| French Connection |
Article Index for French |
Articles about French Connection |
Website Links For French Connection |
Information AboutFrench Connection |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT FRENCH CONNECTION | |
| genovese crime family | |
| drug traffickers | |
|
The French Connection was an infamous scheme through which the illegal drug Heroin was smuggled from Turkey to France and then to the United States , culminating in the late 1960s and early 1970s , when it provided the vast majority of the heroin consumed in the United States. FROM THE 1930S TO THE 1950S Illegal heroin labs were first discovered near Marseille , France, in 1937. These labs were run by the legendary Corsica n gang leader Paul Carbone . For years, the Corsican underworld had been involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of illegal heroin abroad, primarily in the United States. It was this heroin network that eventually became known as the "French Connection". Historically, the raw material for most of the heroin consumed in the United States came from Turkey . Turkish farmers were licensed to grow opium poppies for sale to legal drug companies, but many sold their excess to the underworld market, where it was manufactured into heroin and transported to the United States. It was refined in Corsican laboratories in Marseille, one of the busiest ports in the western Mediterranean. Marseille served as a perfect shipping point for all types of illegal goods, including the excess opium that Turkish farmers cultivated for profit. The convenience of the port at Marseille and the frequent arrival of ships from opium-producing countries made it easy to smuggle the morphine base to Marseille from the Far East or the Near East. The French underground would then ship large quantities of heroin from Marseille to Manhattan , New York . The first significant post-World War II seizure was made in New York on February 5, 1947, when seven pounds of heroin were seized from a Corsican sailor disembarking from a vessel that had just arrived from France. It soon became clear that the French underground was increasing not only its participation in the illegal trade of opium, but also its expertise and efficiency in heroin trafficking. On March 17, 1947, 28 pounds of heroin were found on the French liner, ''St. Tropez''. On January 7, 1949, more than 50 pounds of opium and heroin were seized on the French ship, ''Batista''. THE 1960S The first major French Connection case occurred in 1960. In June, an informant told a drug agent in Lebanon that Mauricio Rosal, the Guatemala n Ambassador to Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg , was smuggling morphine base from Beirut , Lebanon, to Marseille. Narcotics agents had been seizing about 200 pounds of heroin in a typical year, but intelligence showed that the Corsican traffickers were smuggling in 200 pounds every other week. Rosal alone, in one year, had used his diplomatic status to bring in about 440 pounds. The Federal Bureau Of Narcotics 's 1960 annual report estimated that from 2,600 to 5,000 pounds of heroin were coming into the United States annually from France. The French traffickers continued to exploit the demand for their illegal product, and by 1969, they were supplying the United States with 80 to 90 percent of its heroin. The heroin they supplied was approximately 85 percent pure. Because of this increasing volume, heroin became readily available throughout the United States. In an effort to limit the source, U.S. officials went to Turkey to negotiate the phasing out of opium production. Initially, the Turkish Government agreed to limit their opium production starting with the 1968 crop. THE 1970S AND THE DISMANTLING OF THE FRENCH CONNECTION Following five subsequent years of concessions, combined with international cooperation, the Turkish government finally agreed in 1971 to a complete ban on the growing of Turkish opium, effective June 30, 1972. During these protracted negotiations, law enforcement personnel went into action. One of the major roundups began on January 4, 1972, when agents from the US Bureau Of Narcotics And Dangerous Drugs and French authorities seized 110 pounds of heroin at the Paris airport. Subsequently, traffickers Jean-Baptiste Croce and Joseph Mari were arrested in Marseille. From a 1973 French Connection seizure in France, are 210 pounds of heroin worth $38 million . In February 1972, French traffickers offered a US Army Sergeant $96,000 to smuggle 240 pounds of heroin into the United States. He informed his superior who in turn notified the BNDD. As a result of this investigation, five men in New York and two in Paris were arrested with 264 pounds of heroin, which had a street value of $50 million. In a 14-month period, starting in February 1972, six major illicit heroin laboratories were seized and dismantled in the suburbs of Marseille by French national narcotics police in collaboration with U.S. drug agents. On February 29, 1972, French authorities seized the shrimp boat, ''Caprice des Temps'', as it put to sea near Marseille heading towards Miami. It was carrying 415 kilos of heroin. Drug arrests in France skyrocketed from 57 in 1970 to 3,016 in 1972. Also broken up as part of this investigation was the crew of Luchesse Family soldier Vincent Papa , whose members included Anthony Loria Sr. ., and Virgil Alessi. Their well organized crew were responsible for distributing millions of dollars in heroin up and down the East Coast during the early seventies. This was the basis for a major NYPD corruption plot that involved certain NYPD who had access to the "property room" where all seized evidence was loggged and stored. The scope and depth of exactly of this scheme is still not known, but officials suspect it involved a corrupt NYPD officer/officers who allowed access to the NYPD property/evidence storage room - where hundreds of kilos of seized heroin lay from the now infamous "FRENCH CONNECTION" bust - and then replaced the heroin with white baking flour! It was only discovered when certain brass noticed that there were bugs & fruit flies eating all the bags of "heroin". Buy the time the plot was discovered it is estimated that a street value of approx. $70 million dollars worth of "smack" had already been taken. The rackett was investigated and arrests were finally made. Certain plotters received jail sentences, including Papa who was assassinated in the Federal Prison in Atlanta, Georgia for various conflicting reasons. The French Connection investigation demonstrated that international trafficking networks were best disabled by the combined efforts of drug enforcement agencies from multiple countries. In this case, agents from the United States, Canada , Italy , and France had worked together to achieve success. This text incorporates public domain material from the US Department Of Justice . {Link without Title} |
|
|