forfeiture of funds obtained through criminal acts whenever appropriate and will do so in this case,” said a spokesman for the Brooklyn DA’s Office, which is investigating.

Read more: http://nypost.com/2015/08/24/pot-growin ... to-family/

[willychichi]

Judge blocked NYC investigators from frisking ‘Cherry King’ before his suicide

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/fri ... -1.2778038

[willychichi]

Mafia queen pleads guilty to smuggling cocaine through Queens restaurant

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.2953692