Casey Anthony attorney busted for cocaine smuggling

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DANBURY - An attorney who represented Florida murder suspect Casey Anthony was arrested in Haiti last month after attempting to use a corporate jet based at Danbury Airport to smuggle cocaine.

Todd Macaluso, a California-based attorney on the team that successfully defended Anthony in 2008 on charges that she murdered her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, was taken into custody by federal authorities Nov. 14, court documents state.

Federal prosecutors charge that Macaluso, pilot of a Falcon 10 jet owned by the-Danbury based Maule Group, told co-conspirators that the plane could hold up to 1,500 kilograms of cocaine, which has a street value of approximately $45 million in the New York area.

Macaluso met with his co-conspirators in Haiti to show them the aircraft and devise a plan to smuggle the drugs from Haiti to Honduras and eventually into the United States, court documents show. Federal agents, who secretly recorded the meeting, arrested Macaluso and others involved in the plot the same day of the meeting.

Macaluso and the co-conspirators, including Carlos Almonte Vasquez, were to receive an up-front payment of $35,000 and another $150,000 after the drugs were delivered to the United States, court documents state.

James Marquis, the managing member of the Maule Group, said Macaluso had rented the aircraft, which he once owned. Macaluso did not have permission to fly the plane to Haiti, he said.

The plane has since been confiscated by federal authorities.

“We are working through the attorneys right now, and the insurance company, to try and get the plane back,” Marquis said Tuesday. “We are trying to figure out if they have the right to keep it.”

Court documents noted that no drugs were ever actually put aboard the aircraft. An indictment filed on Dec. 1 in the case, however,shows that federal authorities nevertheless plan to take ownership of the aircraft under the court’s forfeiture guidelines.

Murray Singer, Macaluso’s attorney, said he had no information on the agreement between his client and the Maule group.

Macaluso, who his charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, to is expected to appear in court in New York state on Jan. 13 for a status conference on the case.

dperrefort@newstimes.com