Show Notes
Meyer Lansky is one of the legendary figures of American organized crime. Lansky was a man of small stature: as a mature adult he measured 162 cm tall and weighed 61 kg. Perhaps it was because of his short stature that he was forced to use his intellectual abilities to succeed in the world. What Lansky lacked in brawn he made up for in brains. Although he was a member of the Jewish Mafia, Lansky undoubtedly had a strong influence with the Italian-American Mafia and played an important role in the consolidation of the criminal underworld.
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Dello stesso autore leggi POLVERE DI STELLE
More from THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MAFIA
Following the fall of the French Connection, figures like Gaetan Zampa and Francis Vanverberghe took control of Marseille’s underworld. In New York, a massive NYPD corruption scandal revealed the theft of 300 kg of seized heroin by officer Giuseppe Nunciata and the Lucchese family. The French Connection ultimately collapsed due to international cooperation, the Turkish opium ban, and key convictions like Jean-Baptiste Croce, marking the end of Corsican drug dominance.
This episode explores the internal downfall of the French Connection, driven by greed within the Corsican Union rather than police pressure. Key figures like Jean Jehan managed major heroin trafficking networks across Marseille, Canada, and New York while evading conviction. Internal warfare, such as the feud between the Guérini clan and Marcel Francisci, fractured the organization. By the 1980s, high-profile arrests and assassinations ended the Corsican underworld's decades-long dominance.
The French Connection was a global heroin trafficking network run by Corsican and Marseillaise clans between the 1940s and 1970s. Partnering with the American Mafia, they refined Turkish opium into 98% pure heroin in Marseille laboratories before smuggling it into the US via luxury cars, Canadian ports, and diplomatic channels. A key crackdown came in 1964, when US-French cooperation dismantled Joseph Césari's lab, seizing 115 kg of morphine base and setting off its eventual downfall.
An overview of post-war transatlantic heroin trafficking. Collaborations between French labs and the Sicilian Mafia formed an airtight, secure system ensuring safe transfers, structured payments, and escape routes. The American Mafia monopolized wholesale, distributing to dealers. Adulteration with neutral substances maximized weight and profits. This dynamic created exponential price surges from $700 inside Lebanon/Syria up to $225,000 for consumers on US streets.
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