On this day in 1966, fifteen people are arrested by New York cops at a Forest Hills, Queens restaurant called La Stella. Of those fifteen, four are from New Orleans. Carlos Marcello and his brother Joe, Anthony Carollo and Frank Gagliano.

The others were Santo Trafficante, Carlo Gambino, Joseph Colombo, Mike Miranda, Tommy Eboli, Domonick Alongi (a NYC Mobster in the Genovese Family who grew up in New Orleans and was cousin to Gagliano), Neil Dellacroce, Joe N. Gallo and Anthony Carillo.

Along with the thirteen Mobsters the owners of the restaurant, two brothers, were also arrested. They were taken in and booked. They claimed it was just a friendly lunch between old friends.

A few days later a few of them would return, with their lawyers, for another lunch. The meeting came to be known as Little Apalachin.

On September 22, 1966, New York City police made a startling discovery at La Stella restaurant in Forest Hills, Queens — thirteen of the most powerful organised crime figures in the United States seated together for what they casually dismissed as a friendly lunch. By the time officers finished processing the group, fifteen individuals had been arrested, including the restaurant's two owner brothers, and the event had earned its place in mob history as "Little Apalachin," a knowing nod to the infamous 1957 gathering in upstate New York that had so dramatically exposed the national reach of the American Mafia.

The guest list read like a who's who of the underworld. Carlo Gambino, then the most powerful mob boss in the country and a dominant force in the Commission established by Lucky Luciano in the early 1930s, was present alongside fellow New York heavyweights Joseph Colombo, Mike Miranda, Tommy Eboli, Neil Dellacroce, Joe N. Gallo, and Anthony Carillo. Representing the Genovese family was Domonick Alongi, a New York mobster with deep New Orleans roots and a family connection to fellow arrestee Frank Gagliano. Santo Trafficante, the formidable Tampa boss with far-reaching criminal interests, rounded out a remarkable assembly of underworld power.

Perhaps most striking was the significant New Orleans contingent present that day. Carlos Marcello, the iron-fisted boss of the New Orleans crime family and one of the most influential mob figures in America, attended alongside his brother Joe, associate Anthony Carollo, and the aforementioned Gagliano. Marcello's presence at such a gathering underscored just how deeply connected the Southern criminal networks were to the broader national syndicate — a relationship stretching back to the days of Al Capone and the old Prohibition-era alliances that had shaped the modern Mafia.

Despite the embarrassment of the arrests, the men were released and charges were not pursued. In a move that demonstrated their collective audacity, several of the bosses returned to La Stella just days later — this time accompanied by their lawyers — for another meal. The gesture was unmistakably defiant, a statement that no amount of police interference would disrupt their business or their brotherhood.

The La Stella arrests, much like Apalachin before them, offered law enforcement a rare and undeniable glimpse into the organised, national structure of American organised crime. The incident remains a compelling reminder of the extraordinary reach and brazen confidence of the mob at the very height of its power.