Howie Carr: Prison diet awaits ‘Fatz’ the fentanyl kingpin [+ exclusive photos]

Yes, toss in a welfare card with all that cash

Fatz Caruso, we hardly knew ye!

On Thursday, Vincent “Fatz” Caruso, the 27-year-old convicted fentanyl kingpin of the North Shore will be sentenced to federal prison for his life of crime. The feds are asking for 22.5 years, which is on the low side of federal sentencing guidelines.

But first his mom, Laurie Caruso, who was also in his DTO – Drug Trafficking Organization – goes down today. She’s looking at 11.5 years at her sentencing.

In their pre-sentencing memo, the feds have put together what amounts to a photo album of Fatz’ Greatest Hits. The pictures – both his own and the cops’ — speak for themselves. All I can add is a few statements from the feds’ filing, as well as from his own lawyer’s arguments for a shorter incarceration.

Let’s let the prosecutors lay out how Fatz “flooded the area North of Boston with hundreds of thousands of pressed fentanyl pills … (Fatz) also orchestrated multiple armed robberies, as well as a shooting where the fully automatic handgun was used to spray dozens of rounds at a porch full of people.”

Incidentally, Tuesday was the first anniversary of that drive-by shooting.

The feds point out the deadly toll from Fatz’ trafficking in Class A narcotics:

“While the DTO was operating in Danvers, Salem, Saugus and Lynn, over 1,000 people in Essex County have died from opiate abuse, to say nothing of the thousands of others who died in neighboring communities … (Fatz was) generating large profits for himself while spreading untold despair, misery and death to those afflicted by substance abuse disorder.”

In his heyday, Fatz controlled “a sizable percentage of the fentanyl pills” in the Boston area.

And as you can see from Fatz’ photo album, this 300-pound archfiend was not exactly a shrinking violet when it came to bragging about his life of crime.

“For example,” the feds note, “the Defendant posted a copy of his booking sheet from the Jan. 2020 arrest by MSP, essentially bragging about the fact that the serious drug and firearms charges did not bother him: the caption read, ‘Y’all nig**s be ready to cry in ya mug shots lol I laugh at these bitch (expletive) nig**s.”

Fatz bought a pill press for making his fake blue Percocet 30s. He had so much cash he had to purchase a money counter. He was gambling up to $10,000 a day — $400,000 in three months at a single casino.

He has agreed to forfeit more than $200,000 in cash seized by the feds. He bought tricked-out ATVs and dirt bikes.

“There was so much money, the Defendant apparently ran out of things to buy and brag about. He resorted to throwing cash in the air in nightclubs.”

Fatz had two tattoos that the G-men say summed up his philosophy: “Menace II Society” and “Live by the Gun Die by the Gun.”

As for his mom, Laurie, when the cops raided her house in May 2018, they found, among hundreds of pills and a firearm, $30,000 in cash. They also discovered her welfare card from the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance.

As for Fatz’ own motion for leniency, you will not be surprised to learn that this ninth-grade dropout fancies himself a victim of circumstance. His lawyer says that as a youth in Swampscott he suffered from ADD, ADHD and bipolar disorder.

“At age 11 he accidentally overdosed on his prescription.”

Like all aspiring rappers, he’s now “engaged” to the mother of his child. The future Mrs. Fatz said in her statement to sentencing Judge Denise Casper that she met Fatz while “living in an unstable environment after my father died of an overdose.”

Fatz’ younger sister says he taught her how to ride a bike, “which was needed due to my moms (sic) alcohol addiction.”

One of his friends named Chad Nelson explained that Fatz’ embarked on his one-fat-man crime wave for one simple reason.

“He just wanted to be a provider for his family … Vincent Caruso has never been in any major trouble before this. He was trying to turn his life around.”

Of course, Fatz was! Aren’t they all?

Then there’s a woman named Tylynn Spraglin, another dear friend of “Menace II Society.“

“When I went through a domestic violence situation I had to go to a shelter. Vincent always checked on me.”

I’ll let Tylynn describe the Caruso clan in her own words.

“They were such a vibrant supportive Italian family with such great energy. The kind of families (sic) you’d see on a TV show.”

The Sopranos, perhaps?

Then there’s his father, Vincent Caruso Sr. Big Fatz, I guess you could call him. You’d hardly know it to look at Fatz now, but his dad says that “as a child he was very involved in sports.”

Sumo wrestling, maybe?

“My hope is for him to change and learn to cope with his mental health issues so when he does come out he will succed (sic) in his life as an adult & hopefully be somethin (sic)”

Fatz will be back, sometime around 2042. But Fatz and his welfare mama aren’t the last of this crew of gangbangers to go down. Coming up in September is the sentencing of Fatz’ 34-year-old caporegime, Ernest Johnson, a/k/a Yo Pesci.

Like his boss Fatz Caruso, Yo Pesci is a good boy, a very good boy.