Mafia Heroin Ring Cracked, FBI Reports
WASHINGTON — The FBI said today that it has cracked a major Mafia heroin-importing ring involving trafficking through Sicily and has arrested 233 people in the United States and Italy.
Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III told a news conference it was the largest international drug case ever developed by the federal government and said it has been a “stunning success.”
The arrests were the result of a lengthy criminal investigation stemming from the 1985 “Pizza Connection” case, in cooperation with Italian authorities, and involved the import of Southwest Asian heroin into the United States.
The 69 defendants in the United States include 38 charged in New York City; six in Los Angeles and Boston; 10 in Charlotte, N.C.; eight in San Juan, Puerto Rico; two in Cleveland, and five in Washington. In Italy, authorities intend to charge 164 people, the FBI said.
U.S. authorities seized six kilograms of heroin and four kilograms of cocaine during the course of the investigation. Italian authorities seized 22 kilograms of heroin last month.
Meese said the purpose of the investigation has been to penetrate organized drug operations and not just to make random drug seizures.
“The tentacles of this network spread out across this country,” he said.
The attorney general declined to speculate on what impact the arrests will have on drug traffic in the United States.
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