7. The Mafia Was Always Heavily Involved in Drug Trafficking
There is a widespread notion, popularized by movies and works of fiction, to the effect that the mob traditionally avoided narcotics. 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 bunk. The notion that the mafia stayed away from drugs is just a myth, popularized by fiction and Hollywood hits such as The Godfather. Dealing with drugs has always been one of the mob’s biggest moneymakers.
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 supplanted 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.
