Pizza Connection Trial

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Turncoat witness Tommaso Buscetta (in sunglasses) is lead into court at the "Maxi Trial", circa 1986.

The Pizza Connection Trial was one of the largest criminal cases in United States history, taking place between October 24, 1985 and March 2, 1987.

1 Scope of the trial
2 Defendants
3 Witnesses
4 Verdict
5 Consequences
6 References
7 External link

[edit] Scope of the trial

The trial centered around a mafia plot to distribute heroin and launder the proceeds using a number of independently owned pizza parlors as fronts. The lead store was Al Dentes in Forest Hills NY. It still operates as a Pizza parlor to this day, under new owners. Ironically it is one block from a location used in the movie GoodFellas (the Barber Shop Scene). It is estimated that $1.6 billion worth of illegal drugs was brought into the U.S. between 1975 and 1984, when a number of the key drug traffickers were arrested in a Palermo airport trying to smuggle in huge amounts of cash. This resulted in a major crackdown primarily involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York City Police, with co-operation from Italian police.

[edit] Defendants

There were 22 defendants standing trial - believed to be just a fraction of the number of Mafiosi involved in the scheme - all Sicilian born, and many of whom could not speak English. Each defendant had his own attorney, which made the courtroom especially crowded. One of the defendants was murdered before the trial even began and two others were shot during the course of the trial. Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta testified at the trial against his former criminal associates; he had not been part of the Pizza Connection scheme himself, but he had helped establish the Sicilians' presence in the U.S. drug trade in the early 1970s and had been a close friend of many of the defendants.

[edit] Witnesses

Another key witness was Salvatore Contorno, a Sicilian mafioso who became a state witness following the example of Buscetta. He agreed to testify in return for entry in the United States’ Witness Protection Program after having been the target of an attempted murder by the Corleonesi and losing family members to the same. He gave the evidence that directly linked the defendants to heroin trafficking. On the witness stand, he told how in the spring of 1980 he was present at a meeting in the iron factory of Leonardo Greco in Bagheria, Sicily. Among those present were five of the defendants at the trial: Salvatore Greco, Giuseppe Ganci, Gaetano Mazzara, Salvatore Catalano, and Francesco Castronovo. Contorno watched as the men, "took out two plastic garbage bags and extracted packages of white powder in clear plastic envelopes, each bearing different tiny scissor cuts or pen or pencil marks to identify the individual owner. They poured samples of the powder into a bottle heating on a hot plate." These same marked samples would later be intercepted by the DEA as a seizure of 40 kilograms of 85 percent pure heroin which was "$8 million worth at Mafia importer’s prices and at least $80 million worth at street prices."

[edit] Verdict

The case proved especially difficult for the jurors, who were not allowed to take notes and were often asked to leave the court at important times, and for defendants, many of whom could not understand English.

The case was meant to strike a definitive blow to the drug trade in the U.S. and for this reason the costs and the sheer scale of the trial were allowed to escalate. The case ended up costing $50 million. The prosecution case alone took a year to present. Ultimately, however, despite most of the defendants being found guilty, the trial had little impact on the drug problem in the U.S.

[edit] Consequences

Gaetano Badalamenti, a former Mafia boss from Palermo, Sicily, was one of those convicted. He was given a 45-year sentence.

Domenico Lo Galbo, another of the bosses, convicted in absentia and sentenced to 18 years, died on 30 December 2005 in his bed in Bagheria (near Palermo). Relatives called the police to denounce the death, pretending he had returned from the United States to Sicily a few days before in order to die in his bed.

The lead prosecutor was future FBI Director Louis Freeh. He was responsible for the novel use of actors who read and acted out the English translations of the transcripted dialogue between the defendants.

Rudy Giuliani, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who would later become Mayor of New York, also played a key role in the prosecution case.