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{{short description|Infamous 20th-century crime scheme}}
{{other uses|The French Connection (disambiguation)}}
{{Expand French|French Connection|date=October 2019}}

The '''French Connection''' was a scheme through which [[heroin]] was smuggled from [[Mainland Southeast Asia|Indochina]] through [[Turkey]] to [[France]] and then to the [[United States]] and [[Canada]]. The operation started in the 1930s, reached its peak in the 1960s, and was dismantled in the 1970s. It was responsible for providing the vast majority of the heroin used in the United States at the time. The operation was headed by [[Corsica]]ns Antoine Guérini and [[Paul Carbone]] (with associate [[François Spirito]]). It also involved [[Auguste Ricord]], [[Paul Mondoloni]] and [[Salvatore Greco "The Engineer"|Salvatore Greco]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}

{{TOC limit|3}}

==History==
===The 1930s, '40s, and '50s===
Illegal heroin labs were first discovered near [[Marseille]], [[France]], in 1937. These labs were run by Corsican gang leader [[Paul Carbone]]. For years, the Corsican underworld had been involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of heroin, primarily to the [[United States]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071110194340/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,910391-1,00.html Time.com], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', September 4, 1972</ref> It was this heroin network that eventually became known as "the French Connection".

The [[Unione Corse|Corsican Gang]] was protected by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) and the [[SDECE]] after [[World War II]] in exchange for working to prevent [[French Communist Party|French]] [[Communists]] from bringing the [[Old Port of Marseille]] under their control.<ref>Alfred W. McCoy, Cathleen B. Reach, and Leonard D. Adams, ''The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia'' (Harper & Row, 1972); Peter Dale Scott, ''The War Conspiracy'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1972); Henrik Krueger, ''The Great Heroin Coup'' (South End, 1980); Leslie Cockburn, Out of Control (''Atlantic Monthly'', 1987). Carlo Cortes, AP, Manila, Oct. 25, 1989.</ref>

Historically, the raw material for most of the heroin consumed in the United States came from [[Indochina]], then [[Turkey]]. Turkish farmers were licensed to grow [[opium poppy|opium poppies]] for sale to legal drug companies, but many sold their excess to the underworld market, where it was manufactured into heroin and transported to the United States. The [[morphine]] paste was refined in Corsican [[Laboratory|laboratories]] in Marseille, one of the busiest ports in the western [[Mediterranean Sea]], known for shipping all types of illegal goods. The Marseille heroin was considered high quality.

The convenience of the port at Marseille and the frequent arrival of ships from opium-producing countries made it easy to smuggle the morphine base to Marseille from the [[Far East]] or the [[Near East]]. The French underground would then ship large quantities of heroin from Marseille to [[New York City]].

The first significant post-World War II seizure was made in New York on February 5, 1947, when {{convert|7|lb|kg|spell=in}} of heroin were seized from a Corsican sailor disembarking from a vessel that had just arrived from France.

It soon became clear that the French underground was increasing not only its participation in the illegal trade of opium, but also its expertise and efficiency in heroin trafficking. On March 17, 1947, {{convert|28|lb|kg}} of heroin were found on the French liner ''St. Tropez''. On January 7, 1949, more than {{convert|50|lb|kg}} of opium and heroin were seized on the French ship ''Batista''.

After Paul Carbone's death, the Guérini clan was the ruling dynasty of the [[Unione Corse]] and had systematically organized the smuggling of opium from Turkey and other [[Middle Eastern countries]]. The Guérini clan was led by Marseille mob boss Antoine Guérini and his brothers, Barthelemy, Francois and Pascal.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

In October 1957, [[Grand Hotel et des Palmes Mafia meeting|a meeting]] between [[Sicilian Mafia]] and [[American Mafia]] members was held at the [[Grand Hotel et des Palmes]] in [[Palermo]] to discuss the international illegal heroin trade in the French Connection.<ref name="Shawcross">Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 44-45</ref>

===The 1960s===
[[File:Francouzska spojka.jpg|thumb|The French Connection in the 1960s.]]
The first major French Connection seizure in the 1960s began in June, when an informant told a drug agent in [[Lebanon]] that Mauricio Rosal, the [[Guatemala]]n Ambassador to [[Belgium]], the [[Netherlands]] and [[Luxembourg]], was smuggling morphine base from [[Beirut]] to Marseille. Narcotics agents had been seizing about {{convert|200|lb|kg}} of heroin in a typical year, but intelligence showed that the Corsican traffickers were smuggling in {{convert|200|lb|kg}} every other week. Rosal alone, in one year, had used his diplomatic status to bring in about {{convert|440|lb|kg}}.

The [[Federal Bureau of Narcotics]]'s 1960 annual report estimated that from {{convert|2,600|to|5,000|lb|kg|abbr=off}} of heroin were coming into the United States annually from France. The French traffickers continued to exploit the demand for their illegal product, and by 1969, they were supplying the United States with 80 percent of its heroin.<ref name=mob>{{cite web|url=http://toromagazine.com/culture/listed/20120111/7-canadian-gangsters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130914032507/http://toromagazine.com/culture/listed/20120111/7-canadian-gangsters|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 September 2013|title=7 CANADIAN GANGSTERS|date=11 January 2012|access-date=8 December 2016|publisher=torontomagazine.com}}</ref>

On April 26, 1968, a record setting seizure was made, {{convert|246|lb|kg|1|abbr=on}} of heroin smuggled to [[New York City|New York]] concealed in a [[Citroën DS]] on the ''[[SS France (1960)]]'' ocean liner.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/406671233/|title=Agents Seize Heroin Worth Record 22M|work=Daily News (New York) |date=27 June 1968 |access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/06/27/archives/224million-in-heroin-found-in-car-at-city-pier-narcotics-secreted.html|last=Bigart |first=Homer |title=$22.4-Million in Heroin Found in Car at City Pier; Narcotics, Secreted in Auto Sent From France, Called Largest Seizure in U.S. $22.4-Million in Heroin Is Found Hidden in a Car at Pier in City|work=[[The New York Times]] |date=27 June 1968 |access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19680626.2.5&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|title=Biggest Heroin Haul Told|publisher=Desert Sun |date=26 June 1968 |access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref> The total amount smuggled during the many [[transatlantic voyage]]s of just this one car was {{convert|1606|lb|kg|1|abbr=on}} according to arrested smuggler Jacques Bousquet.<ref name="Quarterly">{{cite journal|last=Cox |first=Michael |title=Smuggler|publisher=The Citroën Quarterly|page=11|volume=9|date=Spring 1991}}</ref>

In an effort to limit the most proximate source of supply to the Corsican cartel, US officials went to Turkey to negotiate the phasing out of opium production. Initially, the Turkish government agreed to limit their opium production starting with the 1968 crop.

At the end of the 1960s, after Robert Blemant's assassination by Antoine Guérini, a gang war started in Marseille, caused by competition over [[casino]] revenues. Blemant's associate Marcel Francisci continued the war over the next years.

====Jean Jehan====
Former [[New York City Police Department]] Narcotics Bureau [[detective]] [[Sonny Grosso]] has stated that the kingpin of the French Connection heroin ring during the 1950s into the 1960s was Corsican Jean Jehan.<ref name="BBC-TV">{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB0oNSYXEQY  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526234813/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB0oNSYXEQY&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=2013-05-26 |url-status=dead| title=Tracing the French Connection | publisher=YouTube | access-date=20 December 2013}}</ref> Although Jehan is reported to have arranged the famous 1962 deal gone wrong of 64 pounds of "pure" heroin, he was never arrested for his involvement in international heroin smuggling. According to Grosso, all [[Arrest warrant|warrants]] for the arrest of Jehan were left open. For years thereafter, Jehan was reported to be seen arranging and operating drug activities at will throughout Europe. According to [[William Friedkin]], director of the 1971 film ''[[The French Connection (film)|The French Connection]]'', Jehan had been a member of the [[French Resistance]] to [[Vichy France|Nazi Occupation]] during World War II and, because of that, French law enforcement officials refused to arrest him. Friedkin was told that Jehan died peacefully of old age at his home in Corsica.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IdnXmI0pVo  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140613041630/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IdnXmI0pVo |archive-date=2014-06-13 |url-status=dead| title=The French Connection Audio Commentary | publisher=YouTube | access-date=20 December 2013}}</ref>

===The 1970s: Dismantling===
Following five subsequent years of concessions, combined with international cooperation, the Turkish government finally agreed in 1971 to a complete ban on the growing of Turkish poppies for the production of [[opium]], effective June 29, 1971. During these protracted negotiations, law enforcement personnel went into action. One of the major roundups began on January 4, 1972, when agents from the U.S. [[Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs]] (BNDD) and French authorities seized {{convert|110|lb|kg}} of heroin at the [[Paris]] airport. Subsequently, traffickers Jean-Baptiste Croce and Joseph Mari were arrested in Marseille. One such French seizure from the French Connection in 1973 netted {{convert|210|lb|kg}} of heroin worth $38 million.

In February 1972, French traffickers offered a [[United States Army]] sergeant $96,000 ({{Inflation|US|96000|1972|fmt=eq}}) to smuggle {{convert|240|lb|kg}} of heroin into the United States. He informed his superior who in turn notified the BNDD. As a result of this investigation, five men in New York and two in Paris were arrested with {{convert|264|lb|kg}} of heroin, which had a street value of $50 million. In a 14-month period, starting in February 1972, six major illicit heroin laboratories were seized and dismantled in the suburbs of Marseille by French national narcotics police in collaboration with agents from the United States [[Drug Enforcement Administration]]. On February 29, 1972, French authorities seized the [[shrimp]] boat, ''Caprice des Temps'', as it put to sea near Marseille heading towards [[Miami]]. It was carrying {{convert|915|lb|kg}} of heroin. Drug arrests in France skyrocketed from 57 in 1970 to 3,016 in 1972.

Also broken up as part of this investigation was the crew of [[American Mafia]] [[Lucchese crime family|Lucchese family]] mobster [[List of past Lucchese crime family mobsters#Vincent Papa|Vincent Papa]], whose members included [[Anthony Loria Sr.]] and [[Virgil Alessi]]. The well-organized gang was responsible for distributing close to a million dollars worth of heroin up and down the East Coast of the United States during the early 1970s, which in turn led to a major [[New York Police Department]] (NYPD) corruption scheme. The scope and depth of this scheme are still not known, but officials suspect it involved corrupt NYPD officers who allowed Papa, Alessi, and Loria access to the NYPD property/evidence storage room, where hundreds of kilograms of heroin lay seized from the now-infamous French Connection bust, and from which the men would help themselves and replace missing heroin with flour and [[corn starch]] to avoid detection.<ref name=20090222nytimes>Blumenthal, Ralph. [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/nyregion/22french.html "Mobster Makes Offer on French Connection Case"], New York Times, February 21, 2009.</ref><ref name="19810906nytimes">Maitland, Leslie. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E3DF103BF935A3575AC0A967948260 Papa's Game], New York Times, September 6, 1981</ref>

The substitution was discovered only when officers noticed insects eating all the bags of "heroin". By that point an estimated street value of approximately $70 million worth of heroin had already been taken. The [[Racketeering|racket]] was brought to light and arrests were made. Certain plotters received jail sentences, including Papa, who was later murdered in federal prison in [[Atlanta, Georgia]].

Ultimately, the Guérini clan was exterminated during internecine wars within the French underworld. In 1971, Marcel Francisci was accused by the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics of being involved in the trafficking of heroin between Marseilles and New York City.<ref name=upi160182>[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/16/obituaries/marcel-francisci-shot-dead-tied-to-french-connection.html Marcel Francisci Shot Dead; Tied to 'French Connection'], UPI, January 16, 1982</ref> On 16 January 1982, Marcel Francisci was shot to death as he was entering his car in the parking lot of the building where he lived in Paris, France.<ref name=upi160182/>

==List of related gangsters==
===Unione Corse members===
*[[Paul Carbone]]
*[[Marcel Francisci]]
*[[Antoine Guérini]]
*[[Barthélemy Guérini]]
*[[Paul Mondoloni]]
*[[Joseph Corsini]]
*[[Francois Spirito]]

===Italian-Canadian mobsters===
*[[Johnny Papalia]], [[Hamilton, Ontario]]
*[[Vito Agueci]], Hamilton
*[[Alberto Agueci]], Hamilton
*[[Vic Cotroni]], boss of the [[Cotroni crime family]] of Montreal and capo/boss of the Montreal faction of the [[Bonanno crime family]]

===Italian-American mobsters===
*[[Ignacio Antinori]], [[Tampa, Florida]] gangster that founded [[Trafficante crime family]]
*Frank Caruso<ref name=family/>
*[[Lucky Luciano]], [[Five Families]] gangster that founded [[Genovese crime family]]
*Vinnie Mauro<ref name=family>{{cite book |last=Humphreys |first=Adrian |date=1999 |title=The Enforcer:Johnny Pops Papalia, A Life and Death in the Mafia |location=Toronto |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=0-00-200016-4}}</ref>
*[[Frank Ragano]], Tampa, Florida attorney supporting Trafficante crime family
*Joseph "Hoboken Joe" Stassi (AKA "Joe Rogers"), independent but well-placed in organized crime<ref>[[Plaza Hotel (Havana)]], Wikipedia: Plaza Hotel (Havana)</ref><ref>[https://openjurist.org/544/f2d/579/united-states-v-stassi], openjurist.com legal summary of Stassi conviction</ref>

====Bonanno crime family members====
*[[Joseph Bonanno]], Bonanno crime family [[Boss (crime)|boss]]
*[[Carmine Galante]]

====Gambino crime family members====
*[[Joseph Armone]]<ref>[https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/02/22/Gambino-underboss-sentenced-to-prison/1415572504400/ Gambino underboss sentenced to prison] [[United Press International]] (February 22, 1988)</ref>

====Lucchese crime family members====
*[[Giovanni "Big John" Ormento]], a capo involved in large scale narcotic trafficking<ref name="Valentine">Valentine, Douglas. "The strength of the wolf: the secret history of America's war on drugs". [https://books.google.com/books?id=Bed0gQKn-ucC&dq=Pasquale+Patsy+Fuca&pg=PA263 see]</ref>
*[[Salvatore Lo Proto]], an important member of Big John's narcotic trafficking ring<ref>Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana. "Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime" [https://books.google.com/books?id=v_px8mLRXKsC&q=Lo+Proto+&pg=PA509 pg. 509]</ref>
*[[Angelo M. Loiacano]], wholesaler of Big John Ormento's narcotic trafficking ring<ref>Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana. "Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime" [https://books.google.com/books?id=v_px8mLRXKsC&q=Loiacano+&pg=PA509 pg.504]</ref>
*[[Angelo "Little Angie" Tuminaro]], an associate, involved in narcotic trafficking<ref name="Valentine" /><ref>Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana. "Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime" [https://books.google.com/books?id=v_px8mLRXKsC&q=Angelo+Tuminaro+&pg=PA509 pg. 664]</ref>
*[[Pasquale Fuca|Pasquale "Patsy" Fuca]], nephew to Tuminaro, involved in the narcotic trade<ref name="Valentine" />
*[[Anthony DiPasqua]], was a narcotic trafficker<ref name="Valentine" />
*[[Vincent Papa]], was the mastermind behind the "Stealing of the French Connection" 
*[[Anthony Loria]], partner with Vincent Papa in the "Stealing of the French Connection"


===Black members===
*[[Frank Matthews (drug trafficker)|Frank Matthews]]

==Related films==
*[[William Friedkin]], ''[[The French Connection (film)|The French Connection]]'' (1971)
*[[Francis Ford Coppola]], ''[[The Godfather]]'' (1972)
*[[Sidney J. Furie]], ''[[Hit!]]'' (1973)
*[[Howard W. Koch]], ''[[Badge 373]]'' (1973)
*[[Robert Parrish]], ''[[The Marseille Contract]]'' (1974)
*[[John Frankenheimer]], ''[[French Connection II]]'' (1975)
*[[Andrew V. McLaglen]], ''[[Mitchell (film)|Mitchell]]'' (1975)
*[[Blake Edwards]], ''[[Revenge of the Pink Panther]]'' (1978)
*[[Sidney Lumet]], ''[[Prince of the City]]'' (1981)
*[[Peter Levin]], ''[[Popeye Doyle (film)|Popeye Doyle]]'' (1986)
*[[Ridley Scott]], ''[[American Gangster (film)|American Gangster]]'' (2007)
*[[Cédric Jimenez]], ''[[The Connection (2014 action film)|The Connection (La French)]]'' (2014)

==See also==
*[[Lucien Conein]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://gangsterreport.com/mafia-comes-asia/ |title=The Mafia Comes to Asia, Santo Trafficante Visited Saigon in '68 |work=Gangster Report |date=31 December 2014 |access-date=16 April 2021}}</ref>
*[[Allegations of CIA drug trafficking]]
*[[Federal Bureau of Narcotics]]
*[[Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite book |last=English |first=T. J. |title=The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |date=March 20, 2018 |isbn=978-0062568960}}
{{Refend}}
:''This text incorporates public domain material from the [[US Department of Justice]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20050426164846/http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/deamuseum/dea_history_book/1970_1975.htm Archive.org]''

{{Genovese crime family}} {{Lucchese crime family}} {{American Mafia}} {{Mafia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:French Connection, The}}
[[Category:French Connection| ]]
[[Category:1937 establishments in France]]
[[Category:1973 disestablishments in France]]
[[Category:Drug rings]]
[[Category:Heroin]]
[[Category:Drugs in France]]
[[Category:Illegal drug trade in Turkey]]
[[Category:Opioids in the United States]]
[[Category:Drugs in Canada]]
[[Category:Organized crime events in Canada]]
[[Category:Italian-Canadian organized crime]]
[[Category:Organized crime events in France]]
[[Category:American Mafia events]]
[[Category:History of the Sicilian Mafia]]
[[Category:Corsican mafia]]
[[Category:Bonanno crime family]]
[[Category:Gambino crime family]]
[[Category:Lucchese crime family]]
[[Category:CIA drug trafficking allegations]]