War on Drugs: Failing

The war on drugs?  America has been engaged in this war for 42 years. The prohibition against drugs is a total failure and it fills our prison system with those that cannot afford to mount a defense. There are 196,574 incarcerated in the Federal system and of those 99,426 are drug offenses.  Compare this to 11,688 for violent offenses!  The State Prison systems around the US incarcerate 1,341,797 of these 222,738 are for drug offenses and 55,013 are for simple possession of drugs.   This prohibition is a huge business.  It starts with Law Enforcement, then prison systems, many prisons are nothing more than economic hubs for areas that certain politicians control.  Probation and parole double the numbers of those under the control of Law Enforcement.  

Last week I wrote about how a major player in the Pizza Connection Heroin smuggling ring was able to get his name on the list of those being considered for a Presidential Pardon. It was still on the list when President Clinton ended his last day in office and although no pardon was issued the fact that Sal Gambino was even considered for a pardon is a joke.

The FBI traced money that was paid to the president’s brother to a made member of the Gambino family.  That man helped bring others from his clan to the US in the late 1970's when they were losing a Mafia war in Italy.

I wrote about where the Gambino Family and others will go in the future.  The old social clubs are gone and the new leaders are not local Brooklyn/Queens Toughs who deal in street crime. The new leadership is hidden, deep underground and not as known. The Cosa Nostra is going back to what it was supposed to be... A SECRET ORGANIZATION.

The FBI Took down a small crew of Mafia Connected drug dealers and it made headlines but what is behind those headlines?

Franco Lupoi was one of those arrested by the FBI in Brooklyn.  Lupoi is very well connected with the 'Ndrangheta in Italy and Gambino Family in New York. The 'Ndrangheta is a Calabria based criminal organization that operates separately from the Sicilian Mafia and is considered to be the largest criminal organization in the world.  

Lupoi is no ordinary Gambino associate he is with Pietro "Tall Pete" Inzerillo, a made Gambino member and Frank Cali the underboss of the Gambino Family.  Inzerillo is also part of the Sicilians that escaped the Mafia wars in the late 1970's and he is related to the Cherry Hill Gambinos.  The Cherry Hill Gambinos are John and Rosario Gambino and they are the ones who gave Roger Clinton 50,000 dollars and a gold Rolex.  I was there and reported to the FBI Inzerillo's close ties with Colombo Family Members who went to meet him at a place at Henry and Union Street in Brooklyn.  A few doors down is a former wholesale coffee distribution business that has been tied to Sicilian drug traffickers.

Lupoi has traveled abroad with Frank Cali and his Father-in-law is a member of the 'Ndrngheta.  A cousin is street boss of the Ursino clan.  

The FBI got an undercover agent inside the operation and when Members traveled from Italy to discuss ships containing drugs and shipments he recorded it.

The FBI Agent did such a good job that he was able to buy 1.3 Kilograms of Heroin from Lupoi and Ursino in Europe and another Kilogram of Heroin in the US.

Rafealle Valente is a made member of 'Ndrangheta who was putting together an armed group of 'Ndrangheta Soldiers to protect the drugs in the US. Valente sold the FBI Agent a 9mm pistol with a silencer in New York.

Lupoi and Valente set up a shipment of 500 kilograms of cocaine to be hidden in blocks of frozen fish with each fish containing between 100 to 200 grams of cocaine. This shipment was going from Guyana to Gioia Tauro the largest port in Europe and where Lupoi's Father-in-law had connections to let 7 to 12 shipping containers get through Customs.

They also conspired with a Mexican National named Jose Alfredo Garcia who worked for a Cartel and Chinese man named Alexander Chan who had been busted in 1997 for Heroin sales to ship the cocaine to Europe.

The men were also able to import 300lbs of marijuana a month from other clan members in Canada. The FBI Agent was also able to launder 500,000 in the US thanks to these men.

This is the new "Mafia" and with the US fighting the war on drugs in US cities, picking up petty users, these new "Mob Guys" will slowly flood the country with their product.

The 'Ndrangheta is a 44 billion Euro a year organization and they can field an army so this is where the danger in the future will come from.