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.109Through his friendship with the Corsicans, Conein has gained ahealthy respect for them."The Corsicans are smarter, tougher,and better organized that the Sicilians," says Conein."They areabsolutely ruthless and are the equal of anything we know aboutthe Sicilians, but they hide their internal fighting better." Coneinalso learned that many Saigon syndicate leaders had relatives inthe Marseille underworld.These family relations play animportant role in the international drug traffic, Conein feels, 97because much of the morphine base used in Marseille's heroinlaboratories comes from Saigon.Corsican smugglers in Saigonpurchase morphine base through Corsican contacts in Vientianeand ship it on French merchant vessels to relatives and friends inMarseille, where it is processed into heroin.110 "From what I knowof them," says Conein, "it will be absolutely impossible to cut offthe dope traffic.You can cut it down, but you can never stop it,unless you can get to the growers in the hills."111This pessimism may explain why Conein and Lansdale did notpass on this information to the U.S.Bureau of Narcotics.It isparticularly unfortunate that General Lansdale decided to arrange"some kind of a truce" with the Corsicans during the very periodwhen Marseille's heroin laboratories were probably beginning thechangeover from Turkish to Southeast Asian morphine base.In amid-1971 interview, Lieutenant Colonel Conein said that powerbrokers in Premier Ky's apparatus contacted the leaders ofSaigon's- Corsican underworld in 1965-1966 and agreed to letthem start making large drug shipments to Europe in exchangefor a fixed percentage of the profits.By October 1969 theseshipments had become so important to Marseille's heroinlaboratories that, according to Conein, there was a summitmeeting of Corsican syndicate bosses from around the world atSaigon's Continental Palace Hotel.Syndicate leaders fromMarseille, Bangkok, Vientiane, and Phnom Penh flew in for themeeting, which discussed a wide range of international racketsbut probably focused on reorganizing the narcotics traffic.112According to one well-informed U.S.diplomat in Saigon, the U.S.Embassy has a reliable Corsican informant who claims thatsimilar meetings were also held in 1968 and 1970 at theContinental Palace.Most significantly, American Mafia bossSanto Trafficante, Jr., visited Saigon in 1968 and is believed tohave contacted Corsican syndicate leaders there.Vietnamesepolice officials report that the current owner of the ContinentalPalace is Philippe Franchini, the heir of Mathieu Franchini, thereputed organizer of currency- and opium-smuggling racketsbetween Saigon and Marseille during the First Indochina War.Police officials also point out that one of Ky's strongestsupporters in the Air Force, Transport Division Commander Col.Phan Phung Tien, is close to many Corsican gangsters and hasbeen implicated in the smuggling of drugs between Laos andVietnam.From 1965 to 1967 Gen.Lansdale's Senior Liaison Office workedclosely with Premier Ky's administration, and the general himselfwas identified as one of the young premier's stronger supportersamong U.S.mission personnel.113 One can only wonder whetherConein's and Lansdale's willingness to grant the Corsicans a 98"truce" and overlook their growing involvement in the Americanheroin traffic might not have been motivated by politicalconsiderations, i.e., their fear of embarrassing Premier Ky.Just as most of the Corsican gangsters now still active in Saigonand Vientiane came to Indochina for the first time as campfollowers of the French Expeditionary Corps in the late 1940s andearly 1950s, the American Mafia followed the U.S.army toVietnam in 1965.Like any group of intelligent investors, the Mafiais always looking for new financial "frontiers," and when theVietnam war began to heat up, many of its more entrepreneurialyoung members were bankrolled by the organization and left forSaigon.Attracted to Vietnam by lucrative construction andservice contracts, the mafiosi concentrated on ordinary graft andkickbacks at first, but later branched out into narcotics smugglingas they built up their contacts in Hong Kong and Indochina.Probably the most important of these pioneers was FrankCarmen Furci, a young mafioso from Tampa, Florida.Althoughany ordinary businessman would try to hide this kind of familybackground from his staid corporate associates, Frank Furcifound that it impressed the corrupt sergeants, shady profiteers,and Corsican gangsters who were his friends and associates inSaigon.He told them all proudly, "My father is the Mafia boss ofTampa, Florida."114 (Actually, Frank's father, Dominick Furci, isonly a middle-ranking lieutenant in the powerful Florida-basedfamily.Santo Trafficante, Jr [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]