Antonio Cottone - Heroin Trafficking

Heroin Trafficking

In 1956, Joe Profaci, in Brooklyn (New York City), was recorded talking about the export of Sicilian oranges with Nino Cottone, in Sicily. Cottone lost his life that year in the battle for Palermo wholesale market, but Profaci's oranges kept on coming. The Brooklyn number rung by Cottone was the same number rung by Lucky Luciano from Naples and Frank Coppola from Anzio. All were recorded by the Palermo Questura talking ecstatically about high-grade Sicilian oranges. In 1959, US Customs intercepted one of those orange crates. Hollow wax oranges, 90 to a crate, were filled with heroin until they weighed as much as real oranges. Each crate carried 110 pounds of pure heroin.

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