Collaborations between the United States government and Italian Mafia

The United States government has collaborated with the Italian Mafia on several occasions.

• During World War II, the United States Navy was worried about strikes and labor disputes in eastern shipping ports interfering with their wartime logistics. So they released the mobster Lucky Luciano from prison, and collaborated with him and Meyer Lansky to help the mafia take control of the ports and murder and terrorize labor union members to prevent labor unrest and ensure smooth shipping of supplies to Europe.^[1]

• In order to prevent a Communist party from being elected in Italy following World War II, the CIA worked closely with the Sicilian Mafia, protecting them and assisting in their worldwide heroin smuggling operations, in exchange for the mafia's assistance with assassinating, torturing, and beating leftist political organizers.^[2]

See also

• CIA drug trafficking

Further reading

• The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Alfred W. McCoy, Lawrence Hill Books, 1991. ISBN 978-1556521256
• Mafia Allies: The True Story of America's Secret Alliance with the Mob in World War II, Tim Newark, Zenith Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0760324578
• The Mafia and the Allies: Sicily 1943 and the Return of the Mafia, Ezio Costanzo, Enigma Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1929631681

References

1. ^ Campbell, Rodney (1977). The Luciano Project: The Secret Wartime Collaboration Between the Mafia and the U.S. Navy. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0070096745. 
2. ^ Cockburn, Alexander; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). "5". Whiteout, the CIA, drugs and the press. New York: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-258-5.