The bad news was that Marcello lost in both cases through the aid of RICO evidence. He was facing 17 years in prison. He may have been safer in prison, however, since there were many questions about what else might have been on the tapes used for his conviction. Many of his friends on the Commission were concerned he might put thought into providing evidence against them in exchange for lessening of the sentence. Of the 17 year sentence Carlos would only serve six and a half years. He did, however, did loose a great deal of his political influence and connections that he had built up over the years. His organization was weakened and the federal government was continuing to seek ways in which to return him to prison.
Some of the information he provided prior to his previous jail sentence would come back to haunt him and his family. His brother was connected with the contracted murder of a federal judge. His other brother was more interested in his restaurant business than the Family business, allowing him to stay out of the sites of federal prosecutors. Over time his family drifted their own ways and his son turned his back on the business allowing others to assume control of the rackets in Louisiana. Anthony Carolla finally got his chance, after so many years to have his turn at running rackets throughout New Orleans. Some outside Families from New York began to move into the New Orleans and were informed there would not be any problems from the Marcello Family. It was made clear that the power of the Marcello's was a thing of the past. The legalized gambling casinos were put under the watchful eye of federal agents who began to collect information related to a skimming operation from video machines.
Members of the Marcello crime family and the New York Gambino and Genovese Mafia families had been arrested, following an FBI/Louisiana State Police mounted operation that had lasted two years. In a series of predawn raids, suspects were arrested in Louisiana, New York and Florida. The racketeering charges alleged that the three crime families were involved in establishing and controlling two businesses known as Worldwide Gaming of Louisiana, Inc, and Louisiana Route Operators, Inc. These companies were licensed to sell, distribute and receive revenues from video poker machines in Louisiana. The mobsters were aiming to skim funds collected from these machines, before taxes were due, and to funnel this money into their own crime families. Many were quick to point out that this made it clear that Carlos had lost leadership control. Under his organization such actions in all probability would not have been possible due to close family connections and control of political machines. Under Marcello, it was a '"family" business with all seven brothers holding down senior management positions, in what was after all one of the smaller Mafia clans in America. Nowhere else in the country, with the exception of Detroit, did so many family related members control the destiny of a crime group of its size for so many years.
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