Triaca Company
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The Triaca Company was a brewery and distributor located in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Triaca Company was founded in 1882 by Marcello Triaca on 98 Light Street and Camden Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland.[1] Triaca gained some national notoriety in 1884 for losing $5,600 to a fellow Italian in an elaborate swindle involving money handling.[2]
With Prohibition pending, all liquor distributors were given until January 16, 1920, to sell or export their stocks out of the United States.[3] In December 1919, Triaca company president Charles Vincenti shipped thirty-six thousand cases and twelve thousand barrels of whiskey to Bimini. Vincenti was taken by force in a boat raid by revenue agents and taken back to Baltimore for trial before the British Colonial Government demanded his return for capture in their territorial waters.[4][5] In 1920, whiskey was distributed to cooperative households throughout the Baltimore area such as the A.T. Carozza Ingleside Mansion in Catonsville. Carozza, a road contractor, bought a steamship from the Navy and sued the government to return his 500-case whiskey gift from Vincenti. After agents seized cases of whiskey, a trial was held against the owners, drivers, salesmen, and holders of the whiskey in 1922.[6] The trial became part of the Triaca Conspiracy, also known as the "Million Dollar Whiskey Conspiracy".[7][8][9][10][11]
