The Pizza Connection
With Galante's cooperation, as well as support from Sicilian mafiosi, the Zips' influence and power in New York's underworld grew. Eventually they were able to arrange a working relationship between American and Sicilian mafiosi to begin large scale drug trafficking operations to distribute heroin into the United States; Sicilian mafiosi would purchase the morphine base in the Middle East, where it would be processed into heroin, before being shipped to New York for distribution.
Supplying support services and specific areas for distribution, New York's crime families collected a percentage of income from drug dealers while keeping themselves distanced from federal prosecution. By the late 1970s, Galante had been bringing in large numbers of Zips for the rapidly growing heroin distribution market (which had been peaking at $10 million a year). Ironically, Galante's Zip' bodyguards were party to his murder. Galante was murdered for keeping all the heroin trafficking profits for himself.
Read more about this topic: Zips
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