NYC chef Ettore Mazzei busted as ‘evil’ mastermind behind huge drug ring, was as soon as awarded native enterprise honor: prosecutors

A famend Staten Island chef and entrepreneur was busted because the ringleader of an enormous drug operation the place he tricked addicts into “servitude, officers stated Wednesday after raiding his companies.

Ettore Mazzei, 61, was referred to as a “crooked, evil businessman” after he was nabbed in a sting in a single day at his house on Bay Road in Stapleton, prosecutors and sources stated.

Authorities additionally raided his close by enterprise Chez Vous Caterers and a building enterprise he owns, based on the sources.. 

“Like a modern-day Fagin, the character from Dickens’ Nice Expectations, Mazzei preyed on susceptible individuals who suffered from dependancy sickness and oppressed them into servitude in his catering enterprise, for housing and finally, for drug dealing,” Staten Island District Lawyer Michael McMahon stated in an announcement.

“The breadth of his prison exercise is actually mind-boggling,” McMahon added. “Mazzei constructed a labyrinth of crime together with drug dealing, extortion, and fraud in opposition to quite a few authorities applications together with COVID-19 support, housing assist, meals stamps, and different monetary help. He’s a profitable businessman for positive – a crooked, evil businessman.” 

Mazzei – who was honored in 2022 by the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce for his neighborhood revitalization efforts – was indicted on a number of fees together with prison sale of a managed substance, grand larceny, identification theft and possession of a cast instrument, based on prosecutors.

The well-known Staten Island determine – who sources say was nabbed whereas delivering medication together with his girlfriend – was amongst about 20 folks charged within the sweeping operation, which additionally included Rudy Santana, Gary Pulice and Melissa Mazzei, based on Richmond County Supreme Court docket paperwork.

He and his co-defendants are accused of promoting 20 grams of heroin, 461 grams of cocaine, and 140 suboxone strips to undercover officers over a 14-month interval beginning in March 2023, based on prosecutors.

Mazzei was the “major orchestrator” of the long-running operation, the DA’s workplace stated. 

Mazzei based Chez Vous Caterers, Dock Road Bar & Grill, Building & Design Co, in addition to Shandelee Lake Inn, based on his on-line bio. 

As not too long ago as final month, “a number of acts of violence” – together with two shootings and an armed house invasion – had been reported in and round Mazzei’s properties, prosecutors stated.

Mazzei’s alleged actions have additionally been linked to a number of overdose deaths on Staten Island, by means of an investigation carried out by the Richmond County DA’s Workplace’s Overdose Response Initiative, based on the workplace. 

“The defendants’ alleged actions plagued neighborhoods in Staten Island by littering the streets with unlawful narcotics that led to overdose deaths and endangered numerous extra New Yorkers,” stated NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban stated in an announcement.

“These allegations are significantly galling on condition that the driving drive behind this illicit drug operation – an area landlord, chef, and entrepreneur – was not too long ago acknowledged as a pillar of the neighborhood by the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce.

“Placing private and monetary achieve above folks’s lives is the polar reverse of what New Yorkers count on and deserve from their leaders.”

Mazzei was additionally energetic in Staten Island anti-drug initiatives, the place he allegedly took benefit of those that sought assist, The Staten Island Advance reported.

“This gentleman is posing himself as somebody who’s trying to steer drug-addicted and people who find themselves hooked on narcotics to rehab however no person actually is aware of he’s the one supplying the medication to those folks to maintain them addicted,” NYPD Deputy Inspector at Detective Borough Staten Island Scott Weisberg advised WNBC.

He was ordered held on $3 million money bail and $5 million bond throughout his Wednesday morning arraignment.

Mazzei revealed a ebook in 2014 referred to as, “It’s Your Proper to Be Match, Sexed and Blissful.”

“Who am I? My first response is that who I’m is just not vital,” he wrote in his bio. “What’s vital is my sharing with you what I’ve discovered from my life experiences with health, entire meals, intercourse, and the forces that have an effect on my wellbeing and aliveness in each second.”

He lives together with his spouse Rebecca, and has two grownup kids, Melissa and David, in addition to three grandsons, based on the web profile.