by CabriniGreen » Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:14 am
The way he explained it, access to America was not widespread amongst the families. This wasnt the French Connection, rather a kind of free for all....
The Sicilian Mafia first became involved in the international heroin business in the late 1950s with the arrival of Lucky Luciano from the United States. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, however, that Mafiosi first began engaging in this trade on a large scale.
Following a flurry of arrests in the 1960s the Mafia’s financial situation suffered. It wasn’t until Mafiosi began smuggling tobacco, and later trading in heroin, that this situation improved.
According to Calderone, “When I say there wasn’t any money in those years, that the mafia had no money, I’m not just saying it to exaggerate. After the arrests of 1962-1963 and the Catanzaro trial of 1968, everybody’s money had run out. It had gone to lawyers, prison fees, and the like” .
The enormous profit opportunities offered by the heroin business prompted the Mafia to become seriously involved in this market shortly thereafter.
The heroin businesses’ higher physical and human capital requirements reduced potential competitive pressure in this industry. This pressure in turn reduced the need for collusion and thus organizational hierarchy.
As Sicilian Mafiosi increasingly turned their attention to heroin production in the 1970s they therefore become less eager to employ hierarchical organization as a collusive technology.
Thus, since the 1970s, “there has been . . . a clear trend toward the expansion of individual entrepreneurial autonomy” within the Siclian Mafia’s organization, as our theory predicts.
According to Buscetta, for instance, following the Mafia’s entrance into the heroin business “the cleavages among different families were no longer respected, in the sense that everybody could associate with whoever they wanted”.
As investigating judges of the first antimafia pool put it, “De facto autonomous, but financially linked
structures have been created inside Cosa Nostra, running the different phases making up the complex drug trade, while the ‘men of honor’ who do not have operational responsibilities in the trade may financially contribute to it, sharing profits and risks to different degrees”.
Many Mafiosi operated entirely independently in the heroin business. “The freedom wielded by [its] participants was such that . . . whoever wanted to do so could pick up his share of the processed product in Sicily and arrange distribution independently” . “As a matter of fact, the single mafia families—and . . . increasingly, even the single ‘men of honor’—enjoy full entrepreneurial autonomy, and at the interfamily level, there is no obligation to share illicit proceeds either”. Nor was there an obligation to rely on Mafiosi to conduct business, as there was in the private protection industry. Mafiosi and
non-Mafiosi alike operated freely in the heroin business.
As Buscetta and Salvatore Contorno pointed out, in stark contrast to the private protection business, in the drug business, “family boundaries were irrelevant: everybody was entitled to associate financially or otherwise with anyone else, whether Mafiosi or not.” Involvement in the heroin business didn’t typically require
a boss’ permission. And, “If a license was needed from the family at all, it concerned dealing in general and not how or with whom”.
Further, unlike the private protection business in which private protection supplier had to kick their earnings up to the capo famiglia, in the heroin business earnings remained exclusively in the hands of individual producers.
As Contorno described it, “If I put in some
money and bought some merchandise which turned out to be of poor quality, I alone would lose that money. By contrast, if it was good, I alone would profit . . . . There were many of us receiving [drugs] because there were different laboratories, and if I was the person interested in the shipment, it was up to me to have it processed and turned into heroin”.
Similarly, in contrast to a Mafioso’s activities in the private protection business, in the heroin business only his personal finances were involved, highlighting his autonomy in this market.
According to Buscetta, “I can state very clearly regarding the much publicized position of Giuseppe Calo as the man in charge of the mafia’s assets, if Pippo Calo has any assets, they belong to him alone, not to the mafia. He does not manage mafia assets. Everybody has his own”, in the drug business.
The way he explained it, access to America was not widespread amongst the families. This wasnt the French Connection, rather a kind of free for all....
The Sicilian Mafia first became involved in the international heroin business in the late 1950s with the arrival of Lucky Luciano from the United States. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, however, that Mafiosi first began engaging in this trade on a large scale.
Following a flurry of arrests in the 1960s the Mafia’s financial situation suffered. It wasn’t until Mafiosi began smuggling tobacco, and later trading in heroin, that this situation improved.
According to Calderone, “When I say there wasn’t any money in those years, that the mafia had no money, I’m not just saying it to exaggerate. After the arrests of 1962-1963 and the Catanzaro trial of 1968, everybody’s money had run out. It had gone to lawyers, prison fees, and the like” .
The enormous profit opportunities offered by the heroin business prompted the Mafia to become seriously involved in this market shortly thereafter.
The heroin businesses’ higher physical and human capital requirements reduced potential competitive pressure in this industry. This pressure in turn reduced the need for collusion and thus organizational hierarchy.
As Sicilian Mafiosi increasingly turned their attention to heroin production in the 1970s they therefore become less eager to employ hierarchical organization as a collusive technology.
Thus, since the 1970s, “there has been . . . a clear trend toward the expansion of individual entrepreneurial autonomy” within the Siclian Mafia’s organization, as our theory predicts.
According to Buscetta, for instance, following the Mafia’s entrance into the heroin business “the cleavages among different families were no longer respected, in the sense that everybody could associate with whoever they wanted”.
As investigating judges of the first antimafia pool put it, “De facto autonomous, but financially linked
structures have been created inside Cosa Nostra, running the different phases making up the complex drug trade, while the ‘men of honor’ who do not have operational responsibilities in the trade may financially contribute to it, sharing profits and risks to different degrees”.
Many Mafiosi operated entirely independently in the heroin business. “The freedom wielded by [its] participants was such that . . . whoever wanted to do so could pick up his share of the processed product in Sicily and arrange distribution independently” . “As a matter of fact, the single mafia families—and . . . increasingly, even the single ‘men of honor’—enjoy full entrepreneurial autonomy, and at the interfamily level, there is no obligation to share illicit proceeds either”. Nor was there an obligation to rely on Mafiosi to conduct business, as there was in the private protection industry. Mafiosi and
non-Mafiosi alike operated freely in the heroin business.
As Buscetta and Salvatore Contorno pointed out, in stark contrast to the private protection business, in the drug business, “family boundaries were irrelevant: everybody was entitled to associate financially or otherwise with anyone else, whether Mafiosi or not.” Involvement in the heroin business didn’t typically require
a boss’ permission. And, “If a license was needed from the family at all, it concerned dealing in general and not how or with whom”.
Further, unlike the private protection business in which private protection supplier had to kick their earnings up to the capo famiglia, in the heroin business earnings remained exclusively in the hands of individual producers.
As Contorno described it, “If I put in some
money and bought some merchandise which turned out to be of poor quality, I alone would lose that money. By contrast, if it was good, I alone would profit . . . . There were many of us receiving [drugs] because there were different laboratories, and if I was the person interested in the shipment, it was up to me to have it processed and turned into heroin”.
Similarly, in contrast to a Mafioso’s activities in the private protection business, in the heroin business only his personal finances were involved, highlighting his autonomy in this market.
According to Buscetta, “I can state very clearly regarding the much publicized position of Giuseppe Calo as the man in charge of the mafia’s assets, if Pippo Calo has any assets, they belong to him alone, not to the mafia. He does not manage mafia assets. Everybody has his own”, in the drug business.