Corsican & French mob

[Villain]

These guys couldve been the real "la resistance" against the Germans but they obviously took a different path lol. Thanks again for the great read

[motorfab]

These guys couldve been the real "la resistance" against the Germans but they obviously took a different path lol. Thanks again for the great read

It is clear that apart from Blémant, Mémé Guerini (who called the Germans "blond fuckers ) and other, mobsters who entered the Resistance did not really do it out of conviction, but according to their needs. It is clear that not everyone is able to torture or execute someone, what better way than to call on someone who doesn't have a problem with that?

It also works the other way around, the mobsters who entered the Gestapo were also mainly to escape prison and because the Germans were giving them passes to do what they wanted. There are also those who did this out of conviction, and those who escaped justice did not escape their former colleagues ...

There are also those who did both ... Gestapo then when the tide turned, Resitance ... There is also a legendary Gang that was formed just after the war , the Tractions-Avant gang. (named after a famous car of the time) led by Pierre Loutrel (who was therefore part of the Gestapo and very briefly of the Resistance) and which was made up of Gestapists and Resistance fighters. There is even one of the guys, Jo Attia, who was part of the two and who was deported to the Mathausen camps ...

A sentence that I heard somewhere sums up the French underworld of that time well: "Neither Collaborator, nor Resistant, just Moneyist"

(sorry I leave in big explanation but this period fascinates me)

[Villain]

These guys couldve been the real "la resistance" against the Germans but they obviously took a different path lol. Thanks again for the great read

It is clear that apart from Blémant, Mémé Guerini (who called the Germans "blond fuckers ) and other, mobsters who entered the Resistance did not really do it out of conviction, but according to their needs. It is clear that not everyone is able to torture or execute someone, what better way than to call on someone who doesn't have a problem with that?

It also works the other way around, the mobsters who entered the Gestapo were also mainly to escape prison and because the Germans were giving them passes to do what they wanted. There are also those who did this out of conviction, and those who escaped justice did not escape their former colleagues ...

A sentence that I heard somewhere sums up the French underworld of that time well: "Neither Collaborator, nor Resistant, just Moneyist"

(sorry I leave in big explanation but this period fascinates me)

Good stuff and nicely said. Same shit was happening all around the world at the time, including the US and Soviet Union.

[aleksandrored]

thanks again man, your articles are great, i love reading about french organized crime.

[motorfab]

Thanks guys, it's nice if I can get other people interested in this. I'm not at all objective, but I've always found the story of these guys as interesting as that of the Americans or the Italians ... And like you said Villain they had connections everywhere. Everyone has forgotten them a little (including in France), yet they were a major taget of the American L.E with the mafia back in the days

[motorfab]

Chapter 4: Tany, The Belgian & The Mat

With the fall of the Guerini clan, it was the end of Corsican hegemony over Marseilles. Indeed in Marseille and elsewhere in France (Grenoble or Paris for example), heads fall like Angelin Bianchini, designated successor of the Guerini in 1970 or Mathieu Mattei in Grenoble in 1968. The new generation of local thugs takes the place of the old guard Corsica. Some big shots will remain on the continent (Mondoloni, Croce, Francisci, Anréani, Venturi and others), but many will return to their island (unlike their Sicilian cousins, Corsican organized crime has developed on the continent and not on the island).


Angelin Bianchini & Mathieu Mattei

So there is room for the new generation. Gaetan Zampa imprisoned since 1966 for possession of weapons, released from prison in 1970 and began building his empire based on racket, drug trafficking (he works in particular with Gerlando Alberti of Cosa Nostra or the Camorra),drug trafficking or weapons trafficking. As these years are the fashion of mercenaries, he is suspected to finance the GAL an anti-ETA paramilitary group (the Basque independence activists) and take care of a murder for them. In short, everything is fine for Zampa but it will not last.


Gaetan "Tany" Zampa

In 1972, men from Zampa hijacked a cargo of heroin worth 600,000 francs for Francis "Le Belge" Vanberberghe (nicknamed like that because in Marseille, no one can pronounce his name), another rising star of organized crime Marseillais who frequented Zampa when they were both in Paris.
Anticipating a reaction from the Belgian, on September 15, 1972 Zampa eliminated three of his men: Robert Di Russo, Jean-Claude Bonello and Daniel Lamberti. One of the killers was shot dead on October 14, 1972 in Corsica, and the other on October 28, 1972. On December 26, 1972, a Belgian man fell, and then two others in February 1973, at the Belle de Mai (a district of Marseille from which Vanverberghe is originates).


Francis Vanverberghe & Jean-Claude Bonello

The Belgian will reply harshly: on March 31 the killing of the Tanagra bar took place: several men enterded to the bar and fired at everything that moved. Four dead: Joseph Lomini (who seems to have been the main target), Ansan Bistoni (a Corsican mobster, king of the French Connection and close to Paul Mondoloni & Jean-Baptiste Croce), Dominique Napoletano and the bar owner.


Le Tanagra, Ansan Bistoni & Joseph Lomini

The conflict between Vanverberghe and Zampa will be short-lived as the Belgian is sentenced to 3 years in prison in December 1973 for pimping, possession of weapons and use of fake papers. To this will be added a sentence of 14 years in prison for drug trafficking. He was just ratted by Richard Berdin, a drug smuggler who is going to bring down the French Connection. Jean-Baptiste Croce, one of the last Corsican king of the French Connection, will also be convicted following Berdin's testimony. At the same time Zampa takes an 8-month sentence in 1975 for carrying a weapon (again!) Where he will even met Vanverberghe in prison (no consequences).

Belgian jailed, another problem remains for Tany. Another of his former associates is beginning to gain importance: Jacques "Jacky Le Mat" Imbert (Mat means crazy as a gypsy). Imbert moved away from Zampa and in 1977, the Mat clan racked up the same client as the Zampa clan, for 8 million francs. Zampa could not bear that one of his friends, an Armenian who was protecting an Israeli businessman, Sammy Flatto, was dubbed by Imbert. Summoned to explain this matter by Zampa, Imbert fled.


Jacques "Le Mat" Imbert

On February 1 in 1977, in a Marseille parking lot, Zampa and two of these men, Bimbo Roche & Gaby Reggazy shoot Le Mat and leave him for dead. At the moment of finishing him, one of them, presumably Zampa, launches: "A bitch like this is not worth the coup de grace, let him die like a dog". Big mistake, Imbert is taken to hospital and miraculously survived: 22 bullets (!!!) were removed from his body and none were fatal. Hostilities began on March 3, 1977, with the assassination of Gaby Reggazi, who went to the grave of her son killed in a motorcycle accident. The 4th, it is a relative of the Mat who falls. On July 30, Bimbo Roche died, shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes, on the road to the Corniche. He is then followed by Jean-Claude Regazzi, nephew of Gaby, murdered with 30 machine gun bullets. In November 1977, the Mat was arrested by the police near Tany Zampa's home. He was sentenced to 18 months and was imprisoned for 6 months for carrying prohibited weapons. During his imprisonment, 8 men from both clans died, including Serge Cassone, spiritual son of Jacky and brother of Roland Cassone, as well as Jean-René Reggazi.

It is in this context that one of the greatest mysteries in the history of banditism intervenes on October 3, 1978. That day, several men enter the bar of the "Telephone" and shoot all those present. 10 dead. Among the victims, four of them (including two who had just been released from prison) were known to the police, but they had committed only minor crimes. The others are unknown to the authorities. One of the victims Noël Kokos was a former killer of Marseille and his brother Jean (who managed to escape just before) will be shot a few years later… The killing at the Bar du Téléphone remains to this day a police enigma that has not been found. of explanation, nor of culprits.


The Telephone bar killing is compared by the press to the Valentine's Day Massacre

The killing of the telephone bar, plus the assassination of Judge Michel in 1981 (I will come back to this next time for another article), made the climate unbreathable for Zampa who fled and he was finally arrested in 1983 then convicted of tax evasion. Little by little losing his sanity in prison (he is nicknamed the Godmother) he was found hanged on August 16, 1984. Some people think that he was helped to hang himself ...


Zampa arrested in 1983

On their release from prisons in the 1980s, Le Belge and Le Mat unite and between 1984 and 1987 eliminate a dozen lieutenant from Zampa including one of his closest lieutenant, Gerard Vigier, to take control of organized crime in the south of France.


Gerard Vigier

Finally, after several judicial and criminal episodes (including a bloody war for the control of Marseille nightclubs in the 90s), Francis Le Belge, visibly out of business, was shot on September 27, 2000 in a bar in Paris. No one has ever been charged with this murder, although rumors seem to point to the Corsican gang of "La Brise De Mer". Jacques Imbert died of natural causes (it's rare) on November 11, 2019 at the age of 89.


Le Belge in the early 90s, Le Mat circa 2006

[motorfab]

Small mistake on the photo caption of the Tanagra: I reversed the names of Lomini & Bistoni. Lomini is the young guy. Sorry about that.

[Villain]

One job - 10 dead? During the late 70s? Damn, these guys shouldve met Riina lol the SVM in Chicago was a kiddie play compared to this one

Another great piece Motorfab. Thanks

[motorfab]

One job - 10 dead? During the late 70s? Damn, these guys shouldve met Riina lol the SVM in Chicago was a kiddie play compared to this one

Another great piece Motorfab. Thanks

Fuck yeah, this hit is totally crazy, and nobody knows who made it or why. Apparently there was so much blood at the crime scene that investigators had half the shoes of it. The photo of newspaper I posted is indulgent, they forgot a dead man. It was a coincidence, but it was Judge Michel who was in charge of the investigation ... Here are some pictures of the scene :







7 of the 10 victims. Noel Krokos is the third from the left column

[motorfab]

According to wikipedia here are the tracks for the killing

The main hypotheses proposed were as follows:

- it was about a new episode of the bloody war of the gangs which waged at the time the clan of Tany Zampa and Jacky le Mat (twenty-six deaths in sixteen months recorded in Marseilles before this tragic episode). This thesis could have been corroborated by the fact that it was discovered, during the investigation, that one of the victims, Noël Kokos, had been a gun carrier in the middle. However, it was excluded by Honoré Gévaudan, Director of Criminal Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior, who came to Marseille to himself take charge of the direction of the investigation, because he considered that in this case the laws of the environment had not been respected, one of the main ones being to spare the innocent.

-it would be a beef between pimps that would have "gone wrong".

-it would be a beef in the context of counterfeit money trafficking.

-it would be a plot fomented by mercenaries or members of the SAC*.

Good luck with that

* the SAC was the order service of General De Gaul party. Originally supposed to be supervised by political meetings, it turned into a parallel police force who committed a lot of crap ranging from murder, to drug trafficking, or the kidnapping (and murder) of political opponents (the Moroccan deputy Ben Barka) ... Many mobsters, including Francisci and Mattei that I mention in my text, were part of it. If there was a problem with the real police, all they had to do was take out their membership card to go free. They were dissolved in 1981 when Socialist President Miterrand was elected. In short, it was a bunch of assholes.

[aleksandrored]

Another great Article man, thanks, French Mob's stories are just as interesting, even better than some of LCN's.

[motorfab]

Another great Article man, thanks, French Mob's stories are just as interesting, even better than some of LCN's.

Obrigado, Yes, the period or the context of those years also matters. It is clear that what is happening now is clearly less interesting from my point of view. Marseille has not usurped its title of "French Chicago". But it was still not as extreme as was happening in Sicily, even though Riina must have been jealous of the hits on Tanagra and Telephone.

To pick up on Villain's remark, I wonder if Zampa didn't know Riina or Leggio. He seemed to work with guys from LCN in Italy (and probably in the US) so it seems reasonable to me to think he might have done business with the Corleonesi. For Gerlando Alberti from Porta Nuova it is certain. As sccaghuini said, LCN & Camorra were once suspected of being behind Judge Michel's hit

[Villain]

-it would be a plot fomented by mercenaries or members of the SAC*.

Good luck with that

* the SAC was the order service of General De Gaul party. Originally supposed to be supervised by political meetings, it turned into a parallel police force who committed a lot of crap ranging from murder, to drug trafficking, or the kidnapping (and murder) of political opponents (the Moroccan deputy Ben Barka) ... Many mobsters, including Francisci and Mattei that I mention in my text, were part of it. If there was a problem with the real police, all they had to do was take out their membership card to go free. They were dissolved in 1981 when Socialist President Miterrand was elected. In short, it was a bunch of assholes.

Lots of similarities across Europe during those days (70s and 80s)....these guys were killers with a badge, they had all the backing and protection from politicians and secret agencies.They killed people all around the world and made deals for various politicians and for their countries. Not that they cared about the people but instead they used their countries as transfers for narcotics, white slavery etc. Some of them might tell you that they did it out of patriotic reasons and that all of the illegal cash was made in other countries and later that same cash was used to help ppl in their own country....bullshit!

As for the Riina joke, i saw that the time period was late 70s/early 80s and so i thought they mightve sat with him or his men a couple of times and possibly received advise on how to deal with their problems lol

[scagghiuni]

One job - 10 dead? During the late 70s? Damn, these guys shouldve met Riina lol the SVM in Chicago was a kiddie play compared to this one

Another great piece Motorfab. Thanks

Fuck yeah, this hit is totally crazy, and nobody knows who made it or why. Apparently there was so much blood at the crime scene that investigators had half the shoes of it. The photo of newspaper I posted is indulgent, they forgot a dead man. It was a coincidence, but it was Judge Michel who was in charge of the investigation ... Here are some pictures of the scene :







7 of the 10 victims. Noel Krokos is the third from the left column

i think it was the worst underworld slaughter ever in europe

[motorfab]

Speaking of the Telephone Bar massacre, a film by Olivier Marchal (an ex-cop who now works in the cinema) will release a film called Bronx inspired by this story. I think it's transposed in our time and not the 70's. It's coming out on Netflix on October 30th so I think it will be available for everyone.

I haven't planned on tackling the next chapter right away, so here's a (very) little story linked to the French Connection :

On May 5, 1966, Achille Cecchini, 45, was arrested, and accused of being the head of a network which was to send Columbus in the State of Georgia nearly 100 kilos of powder hidden in a refrigerator. Sentenced to 5 years but officially ill, Cecchini, who also members of the SAC, the Gaullist order service, will finally be exempted from his sentence in 1972.