Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime (Mafia Connection)

Introduction

Drug trafficking is the most widespread and lucrative organized crime operation in the United States,
accounting for nearly 40 percent of this country's organized crime activity and generating an annual
income estimated to be as high as $110 billion. Large trafficking organizations dominate the illicit drug
market. These groups include the "families" of America's La Cosa Nostra, as well as an array of more
recently identified crime groups such as the Sicilian "Mafia," outlaw motorcycle gangs and groups
based in the Nigerian and Colombian communities. While La Cosa Nostra has historically been
involved in narcotics trafficking, newer organizations, in many ways quite different from La Cosa
Nostra, now play a major role in the drug trade. Generally, these newer groups develop solely around
drug trafficking operations and are activity-specific, dependent only on drug-related criminal activity
for income. They tend to be more fluidly organized than La Cosa Nostra, and are not as self-contained
but are marked by a degree of violence and corruption unsurpassed by any other criminal activity.

Organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking, however, share a central feature with other
organized crime groups in that they consist of a core criminal group and a specialized criminal support
designed to facilitate illicit activity. This "core/support" configuration is one this Commission has found
to be common to all organized crime groups today.

Cocaine Trafficking

America's cocaine supply at present originates exclusively in South America. Coca is cultivated
principally in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador, and conversion laboratories have been located in
Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela. Other South American and Caribbean countries serve as
transshipment sites. All phases of the cocaine trade, including cultivation, processing and distribution
have expanded since 1984, and the industry shows no signs of diminishing despite the fact that cocaine
supply already exceeds consumer demand.

Control of the cocaine industry has traditionally been maintained by a cartel of Colombian traffickers.
Colombian groups are the largest, wealthiest, most sophisticated organizations trafficking in cocaine. A
key to their domination of the market has been their control of the processing laboratories used to
convert coca grown traditionally in Bolivia and Peru. Export of the drug to the United States has also
been handled almost exclusively by Colombian trafficking organizations. While Colombians currently
control an estimated 75 percent of the cocaine distributed to the United States, their domination has
been lessened recently both by the Colombian government's imposition of severe restrictions on the
importation of chemicals essential to cocaine processing and by the destruction of cocaine processing
sites throughout Colombia by government authorities. In 1984 three major Colombian conversion
laboratories were discovered and destroyed: at Tranquilandia, the largest facility, ten metric tons of
cocaine and 10,000 barrels of processing chemicals were seized. In total, Colombian authorities
confiscated 16 metric tons of cocaine in 1984, a 600 percent increase from the 2.5 metric tons seized in
the previous year. The pressures on cocaine traffickers were compounded in that year by the Colombian
government's decision to extradite drug traffickers to the United States, and by the subsequent issuance
of warrants for the arrest of several major traffickers.

Intensified Colombian law enforcement measures have had significant impact on trafficking operations.
The initiatives have prompted many traffickers to seek refuge in other South American countries, and in
some cases to relocate their processing laboratories. These incidents have resulted in a geographic
dispersal of cocaine processing and export activities, most notably to Bolivia and Peru. While it
appeared initially that activity in these countries was sponsored and overseen by Colombian traffickers,
increasing evidence suggests that groups in both countries are becoming self-sufficient. Such
developments, however, remain an exception to the prevailing Colombian dominance.
Despite the spread of cocaine activity through South America, Colombian groups have left little room in
the cocaine trade for small-scale smugglers. While some independent operators and smaller smuggling
groups occasionally work independently of the Colombian cartel, most are tied to the larger
organization in at least a contractor relationship.

The Colombian Connection: Origins

The Colombian involvement in U.S. cocaine trafficking can be traced to the influx of Cuban citizens to
South Florida after the Castro Revolution in the early 1960's. Some of the Cuban-settled communities
became bases for the continuation of established Cuban organized crime networks known as the "Cuban
Mafia." The Cuban Mafia had been a major distributor of the cocaine in Cuba, where the drug has long
been accepted as a social luxury, and thus had existing connections with South American cocaine
trafficking organizations. At first, the Florida Cuban Mafia factions imported only enough cocaine to
satisfy members of their own community, but by the mid-1960's, they began to import greater quantities
of the drug in an effort to expand distribution and increase profit. By 1965 Colombians supplied nearly
100 percent of the cocaine moving through the Cuban networks. Colombians refined the drug and
Cubans trafficked and distributed it in the United States. The system worked for a time, but the
Colombians increasingly desired control of the entire operation. Through the late 1960's and early
1970's they became more involved in cocaine production, and increased their trafficking role. By 1978
Colombian traffickers had cut all ties with the Cubans and assumed the dominant role they now play in
supplying cocaine to the American market. .

The Colombian Organization

The major Colombian trafficking organizations are structured to control each intermediate step required
in processing and exporting cocaine. Like traditional organized crime groups, they are built of
interdependent and essential component "divisions," each with a specialized area of responsibility.
Different members act as laborers, processors, transporters, financiers and enforcers. In addition,
organizations generally supplement their regular membership with criminal support of affiliates who
perform services on a fee basis. Few members of any organizational division are aware of the others
involved in the enterprise, and trafficking bosses are well-insulated and protected by their organizations.

Organization laborers and processors prepare cocaine for U.S. consumption. Most laborers in the
cultivation phase are Peruvian or Bolivian peasants who cultivate and harvest coca in remote areas of
the Eastern Andes, then process the coca leaves to base in nearby villages. The growers are allied in
small, independent groups, but are typically financed, overseen, and protected by members of a larger
Colombian organization.

Processed coca base is usually flown on light aircraft from the mountain villages to Colombian
processing facilities by those members of the Colombian organization responsible for transportation.
The planes land at clandestine airstrips, often simple mud runways, located near the processing
laboratories. The laboratories vary widely in size, ranging from crude small-quantity operations to large,
sophisticated complexes, and can be found both in Colombia's jungle and urban areas.

Coca base is typically processed to cocaine hydrochloride in the laboratories, then bagged and taped
into kilogram packages, which are sometimes coded to indicate a particular United States destination.
The packages are loaded into duffle bags or burlap sacks, then moved by the transportation group to a
"stash house," a storage facility usually located near a seaport or a clandestine airstrip. The cocaine is
held at the stash house until it is exported from Colombia.

Colombian trafficking organizations currently export an estimated 62 percent of the cocaine they
process on private aircraft. The remaining 38 percent is shipped on ocean vessels or smuggled on
commercial air carriers. Most shipments are smuggled out of Colombia from the country's northern
coastal region, the Guajira peninsula. Principal smuggling centers include the cities of Santa Marta,
Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Medellin. In addition, a significant percentage of processed cocaine leaves
Colombia from airstrips located near larger processing facilities in the jungles.

Typically, Colombian organizations oversee each cocaine shipment from cultivation through wholesale
transactions in the United States. Retail and street-level sales are handled by a variety of smaller groups
and individuals in this country.

The money generated by the wholesale cocaine transaction is maintained for the organization by
financial experts familiar with international banking, who are responsible for laundering, banking and
investing drug profits, and for assuring that a portion of the drug profit is returned to Colombia for
reinvestment in the organization's cocaine enterprise. The cartel's own financial experts are supported
by a complement of bankers, lawyers and other professionals in the United States, who play a crucial
role in facilitating these transactions.

Colombian trafficking organizations, like other organized crime groups, rely on "enforcement" through
violence and intimidation to protect their inventory and profits. "Enforcement" occurs both in Colombia
and in the United States and includes the collection of debts owed to the organization and the
elimination of interference from competitors, informants and law enforcement officials.

Pilots: The American Affiliates

Cocaine is ordinarily smuggled from South America to the United States for major trafficking
organizations by American citizens acting as mercenary pilots. Recruits include ex-military, commercial
and private pilots, and in some cases, unlicensed aviators. The speed, mobility and evasive capabilities
of air transport have made it the preferred node of shipment among Colombian traffickers, and many
have built airstrips either near their processing centers or along the coastlines to permit the fast direct
export of cocaine. On Colombia's north coast alone, over 150 clandestine landing strips and three
international airports facilitate smuggling activities.

Individual pilots are generally responsible for purchasing or leasing transportation vehicles and hiring
flight crews. Obtaining a plane for purchase seldom presents any difficulty, since many aircraft are
regularly advertised for sale in a number of trade periodicals. One popular journal, Trade-a-Plane, is
published three times each month and advertises thousands of aircraft available for sale in each issue.
Planes are also available for purchase at numerous government auctions of seized properties. These
events often allow traffickers to repurchase aircraft, which they were previously forced to forfeit.

Because traffickers attempt to ship the largest possible quantities of cocaine to the widest range of
destinations in the United States, the aircraft selected for smuggling generally represent the optimum
balance between range and cargo capacity. The most popular of these are conventional light twin engine
planes, such as the Piper Aztec, Piper Navajo and the Cessna 400 series. Most such planes can transport
about a ton of cocaine over a range of about 1,800 miles and can stay airborne for 11 and one hours
with standard fuel systems. Larger airplanes such as DC-3 aircraft are common on shuttle flights
between the United States and various transshipment points; the fastest aircraft are always preferred
when available.

To maximize range and capability, smuggling planes are often outfitted with auxiliary fuel systems.
These auxiliary systems may be attached to the outside body of the aircraft or the wing, but must be
inspected and approved by the Federal Aviation Administration each time the outfitted aircraft prepares
for flight. A favored auxiliary system for cocaine traffickers is the collapsible rubber fuel "bladder,"
which may be placed in the plane's fuselage, and simply folded up or thrown away after the fuel
contained within is used. The space occupied by the bladder on the trip to Colombia can be utilized for
cocaine transport on the return journey. Bladders are, under all circumstances, prohibited by Federal
law.
Although the legitimate need for auxiliary fuel systems is very limited, the systems are well-advertised
and readily available. One trafficker told the Commission he purchased bladders and other long-range
fuel systems regularly, always paying the seller with "suitcases full of cash." He claims his cash was
never questioned or refused.

Traffic from Colombia to the United States: The Hydra's Head

Smugglers use a vast number of both air and sea trafficking routes to transport cocaine from South
America to the United States. The most commonly travelled routes are through the Windward Passage
between Cuba and Haiti, through the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, and through the
Mona Passage, bordered by the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Traditionally, 90 percent of the cocaine shipped by these routes has entered the United States at points
along the Florida coast; traffickers now, however, more frequently deliver shipments to all the States
along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere throughout this country. Cocaine traffic also now runs directly from
Colombia's west coast to California and other western states. These shifts are perceived as a response by
traffickers to increased law enforcement pressure in South Florida, specifically to the intensified efforts
of the South Florida/Caribbean Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. The theme is a
common one: as law enforcement closes off one point of entry to drug traffickers, traffickers develop
many new points of entry as replacements.

Heroin Trafficking

Traditional Organized Crime: La Cosa Nostra and the French Connection

Heroin trafficking in this country first became big business in the 1920's, when organized criminals
based in New York City's Jewish community began to control the importation and distribution of the
drug. By the late 1930's, La Cosa Nostra joined the Jewish groups in the heroin enterprise, importing the
drug from France, Asia and the Mideast. When these sources became inaccessible during World War II,
Mexico became the major U.S. heroin supplier.

After the war, La Cosa Nostra took control of America's heroin market, this time importing most of its
drug supply from Italian refineries. When the Italian government banned the manufacture of heroin in
the early 1950's, La Cosa Nostra traffickers were forced to look to other sources. A new system was
quickly devised, by which Turkish morphine base was refined to heroin in Marseilles, then shipped to
Montreal or Sicily. Organized crime groups located in these transshipment points then sent the heroin
directly to the United States. This arrangement, popularly known as the "French Connection," allowed
La Cosa Nostra to monopolize the heroin trade from the 1980's through the early 1970's. During the
peak French Connection years, the LCN controlled an estimated 95 percent of all of the heroin entering
New York City, as well as most of the heroin distributed throughout the United States.

The La Cosa Nostra heroin monopoly lasted until 1972, when under diplomatic pressure from the
United States, Turkey banned opium production and the French Connection collapsed. Amsterdam
replaced Marseilles as the center of European heroin traffic, and Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami
joined New York City as major U.S. distribution centers. Other trafficking groups rose to compete with
the LCN for heroin dollars in New York City and throughout the country.

Source Country Traffickers: Mexico

In the five years after the collapse of the French Connection, Mexico became the major source of U.S.
heroin. Mexico's rise was logical: the country contains extensive regions suitable for both opium
cultivation and refining and shares a lightly guarded 2,000 mile border with the United States. Mexicans
could manufacture heroin and smuggle it into the United States with little risk of detection. This
simplified trafficking system resulted in increased Mexican heroin availability in the United States.
For generations, opium has been grown in remote areas of Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountain states of
Durango, Sinaloa and Chihuahua. Culiacan, on the western side of the Sierra Madre, and Durango to the
east, developed in the 1970's as major production centers for heroin destined for U.S. distribution.
Trafficking organizations are now entrenched in these areas, and are involved in all phases of the heroin
manufacture and distribution process. Opium gum is collected by peasants in isolated mountain areas
and is transported by mule or carried by hand to nearby mountain villages. Typically, village
middlemen sell the opium to a drug trafficking organization boss, who moves drugs to an organization-
held laboratory for processing to heroin. Mexican couriers then transport the heroin to the members of
the trafficking organization in the United States. The major Mexican heroin trafficking organizations
supplying heroin to America are generally extended familial organizations, but loyal workers sometimes
are given status as "quasi-family" members of the groups. The organizations work to eliminate
competition and to control as completely as possible all aspects of the heroin trade. Members act as
opium cultivators, village middlemen, and heroin brokers and distributors. In the United States, the
organization typically controls distribution from the wholesaler to the retail distributor, but has little or
no involvement in street distribution. This is seen as an unnecessarily risky and low-profit aspect of the
business, and is left to outsiders.

Violence is an integral part of Mexican trafficking. Organization members provide cultivators with
semi-automatic and automatic weapons to protect their crops; weapons are used throughout the
trafficking system to eliminate informants, and to intimidate competitors and law enforcement officials.
Corruption of Mexican police officials is well-documented and is essential to the smooth operation of
the Mexican trafficking organizations.

Source Country Traffickers: Southeast Asia

Mexican heroin production decreased in the late 1970's due to enforcement, eradication and poor
weather conditions. By 1980, Mexico provided only 25 percent of the heroin consumed in the United
Stated, down from a peak level of 80 percent in 1975. At the same time, heroin production in Southeast
Asia accelerated dramatically. By 1976, the "Golden Triangle" of Burma, Thailand and Laos supplied
more than a third of the heroin consumed in the United States; Mexico supplied the remainder. Golden
Triangle heroin first gained popularity with American servicemen stationed in Southeast Asia during the
Vietnam War because it was readily available, inexpensive, and considerably more pure than Mexican
heroin. After the war, Golden Triangle heroin was exported to the United States in increasing amounts.

Nearly 90 percent of the Golden Triangle opium is currently produced in Burma. Two-thirds of this
crop is produced in the northeast area of the country, where control is shared by the Burmese
Communist Party (BCP) and the Shan United Army (SUA). Both groups were at one time political
insurgent organizations but are now almost entirely devoted to obtaining profit for the production,
smuggling and sale of heroin base. They derive considerable income from "taxes" and fees they levy on
opium growers and heroin producers and traffickers. This income is used to purchase weapons, to be
utilized not in furtherance of political goals, but for protection of each group's narcotics enterprise.
Traditionally, the two groups have coexisted peacefully: the BCP has acted as the major opium supplier
in Southeast Asia and the SUA has been the area's major refiner and trafficker. The BCP has recently
become involved in refining and distribution activities, and the organizations are currently in conflict.

Opium and morphine base produced in northeastern Burma transported by horse and donkey caravans
to refineries along the Thailand-Burma border for conversion to heroin and heroin base. Most of the
finished products are shipped across the border into various towns in North Thailand and down to
Bangkok for further distribution to international markets. In the past major ethnic Chinese traffickers in
Bangkok have controlled much of the foreign sales and movement of Southeast Asian heroin from
Thailand, but a combination of law enforcement pressure, publicity and a regional drought has
significantly reduced their role. As a consequence, many less-predominant traffickers in Bangkok and
other parts of Thailand now control smaller quantities of the heroin going to international markets.
Although Thailand is the primary transit center for Southeast Asian heroin destined for international
markets, alternate trafficking routes are increasingly utilized as a result of Thailand's sustained
enforcement actions. Some opium, morphine base, and heroin base are moved South through Burma to
southern Thailand and Malaysia for conversion to heroin in laboratories along the Thailand/Malaysia
border. Refined heroin is also trafficked from Burma to India, then to the West.

Heroin from Southeast Asia is most frequently brought to the United States by couriers, typically Thai
and U.S. nationals and Hong Kong Chinese, traveling on commercial airlines. California and Hawaii are
the primary U.S. entry points for Golden Triangle heroin, but small percentages of the drug are
trafficked into New York City and Washington D.C. While Southeast Asian groups have had success in
trafficking heroin to the United States, they initially had difficulty arranging street level distribution.
However, with the incarceration of Asian traffickers in American prisons during the 1970's, contacts
between Asian and American prisoners developed. These contacts have allowed Southeast Asian
traffickers access to individuals and organizations distributing heroin at the retail level.

Chinese organized crime groups, known as Triads, located primarily in Hong Kong, and their U.S.
counterparts, Tongs, are positioned to participate in Southeast Asian heroin traffic, but the extent of
their activity in these enterprises is not known at the present time. These organizations provide Asians
direct access to criminal groups in the United States, and could potentially assume a significant role in
U.S. heroin trafficking activities. Currently, there are major Triad organizations in New York, Los
Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Toronto.

Source Country Traffickers: Southwest Asia

Opium production in Southeast Asia was significantly reduced in the late 1970's and early 1980's due to
a prolonged drought. This decrease, along with the unstable political climate in the region caused by the
fall of the ruling governments in South Vietnam and Laos, resulted in a reduction of Southeast Asian
heroin exports to the United States. During this period, opium production in the Golden Crescent area of
Southwest Asia, comprising the common border regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, markedly
increased. In 1979 the Golden Crescent became the primary U.S. heroin source. Southwest Asia
continues to be this country's major supplier: over one-half of the heroin entering the United States in
1984 originated as opium in the Golden Crescent.

The surge in Golden Crescent heroin exports to the United States can be attributed to a number of
factors. Opium has always been grown in the region, but traditionally, opium grown in Afghanistan and
Pakistan was shipped directly to Iran to supply that country's one million opium addicts. The situation
changed dramatically after the 1980 fundamentalist revolution in Iran, as political and social instability
allowed greatly increased domestic opium production and curtailed the demand for opium from
Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Iranian market was further closed to outsiders by the 1979 Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, which blocked several of the traditional smuggling routes into Iran.

Concurrent with the reduction in Iranian demand for non-domestic opium, growers in Afghanistan and
Pakistan harvested record crops. The opium crop in Pakistan alone increased by 400 percent between
1974-1979, from 200 to 800 metric tons. Consequently Pakistani and Afghan traffickers learned to
refine their opium into heroin, and sought new markets for their product, mainly in Western Europe and
the and the United States.

Southwest Asian opium is grown in remote mountain areas and generally is transported to crude
laboratories in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas. Most of the refineries are located in Pakistan's
Northwest Frontier Province or Afghanistan's Nangarhai Province; many are clustered in the area of the
Khyber Pass. Refined heroin leaves Pakistan via several routes: through Baluchistan to Iran and beyond;
by sea through Karachi to Bombay and on to the Arabian Gulf States or Europe; overland through the
Lahore area enroute to transit points in India; or by air through Islamabad or Karachi.
Southwest Asian heroin is typically smuggled into the United States concealed in legitimate shipments
of air and sea cargo, such as textiles or sports equipment manufactured by Pakistani companies, or it is
carried by air couriers. Couriers generally travel on commercial carriers, and many have connections
with airline crews and station managers. The international postal system is also commonly used to ship
heroin from Pakistan directly to the United States in sealed newspapers and periodicals.

Golden Crescent heroin is trafficked into the United States by a variety of narcotics organizations. The
following is an overview of some of the more significant groups involved in the Southwest Asian heroin
trade.

Pakistani Traffickers

Pakistani nationals are responsible for trafficking a significant percentage of Golden Crescent heroin in
the United States, especially in the Northeast. The Pakistanis do not have a sophisticated retail sales
network in the United States and typically rely on family or Pakistani friends in this country to
distribute drugs. They also have relied on black trafficking organizations in Los Angeles, Detroit and
New York, and with Italian organized crime in New York City. One Pakistani distribution system was
described in testimony before this Commission by a Pakistani national who was incarcerated for his
involvement in a distribution network. The Commission witness has relatives living both in Lahore,
Pakistan, and in the United States; he was a resident of Houston, Texas and was employed as an
engineer while involved in heroin trafficking. In the heroin operation, a family member in Lahore sent
couriers to JFK airport in New York with heroin concealed in false-bottom luggage. From JFK, the
couriers traveled "in transit" to La Guardia, then on to Toronto. Because of their "in transit" status,
Customs Service officials did not search the travelers in the United States, and Canadian Customs
inspection was not difficult to clear.

In Canada, traffickers often held a particular heroin shipment for three to six months, until appropriate
distribution contacts were established and it was certain that law enforcement officials were not aware
of the shipment. At that time, distribution contacts traveled by automobile to Toronto, picked up a
portion or all of the heroin shipment, and drove the heroin into the United States without Customs
interdiction. This particular network supplied heroin to Seattle, Houston, San Francisco, New York and
Las Vegas. The contacts were all related by blood or marriage.

Pakistanis also rely on the international postal system to move drugs from Southwest Asia to the United
States. In July 1983, for example, U.S. Customs officials at JFK Airport seized one kilogram of heroin
concealed in rolled newspapers destined for Pakistani nationals residing in New York. The package had
been sent from the United Arab Emirates. Two other packages, each containing one-half kilogram of
heroin, were mailed to Berkeley, California from the same source. Rolled newspapers and magazines
can conceal up to one kilogram of heroin and are generally sealed in plastic. Drugs are also sent through
the mail concealed in shipments of textiles, clothing and other durable goods.

Lebanese Traffickers

A portion of Golden Crescent heroin passes through Lebanon en route to the United States, thus
affording Lebanese nationals an opportunity to become involved in the trafficking activity. A significant
percentage of the heroin exported from Lebanon leaves via Damascus International Airport.

In the United States, trafficking by Lebanese nationals is especially prevalent in the Northeast. In one
network, non-Lebanese couriers primarily from Canada traveled to Damascus and Beirut to pick up
heroin which they then transported to Houston, Detroit and New York via commercial carrier. Heroin
was concealed in false-bottom luggage and inside photo albums. The heroin was transferred to
Lebanese nationals living in Toronto and Ontario, Canada, and in various cities in the United States.
Some of the money generated from the sale of this heroin was laundered in banks in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
India

A proportion of the heroin traditionally distributed abroad through the Pakistan cities of Karachi,
Peshawar and Quetta is now being shipped through Bombay and New Dehli. Traffickers smuggle
Southwest Asian heroin into India along the Indo-Pakistan border and transport it overland to the Indian
cities; Southeast Asian heroin is brought into Bombay and Calcutta by sea and overland routes.
Bombay, Calcutta and New Dehli are now major staging, shipping and trafficking centers for heroin
smuggled to the West. Trafficking activity is frequent at Perlane Airport in Dehli and at Bombay's Sahar
International Airport, and Indian harbors and airports are used by Pakistani, Afghan and Indian
traffickers as points of embarkation to Western destinations.

West Africa.

In the past three years, West African countries, especially Nigeria, have been documented as
transshipments centers for Golden Crescent heroin. Nigerian couriers based in Lagos travel to Pakistan
to obtain heroin, then continue on commercial flights to their final destinations, or return to Nigeria to
repackage the narcotics into smaller amounts for smuggling to the West.

A number of loosely associated Nigerian heroin trafficking organizations have connections both with
suppliers in Pakistan and with retailers in Western Europe and the United States. Typically, Nigerian
couriers travel directly to Karachi on commercial aircraft and purchase heroin in that city, but some
couriers continue to Peshawar to make their purchases. Couriers return to Nigeria transiting other
countries in Africa and Europe. A different group of couriers, usually students or poor residents of
Lagos, traffic the drugs to Europe or the United States.

Couriers typically enter the United States directly through JFK airport in New York although in some
cases, they come to this country via cities in Europe and Canada. Drugs are concealed in body cavities,
and in false-bottom suitcases.

The Asian-LCN Links

La Cosa Nostra actively seeks out Asian nationals as connections to heroin sources in Southeast Asia. In
testimony before the President's Commission on organized crime, Franklin Liu, a veteran Hong Kong
clothier, explained how he was recruited as a courier for a New York La Cosa Nostra family involved in
heroin trafficking. Liu, who held a legitimate four year business visa which allowed him to travel
without restriction, was first contacted by Antonio Turano, a reputed member of the Sicilian Mafia, in
connection with Turano's money laundering operations. In one instance, Turano brought Liu a suitcase
filled with $400,000 cash, and requested that Liu wire the money to a bank in Zurich. Turano met with
Liu in Milan in the course of the operation to make certain that the money had been wired without
incident.

At a later date, after Liu had successfully participated in a number of money laundering operations,
Turano asked Liu if he had any connections to drug traffickers in the Far East; Liu did not. Turano
arranged a connection, and agreed to pay Liu $5,000 for every kilo of heroin he trafficked into the
United States. Liu was subsequently contacted by Turano's agent, a Thai woman, and arranged to meet
her at a hotel in New York City. When they met, each held half of a one dollar bill given to them by
Turano as identification. Liu gave the woman his car keys; the next day she returned the car with heroin
in the trunk and requested a payment of $40,000 in cash and a $60,000 bank check. When Liu went to
collect the money from Turano, he found that Turano had been arrested. Liu was subsequently arrested
and convicted on charges of conspiracy to import heroin in connection with this case.