Todd Macaluso, a licensed pilot well-known for defending Casey Anthony during her 2011 murder acquittal, was arraigned on November 19 on drug trafficking charges, five days after authorities arrested him in Haiti.
Daily Mail reports that Macaluso, 54, showed up in a Brooklyn court earlier this month after federal authorities detained him in Haiti, on suspicion of using a U.S.-registered airplane to transplant cocaine from from Ecuador to Honduras.
Lawyer who represented Casey Anthony's is arrested for 'plotting to fly almost two tons of cocaine from Central Am… https://t.co/bXber1DASW
— News, Views, People. (@NVPeople) November 29, 2016
Federal agents were alerted to Macaluso in October while conducting a drug trafficking investigation. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force, Macaluso is accused of flying a Falcon 10 plane to Haiti to Equador, where 1,500 kilograms of cocaine was waiting to be transported to Honduras and the U.S. Co-defendants Carlos Almonte Vasquez and Humberto Osuna Contreras, are accused of helping Macaluso transport the drugs.
“Macaluso described, in the presence of both Almonte Vasquez and Osuna Contreras, the structure of the subject aircraft, stating that it could hold 1,500 kilograms of cocaine,” said NYPD Detective Alexander Sosa.
All three men are being held without bail.
This isn’t the first time Macaluso was arrested. ABC 10News reports that in 2015, he was convicted of defrauding both investors and clients by entering into “funding agreements” that put their collateral up for damage without their knowledge. He forged notary stamps and signatures to convince people to invest millions with him, which he used to fund his own personal law practice.
The now disbarred attorney was sentenced to five months behind bars for the stunt, which angered numerous victims, who felt he should’ve gotten a stronger sentence. Although he pleaded guilty, Macaluso insisted that “everything’s been fully disclosed” and that he didn’t lie.
“We accept responsibility for what occurred, however, we have always done right by our clients, and don’t take that from me, listen to what my clients said. My clients all wrote letters to the judge with the exception of one,” said Macaluso.
For his most recent case, Macaluso claimed he had no money to find a lawyer to represent him. He told federal agents that he only earns “some money” as a legal consultant. He’s represented by court-appointed lawyer, Murray Singer.
Todd Macaluso, alongside attorney Jose Baez, represented Casey Anthony from from March 2009 to February 2010, in one of the most sensationalized trials of the decade. Anthony was acquitted of murder after being charged with killing her 2-year-old little girl, Cayle Anthony. After her acquittal, Macaluso allegedly flew Anthony to Orlando in his plane.
