A well-known chef and catering hall owner on Staten Island recently honored for his community revitalization efforts has been arrested in connection with a sweeping drug bust, law enforcement sources say.
Addiction is a daily battle on the island's North Shore. With fentanyl poisoning users, police are trying to track down the dealers responsible for selling it. That brought law enforcement to the doors of Chez Vous Caterers on Bay Street.
About 20 people were arrested Wednesday morning, accused of selling drugs. Police say the group is linked to at least three overdose deaths -- and they claim Chez Vous owner Ettore Mazzei is the mastermind of the entire operation.
Mazzei, considered a pillar of the downtown Staten Island community, was honored in Jan. 2022 by the Chamber of Commerce for his revitalization efforts and helping those struggling with addiction. But police and prosecutors say he was running a drug and pill mill.
Mazzei was taken into custody Tuesday night after law enforcement sources say friends reported he was telling people he was planning to leave town. The entrepreneur was charged with 15 counts of drug possession.
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Investigators and prosecutors said the drug ring was responsible for making over a dozen sales, where tens of thousands of dollars' worth of narcotics were swapped. In all, those arrested allegedly sold 20 grams of heroin, 461 grams of cocaine and 140 suboxone strips to undercover officers over a 14-month period starting in March 2023.
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"This gentleman is posing himself as someone who is looking to steer drug-addicted and people who are addicted to narcotics to rehab but nobody really knows he’s the one supplying the drugs to these people to keep them addicted," NYPD Deputy Inspector at Detective Borough Staten Island Scott Weisberg said.
Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon described it as an exploitation of the vulnerable. McMahon says people would get addicted, then owe him money and have to work for him to settle their debts. It was cyclical.
Law enforcement sources say he would get people hooked on cocaine, crack, and fentanyl and order them to pay them using their food stamps. Those same sources say he’d give others places to live, only to turn around and make them sell drugs to pay their rent. Investigators say the case isn't over -- and that federal charges are pending.
The DA's office said bail for Mazzei was set at $3 million cash or $5 million bond.
A request for comment from Mazzei's attorney wasn't immediately returned Wednesday.
