Corsican & French mob

[motorfab]

It seems that Italians also made heroin but of lower quality. But I noticed in the FBN files that the French had many Italian-Sicilians as associates, so maybe they were sending them the finished product. It seems a bit complicated as an approach but why not. The FBN has listed the following names as Labotary Operators in Italy:

Milan:
-Salvatore Caneba (also listed in Rome)
-Settimo Accardo (isn't that a Lucchese guy? Or does he just have the same name?). Indicated active in Sicily as well (this is the only name by the way)

Genoa:
-Giuseppe Pici

Naples:
-Salvatore Lucania (I guess they mean he ran a lab and not he manufactured it)
-Salvatore Maneri (Indicated "Courier")

Rome
-Ugo Caneba
-Salvatore Caneba
-Serafino Mancuso

An Italo-American character that intrigues me is Giovanni Maugeri. He was a soldier from the Gambino Crime Family who was deported to Italy in 1957 and who is listed active in Milan and Marseille. I would have liked to know with whom he was in contact in Marseille.

Anyway, I will try to dissect the main groups involved in heroin and their connections with Italy and the United States. It's impossible to do an exhaustive thing, but the main ones will be there ...

[motorfab]

*Edit: Maugeri is also listed as a "Laboratory Operator" in Marseille. I think he employed French chemists (who ? No idea.) and that it was his contacts in Italy who then sent the dope to the USA ....

[Villain]

It seems that Italians also made heroin but of lower quality. But I noticed in the FBN files that the French had many Italian-Sicilians as associates, so maybe they were sending them the finished product. It seems a bit complicated as an approach but why not. The FBN has listed the following names as Labotary Operators in Italy:

Milan:
-Salvatore Caneba (also listed in Rome)
-Settimo Accardo (isn't that a Lucchese guy? Or does he just have the same name?). Indicated active in Sicily as well (this is the only name by the way)

Genoa:
-Giuseppe Pici

Naples:
-Salvatore Lucania (I guess they mean he ran a lab and not he manufactured it)
-Salvatore Maneri (Indicated "Courier")

Rome
-Ugo Caneba
-Salvatore Caneba
-Serafino Mancuso

An Italo-American character that intrigues me is Giovanni Maugeri. He was a soldier from the Gambino Crime Family who was deported to Italy in 1957 and who is listed active in Milan and Marseille. I would have liked to know with whom he was in contact in Marseille.

Anyway, I will try to dissect the main groups involved in heroin and their connections with Italy and the United States. It's impossible to do an exhaustive thing, but the main ones will be there ...

There was also one Enzo Berti in Pisa, Italy; who had a doctor’s degree in philosophy but also had connections in Turkey from where he managed to bring morphine base and with the help of his laboratories, he converted it to heroin.

[motorfab]

Yeah probably. I was relying on this map (click to enlarge) but the guy is not noted on it. I assume his name is mentioned in the report?

[Villain]

Yeah probably. I was relying on this map (click to enlarge) but the guy is not noted on it. I assume his name is mentioned in the report?

Yes Berti is in the report, same as one quite infamous Turkish cartel headed by Ahmet Soysal who is also missing from the map.

Btw, that Mounir Alouie dude from Beirut was one of the key figures in the narcotics trade during those days

[aleksandrored]

It is sad that this judge is forgotten today, I will look for your film later.

Great report on drug trafficking, do you know if they ever invested in Brazil?

[aleksandrored]

What do you guys think of this movie?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_City

[motorfab]

It is sad that this judge is forgotten today, I will look for your film later.

Great report on drug trafficking, do you know if they ever invested in Brazil?

Well, indirectly yes: When he was in Brazil, Tommaso Buscetta got his drug supplies through Auguste Ricord and his gang of bad boys on the run in South America. According to most French or Canadian historians & journalists (I am thinking of Jean-Pierre Charbonneau for Canada), Buscetta had been sent there in order to deal directly with Ricord. I don't know how true this is, but the two worked closely at least until 1972 and the network's collapse in Paraguay under pressure from the Americans.

A little more recent, Jean-Baptiste Jérome "Jean-Jé" Colonna, who also worked with Ricord but from Marseille, went on the run from 1975 to 1985 and was in Brazil. We know very little about what he did during this period, but not much that was legal in my opinion.

If I run into other things I will come back to you.

For Rogue City, it just came out on Netflix, but unfortunately I'm not a subscriber. But I should be able to see him soon. The film is loosely based on the Telephone bar massacre. The reviews are very good at the moment and I love Olivier Marchall

[aleksandrored]

It is sad that this judge is forgotten today, I will look for your film later.

Great report on drug trafficking, do you know if they ever invested in Brazil?

Well, indirectly yes: When he was in Brazil, Tommaso Buscetta got his drug supplies through Auguste Ricord and his gang of bad boys on the run in South America. According to most French or Canadian historians & journalists (I am thinking of Jean-Pierre Charbonneau for Canada), Buscetta had been sent there in order to deal directly with Ricord. I don't know how true this is, but the two worked closely at least until 1972 and the network's collapse in Paraguay under pressure from the Americans.

A little more recent, Jean-Baptiste Jérome "Jean-Jé" Colonna, who also worked with Ricord but from Marseille, went on the run from 1975 to 1985 and was in Brazil. We know very little about what he did during this period, but not much that was legal in my opinion.

If I run into other things I will come back to you.

For Rogue City, it just came out on Netflix, but unfortunately I'm not a subscriber. But I should be able to see him soon. The film is loosely based on the Telephone bar massacre. The reviews are very good at the moment and I love Olivier Marchall

Thanks for the expensive explanation, in Brazil several criminals came to take refuge, and in the 50-90s, when there was no faction, the crime was broader and more widespread.

I didn't know that this movie was based on real events, when I watch it.

[motorfab]

I didn't know that this movie was based on real events, when I watch it.

Just the hit in the Bar, the rest is a made-up story. Hopefully I'll watch it next week.

[aleksandrored]

I didn't know that this movie was based on real events, when I watch it.

Just the hit in the Bar, the rest is a made-up story. Hopefully I'll watch it next week.

I was reading about this massacre and that event was insane, they compared it to Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.

[motorfab]

Racket on the Côte d'Azur: two police custody in Bastia (32 individuals arrested) https://www.corsematin.com/articles/rac ... tia-113550

[aleksandrored]

Of these 32, how many do you think were stuck?

[motorfab]

Of these 32, how many do you think were stuck?

Not the slightest idea, but not everyone I think. Anyway the politician involved can say goodbye to his career. The south of France is very corrupt but this is a bit big

[motorfab]

Paul Mondoloni

If Bosses like Paul Carbone, the Guerinis brothers, Marcel Francisci, Jean-Baptiste Croce or Dominique Venturi are rightly considered the best known or most powerful Corsican Bosses, there is one that is a bit forgotten and which is nevertheless of equal importance. He symbolized the old underworld and favored the new, had many international connections and was considered by Judge Giovanni Falcone as one of the representative of Cosa Nostra in France.

Paul Mondoloni alias "Petit Paul" and then "Monsieur Paul was born on September 29, 1916 in Sartène, South Corsica. Arrested in Paris in the 1940s during the occupation, he was sentenced to 10 years for ration ticket trafficking. During his detention there he would have known his future companion Jean-Baptiste Croce.

During his years in detention with a dozen other prisoners, including his future mentor Albert Ansan Bistoni, they write a letter to DST Lieutenant Robert Blémant asking for their release. Blémant who is looking for men (preferably thugs) for his actions against the Nazis knows very well that most of these men are connected to the underworld and have them released.

Mondoloni's career took off in 1949 when he was recruited by Paul Leca & Charles Vinceleoni to take part in a legendary robbery, the theft of Begum's jewelry (such a huge affair and unlikely consequences that I will detail later it on another post ). The Begum was a former Miss France married to the Aga Khan, the leader of the Ismaili Muslims. To put it simply, he is one of the richest men in the world and 2,13 million Francs in jewelry is stolen. Mondoloni was arrested with his accomplices, but having paid his bail, he fled France in the early 1950s with Jean-Baptiste Croce and Joseph Mari, who were wanted for a murder case.

They are sent to Mexico by Bistoni, who will join them later, with the mission of supporting Antoine D'Agostino in his new heroin industry. D'Agostino has been wanted in Canada since that time, and his two closest accomplices, Joseph Orsini & François Spirito, were arrested in New York. They supplied Francesco Coppola and the Genovese Crime Family in particular. D'Agostino therefore teaches them the mechanics of heroin trafficking but was finally arrested in 1955 and the rest of the group prefers to leave Mexico.

So they find themselves in Montreal, D'Agostino's former drop-off point, where they will team up with the Cotroni brothers and the Bonanno Crime Family and Lucien Rivard. With Bistoni, Gabriel Graziani (a Corsican associate with Carmine Galante) in Montreal and Dominique Nicoli (allegedly Mondoloni's uncle) and the legendary chemist Dominique Albertini in Marseille, they set up a network based on the Venturi brothers, using the status Jean Venturi who is a representative for the aperitif alcohol Marseillais Ricard in Montreal, which transports heroin-laden cars from Barcelona and then to Montreal to be eventually sent to NY. The operation would bring back 30 kilos of heroin a month to the USA.

As traffic is very lucrative, the group is starting to invest in nightclubs in Cuba and Croce & Mondoloni and own three establishments: "L'Eve", "Le Cupidon" & "Le Pigalle". The group in Cuba is particularly close to Santo Trafficante Jr and find Lucien Rivard who does business there

Nevertheless, Mondoloni was arrested in Mexico in 1956, and was deported to France to stand trial for the Begum jewelry case. Sentenced in absentia at the time to forced labor in life, and he was eventually sentenced to 2 years in prison. During his detention, his uncle Dominique Nicoli, who was in charge of sharing the theft of the jewelry, was assassinated on July 14, 1958 by Jacques Benedetti, a former member of the robbery team who felt he had been cheated in the sharing of the jewelry. Arrested, Benedetti was released from prison in 1975 and tried to shoot Mondoloni, but missed him. Unsurprisingly, Benedetti was shot and killed in April 1976.

Apart from the murder of Benedetti in 1976, Mondoloni's affairs are discreet during these years unlike his accomplices. Given by several former mules, Croce & Mari were arrested in 1973 for drug trafficking. Croce is sentenced to 18 years in prison and Mari dies of cancer before being tried. Arrested Bistoni is released because being retired is not involved in the case. However he is not lucky because he's killed in the shooting of the Tanagra bar several weeks later (see Chapter 4).

Like all Corsican mobsters, Mondoloni dreams of investing in Casinos and Cerle de Jeux, legal business that also serves to launder money and he gets closer to the Boss who specializes in this sector, Marcel Francisci. Francisci was assassinated in January 1982 on the orders of Edgar Zemour who considers that Francisci owes him a debt in relation to his help in an old war for the control of Cerlce De Jeux. Mondoloni obviously does not like it and charges one of his proteges, Gilbert "Le Libanais" Hoareau of the hit and Zemour is killed by a sniper in his Miami villa in July 1983. Mondoloni eliminates at the same time a probable future competitor.

While Mondoloni is eyeing Casinos, he also continues to build drug business. In 1983 he was contacted by an American mafioso, Michele Maneri (a guy connected to the Genevoses I think) who was trying to set up a heroin laboratory in Arizona. He would have contacts with a Clan, the Beneventos, which one of whose representatives Guido Rendel was already getting his drug supply in Marseille in the 1960s. Mondoloni who now has a status of "Juge de Paix" (I don't know of any adequate translation, but you can translate it as being a kind of "Boss of Bosses" or who arbitrates conflicts) assembled a dream team composed of Gilbert Hoareau, Gaetan Zampa, Jean Toci (half brother of Gaetan Zampa), Pierre Lotoz (a boss from Lyon), Jacques Imbert, Francis Vanverberghe, Jean Louis Fargette (the boss of Toulon), Michel Regnier (a lieutenant of Fargette), achieving the feat of bringing together several enemies under his banner (see Chapter 4). Each one is supposed to bring 1 million Francs to finance the operation. 300 kilos of morphine base are transformed to give 140 kilos of heroin to then be returned to NY. The operation brings in all 240 million to the team. In 1984, he also sponsored an operation for an Armenian Marseillais linked to the Pizza Connection Andé "Panzone" Manoukian, which made Mondoloni a privileged target of Judge Falcone. Falcone will explain to the Marseillais judge Michel Debacque that Paul Mondoloni is considered as one of the representatives of Cosa Nostra in France.

While his drug business sponsorships are going well, Mondoloni already having shares thanks to Francisci in a casino in Bandol (Côte d'Azur) and in Africa, tried to take control of the Ruhl casino in Nice, which had been closed since 1982 and about to be reopened. On July 29, 1985, "Monsieur Paul" was assassinated as he was leaving a bar after a meeting with some of his associates. Close to Jean Colonna, mayor of Pila-Canale, and especially former powerful boss who lost his legs since an attack by Antoine Paolini during a vendetta (see Chapter 3), he was preparing the return of Jean's nephew, Jean-Baptiste Jérome (alias Jean-Jé), who has been on the run since 1975, convicted of a drug trafficking case.

According to Roger Chiotti, a mobster involved in the Phoenix case who became an informant, the hit came from Jean Toci who also had views of Ruhl's casino in Nice and had become paranoid since the suicide of his half-brother Gaetan Zampa. It could never be corroborated but Toci, who feared for his life, then disappeared before being convicted in 1992 of an illegal slot machine case. He was released a few years later and assassinated in 1997. Chance of timing may be, most of Zampa's lieutenants are eliminated between the 1980s and 1990s and Mondo's former bodyguard, Jean-Toussaint Giacomoni, is suspected of betraying his former boss was also assassinated in 1993.

Mondoloni's execution puts an end to the reign of the Corsican Godfathers on Marseilles, and now Corsican organized crime will now unfold mainly on the island. As if Mondoloni had foreseen it, one of the main Godfathers of this new organized crime will be Jean-Jé Colonna who will rule South Corsica from 1985 to 2006, when he will die in a car accident.