Ciro Wayne Mancuso (born 1949) was a

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

-based drug dealer convicted of running a $140-million marijuana smuggling operation for more than a decade. In cooperation with a

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from

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, Mancuso built one of the largest domestic

drug cartels A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of independent drug lords who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the illegal drug trade. Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the ill ...

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

history. The son of immigrants from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, Mancuso was a real estate developer before venturing into the lucrative narcotics business. His smuggling operation began in the late 1960s, when he teamed up with a group of college friends from Tahoe Paradise College. At first, they only sold

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

at their college, but soon the business grew and they became involved with the

Italian-American Mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian-American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian-American criminal society and organized crime group. The terms Italian Mafia and Italian Mob apply t ...

. When authorities moved in on their growing operation at a small farm in

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, they began importing marijuana from

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. Later Mancuso teamed up with a Thai

exchange student A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or higher education study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions. A student exchange program may involve international travel, bu ...

to import more potent marijuana into

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Mancuso soon realized that there was more profit to be made selling

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and integrated it into his marijuana operation. It took the government twelve years to build a case against Mancuso. Anthony White, assistant

U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada The United States District Court for the District of Nevada (in case citations, D. Nev.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Nevada. The court has locations in Las Vegas and Reno. Cases from the District of Nevada a ...

, brought charges against Mancuso in 1990 and it was hailed as one of the largest drug conspiracy cases in state history. The indictment alleged that Mancuso used a multi-state cocaine and marijuana smuggling operation to buy ranches, mountaintop retreats, beach-front estates and anything else he might want. Mancuso was sentenced to nine years in prison on June 27, 1995. His sentence was greatly reduced because of his cooperation with the government in cases against other alleged organization members and Mancuso's lawyer Patrick Hallinan. As a result of his assistance to the government, Mancuso was allowed to keep $5 million in proceeds from his trafficking business. Hallinan was subsequently acquitted of obstruction of justice and drug conspiracy charges. Mancuso's property in Hawaii was seized by the federal government and sold; the $800,000 proceeds were forwarded to the California and Nevada law enforcement agencies that pursued him. His daughter,

Julia Mancuso Marie Mancuso (born March 9, 1984) is an American retired World Cup alpine ski racer, Olympic gold medalist and podcast host. She won the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and was the silver medalist in both downhill and combined i ...

, was a decorated member of the U.S. Ski Team until retiring following an injury. She won the gold medal in the

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

at the

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, the silver medal in the downhill at the

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, and the bronze metal in the women's combine event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. After his release from prison in March 2000, Ciro Mancuso again became involved in Julia's skiing career. Father and daughter have maintained a close relationship, and she credits him with helping her in her ski career, particularly when it comes to setting her up with a trainer in Maui.Chris Jenkins, "Dig These Roots", ''

San Diego Union Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

'', February 25, 2006

References

External links

Leagle.com
– U.S. v. Mancuso – U.S. District Court – November 17, 1989 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mancuso, Ciro 1949 births Living people American cannabis traffickers American people of Italian descent American gangsters of Italian descent Cannabis in Nevada