Ex-Yellow Tail Guy Pleads Guilty to Wine (and Weed) Crime

Jul 5, 2018

(Wine Spectator) - Plus, former French footballer pleads guilty to selling fake Bordeaux, and drones vs. sharpshooters
One ex-Yellow Tail guy's next stop could be behind bars. No, not the Yellow Tail Guy. Marcello Casella, a former director of Australia's Casella Family Brands, has pleaded guilty to concealing nearly 3,000 marijuana plants as part of a major drug scheme.
Casella resigned from his position in the family biz—which is the parent company of famed critter wine Yellow Tail and Barossa Valley's Peter Lehmann—in 2014, when he was arrested after police uncovered millions of dollars' worth of cannabis on a farm in New South Wales.
According to local newspaper Brisbane Times, Casella allegedly provided financial backing for the project, which was reportedly headed up by his longtime friend and "entrepreneur" Luigi Fato. At the start of the trial in May, Casella pleaded not guilty to concealing his knowledge of the illicit enterprise, but changed his plea to guilty last week. He faces up to two years in jail.


Share: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Furl Facebook Google Yahoo Twitter

Comments:

 
Leave a comment





Advertisement