International heroin trade went through profound change over the second half of the 20th century. What first began as a predominantly European system with clear routes and fixed centers of power developed into a globally ramified network under the pressure of police, politics and internal violence. The following sections trace how theThe focus shifted from the Mediterranean region to other regions of the world, which role the Corsican and Sicilian organizations played and how state intervention, especially in Turkey, reshapes the drug market.
The end of classic European hero trade
In the early 1970s, the European heroin trade that had been dominant until then, which had shaped the market since the late forties, collapsed. Police actions, extensive confiscations, the destruction of poppies and violent clashes within the underworld interrupted the previously relatively stable flow of heroin from the Mediterranean region. with thatThe collapse of the smuggling route between Turkey and Marseilles was forced to change their structures fundamentally. While Corsican and Sicilian groups tried to revive the Mediterranean business towards the end of the decade, American syndicates had already opened up new sources of supply in Asia and Latin America.European traders lost their previous influence on the market in the United States.
Labs relocation and new alliances
The Corsican heroin laboratories lost their political support in Marseille and initially disappeared from the city. Only years later did they reappear, but now scattered across southern France and the Italian peninsula. French investigators discovered several of these laboratories towards the end of the 1970s, and shortly thereafter the Italian police found production sites thatAn old castle in northern Italy to modern villas in Sicily reached. Each of these raids brought new evidence of close cooperation between Corsican groups and the Sicilian mafia. Italian smugglers supplied Corsican laboratories with morphine, while supplies from France were intended for buyers in Sicily. The arrest of several Corsican chemistsIn northern Italy, the seizure of one of the most famous drug dealers from Marseilles finally led to the fact that the massive pressure on the criminal milieu in Marseille forced the Corsican to lean more closely on the Sicilian mafia. With the relocation of their activities to Italy, the importance of the Mafiaim Mediterranean smuggling grew significantly, whichSicily triggered a new wave of violence and internal power struggles.
The rise of the new mafia in Sicily
Since the mid-fifties, rival mafia families, especially the emerging groups in Palermo, have been fighting for domination in heroin trade with great brutality. For years, a traditional, rural mafia and a new, more business-oriented management class faced each other. The old leaders came from the landed gentry, ruled with themTerror overwhelmed peasants and drew their influence from traditional structures. The new generation, on the other hand, relied on modern methods, made international contacts and used the heroin smuggling that had already been built up in the 1940s by the Mafiosi who had returned from the United States. At the same time, the social structure of Sicily changed. With the decayof large estates and the emigration of many farmers The industrialized regions of northern Italy lost the traditional order of the countryside. The mafia followed this development and increasingly shifted its activities to the cities, especially Palermo. There, each family controlled a specific neighborhood and tried to force their area to expand. The fight forThe city’s food market led to a series of murders that shook the city over the years and claimed numerous victims within the organization.
State countermeasures and temporary weakening of the mafia
After a period of relative exhaustion of the feuds, violence flared up again when a courier threw up part of a heroin mission, and that of all things at a time when a parliamentary committee examined the mafia’s activities. Although the organization’s leadership had ordered a cessation of violence for the duration of this investigation, the conflictsnot curb. In Palermo, certain types of vehicles were destroyed with explosive devices so often that their mere sight was enough to clear the streets. A particularly devastating attack on police officers finally led to a large-scale action in which the military combed the city and arrested numerous suspects. The committee of inquiry later submitted comprehensive for the first timeproposals to combat the mafia. In the years that followed, mass arrests, long prison sentences and bans on remote islands occurred. These measures even surpassed earlier fascist waves of repression and forced many mafiosi to withdraw to rural regions or flee to the United States. But after the last bigThe state pressure had subsided, and the new mafia regained influence through its growing role in international heroin trade.
The Sicilians as international intermediaries
A later important witness from the ranks of the mafia reported that the Central Executive Council of the Organization had broken apart during the fighting of the early 1960s and was only revived in the early 1970s. The Sicilian groups used their contacts with emigrated mafiosi in the United States and increasingly appeared as middlemen. herbought Heroin from Mediterranean suppliers and organized their own smuggling routes across the Atlantic. American investigators first became aware of these new activities when they arrested a young Sicilian who worked for a pizzeria and transported a large amount of heroin. The investigations revealed that the then chairman of the Sicilian Councilhad ordered delivery from Sicily and the recipients of its relatives were operating a major wholesale network for heroin in the United States. In the late 1970s, the Sicilians developed into major global heroin trade players through closer cooperation with Corsican groups and new sources of supply in Asia. The early smuggling attemptsHowever, were often clumsy and repeatedly led to spectacular arrests.
The Turkish ban on opium as a turning point
A crucial cut for the Mediterranean heroin complex emerged when the Turkish government decided to gradually reduce opium production and eventually completely ban it. The United States supported this policy with financial resources and in setting up a specialized drug police. Within a few years, the growing areas became strongReduced, destroy illegal fields and enforce a comprehensive ban. In the regions where poppy cultivation was prohibited, observers reported only a few indications of illegal production, and fields discovered were immediately destroyed. The impact of these measures was clearly noticeable. The amount of Turkish opium confiscated in neighboring countries has been strongback, and also in the United States, the amount of secured heroin from Turkish origin decreased significantly. Since the Turkish poppy fields had been the main source of raw materials for the laboratories in Marseille, the importance of the ban was obvious. American drug authorities experts concluded that the Corsican syndicates were the threat of developmentrecognized and felt compelled to open up new sources of opium to save their lucrative business.
Structural constraints of organized crime
The international heroin trade was thus at a roadside in the late 1960s. To maintain it, a fundamental reorganization was required, which could only be initiated by high-ranking figures of the underworld. As in other economic areas, these leaders were not involved in the daily routine, but were able to develop new onesbusiness areas and the restructuring of existing networks. In contrast to legal entrepreneurs, however, they could not rely on telephone calls, correspondence or contracts because they had to constantly expect surveillance and agreements could not be claimed in court. Therefore, all important agreements had to be discussed in personal meetings, where thegave their word and created trust to those involved. This need to communicate face to face has repeatedly led to large gatherings that called investigative authorities on the plan and led to conspiracy charges.
Successor Luciano and the rise of Trafficante
After the death of Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Vito Genovese took on the leading role in drug trafficking. Genovese was convicted of heroin business and sentenced to a long prison sentence. Although he retained influence on various activities out of prison, he was unable to control a comprehensive reorganization of the drug trade.meanwhile in advanced age and was under close observation, so that he could not repeat his earlier international trips. He gradually withdrew from active leadership, which logically passed on to Santo Trafficante Junior for drug trafficking. Trafficante was considered one of the best organized leaders of organized crime inthe United States. He avoided striking luxury, cultivated a reserved lifestyle and oriented himself to the strict simplicity of traditional Sicilian leaders. In contrast to many of his predecessors, he relied less on open violence and on deliberate decisions and a stable inner order. His organization remained of bloody power struggleslargely spared, and he himself did not seek a prominent position in national bodies, which increased his personal security and at the same time strengthened his influence. His deliberate aversion to public attention made him one of the most underrated, but most influential leader of organized crime.
Trafficante role between Florida, Cuba and Latin America
Trafficante’s power base was in Florida and the Caribbean, where he acted as a close partner in Lansky. Already in the late 1940s and 1950s he was deeply involved in heroin smuggling. After his father’s death, he took over his position as the leading figure in the organization in Florida and at the same time inherited the connection to Lansky. He consistently committed himself to his interests. asA competing underworld leader in Havana wanted to open a casino that threatened Lansky’s company, which was murdered a short time later in a New York hotel, with Trafficante considered the mastermind. The Cuban Revolution forced Trafficante to give up his lucrative casino farms in Havana. At the same time, the influx of Cuban refugees to Miami opened up to himNew opportunities. Through his earlier connections to Cuban gangsters and corrupt politicians, he was able to expand his control over a popular number lottery game in Florida, which threw enormous gains as the exile community grew. By incorporating Cubans to expand this lottery, organized crime also won a new group of couriers and helpers,were still largely unknown to American authorities and international investigators. With these Latin American couriers, new routes could be opened up via which European heroin could be smuggled to Miami via Latin America.
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