Would you like to get a custom case study? ", "Mafia on the Bayou The Marcello Family of New Orleans", "The Little Man is Bigger than Ever: Louisiana Still Jumps for Mobster Marcello", "'Assassin's van' suggests organized crime elements", "'Sniper van' found in Metairie leads to mystery with mob ties", "Third Interim Report, Part B U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce", "JFK, Macmillan Got Along Famously, Finally", "Marcello: Underworld's Man Without a Country", "Carlos Marcello, 83, Reputed Crime Boss In New Orleans Area", "I.C. Marcellos expansion beyond the Louisiana borders has been cautious, well-planned and clandestine. But narcotics peddling is not far behind. In 1970, Life magazine reported that Marcello virtually owned the state revenue department. Those invaders who earlier found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun upon crossing the county by the name of Will Wilson was elected district attorney; Bill Decker, a tough, no-nonsense constable, was elected sheriff two years later. He manipulated several professional despite the fact that he had very shallow education. As Marcellos business enterprise grew more legitimate, so did his public demeanor. Hicks operation was sophisticated, employing 12 couriers and an intricate smuggling scheme between around families like the Mafia families of New York and Chicago- smuggle about $1 billion worth of heroin, cocaine and marijuana into Texas each year. The arrest blotter was laced with big names like Genovese, De Simone of Los Angeles, Colletti of Colorado, Traf-ficante of Florida, Profaci, Scalish and Ida of New York and Bonnano of Arizona. For the gang in Los Angeles, see, Learn how and when to remove this template message, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, "Bust Card in Biloxi: The Fall of the New Orleans Mafia", "The Resurgence of the New Orleans Mafia? Of more significance, however, is the difficulty of the intelligence gathering process itself: The Mafia started as a secret criminal network, and in many ways, it remains enigmatic today. Decker arranged a greeting party for them a mile north of the county line. Born of Arbresh descent and members of the Italo-Albanian Greek Catholic Church in Piana dei Greci, Sicily, Carlo and Antonio Matranga immigrated to New Orleans during the 1870s and eventually opened a saloon and brothel. The FBI groomed an informant who became Carlos Marcellos cellmate. For even as the Mafia heads were chatpolitics, they did respect and fear him. The appeal was denied, but immigration authorities quickly discovered another problem: They couldnt find another nation that wanted Marcello. In Irving, where pornography has boomed off and on for the past 10 years, three different organizations are believed to control distribution, including one group wth ties to a New York mob family. The purpose of this, the largest known convocation of underworld chieftains in American criminal history, was business serious business. This story has been shared 25,237 times. Carollo would be deported in April 1947. Costello, in fact, had been literally invited to bring slot machine business into Louisiana by then-Governor Huey Long. 25,237, This story has been shared 19,396 times.