French Connection Theft
A major narcotics distributor for many years, Papa along with Virgil Alessi plotted the famous French Connection drug thefts. Between 1969 and 1972, New York Police Department detectives stole approximately half a million dollars in confiscated narcotics from the New York City Police Property Clerk's office in Lower Manhattan. Over 400 pounds of heroin and cocaine disappeared back into the streets. Although some of the drugs were eventually recovered, the majority was lost forever. The French Connection theft became the biggest corruption scandal in NYPD history and one of the most spectacular crimes in city history. This theft was never solved.
Papa's crew, whose members included Loria, and a large group of detectives who would go to the property clerks office and steal the heroin, distributed close to $1 million in heroin along the East Coast of the United States during the early seventies. It was widely suspected that Papa sold the stolen drugs.
Papa's infamous theft was later made famous by the movie The French Connection II.
Read more about this topic: Vincent Papa
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