OCR Text |
Show Mob figure arrested in D.V. A New York attorney charged with laundering millions of dollars in connection with an underworld heroin ring was arrested March 7 in Deer Valley. According to the Salt Lake City office of the Federal Drug Enforcement Enforce-ment Administration (DEA), Anthony An-thony Castelbuono was served with an arrest warrant at the Silverbird Condominium he was renting in the Silver Lake area of Deer Valley. Laundering is a complicated process aimed at keeping law enforcement officials from tracking money to criminal activity. The DEA, working in conjunction with the Park City Police Department, Depart-ment, made the arrest Thursday evening, said special agent Curtis Fillmore. He added that Castelbuono, Castel-buono, who allegedly has links to the Mafia, did not resist arrest. Castelbuono appeared before U.S. Magistrate Ron Boyce in Salt Lake City and waived a removal hearing. He was freed on his own recognizance. recogni-zance. Castelbuono was scheduled to appear before a U.S. judge in New York for arraignment on federal charges. He is charged with conspiracy to import heroin into the United States and with taking money from drug sales to Swiss banks. According to the federal complaint, Castelbuono kept $1.5 million of the drug money for personal use and is wanted by members of an organization allegedly alleged-ly run by Victoriano Molina. A Molina associate, Melanie Lopez, told DEA undercover agents during a 1984 meeting that Molina wanted to "break an arm and a leg" of a lawyer who laundered heroin money for Molina and owed him! about $1.5 million. Lopez named Castelbuono as the lawyer, according to testimony from undercover agent, Lucille Lanzar. U.S. undercover . agents met Molina on the Caribbean island of Bermuda March 3. According to testimony, Molina told them he "handled approximately 80 kilograms kilo-grams of heroin every two weeks." Molina allegedly asked agents to launder about $20 million to cash. He was then arrested. Lanzar also testified that Castelbuono Castel-buono stated he had been laundering money for another Molina associate' Antonio Turano, since 1981. Turano had been arrested in 1982 for importing 15 kilograms of heroin into the United States. But before Turano went to trial, he was shot to death and his body dumped in Queens, New York. According to testimony, Turano was killed by the Molina organization. |