20. Rather Than Avoid Drugs, Mobsters Were America’s Biggest Drug Traffickers
Pioneering mobster Lucky Luciano became America’s biggest narcotics trafficker and distributor. Contra the false notion popularized by movies and works of fiction that the mob traditionally avoided narcotics, dealing drugs was one of the Italian-American mafia’s biggest moneymakers since its earliest days. It is often asserted that the mafia had a long-standing prohibition against drug trafficking – either because of morality or because of the public stigma attached to drugs. That is as false as false gets. The notion that the mafia stayed away from drugs is just a myth, popularized by fiction and Hollywood hits such as The Godfather.
In reality, the mafia was heavily involved in the drug trade from the start. Long before the days of Pablo Escobar, pioneering mafioso Lucky Luciano became America’s – and one of the world’s – biggest narcotics kingpins. For decades, the mafia was the biggest importer of hard drugs into the US, particularly heroin. It was not until cocaine replaced heroin as the hard drug of choice, and the rise of the Colombian cartels in the 1970s, that the mob lost its top billing as America’s biggest drug trafficker.
Also Read: How Mafia Boss Lucky Luciano Helped the US Invade Italy from a Prison Cell?
