After pleading guilty to illegally importing more than 100,000 pounds of Russian and Iranian caviar in the eighties, a judge has given 69-year-old Isidoro “Mario” Garbarino a break. He’s free after less than five months behind bars. “The case is old and, more importantly, the defendant is old,” said 80-year-old U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy. “I know what old means, perhaps more than anybody else in the courtroom.” Perhaps the judge was impressed that his fellow geezer had made it on the run for 23 years: Garbarino only got caught after transferring planes in Panama. Garbarino must return to Italy (his native country) right away, but his defense lawyers say he wants to live in Argentina and the Dominican Republic. Never stop hustling. [Earlier, AP]
