Pizza Trials. What a coinkydink.
"Pizza Connection Trials"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Connection_Trial
he Pizza Connection Trial (in full, United States v. Badalamenti et al.)[1] was a criminal trial against the Sicilian and American mafias that took place before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, U.S. The trial centered on a number of independently owned pizza parlor fronts used to distribute drugs, which had imported US$1.65 billion of heroin from Southwest Asia to the United States between 1975 and 1984.[2] The trial lasted from September 30, 1985, to March 2, 1987, ending with 18 convictions, with sentences handed down on June 22, 1987.[2] Lasting about 17 months, it was the longest trial in the judicial history of the United States.[3][4][5][6]
Contents
1 Background
2 Trial
2.1 Defendants
2.2 Developments
2.3 Verdicts
3 References
4 Bibliography
Background
The trial centered on a Mafia-run enterprise that involved processing heroin in Sicily, morphine purchased from Turkey and Southwest Asia, as well as cocaine from South America, for final distribution of the drugs in the United States through independently owned pizza parlor fronts as the money was laundered through several banks and brokerages in the United States and overseas.[7] The enterprise was estimated to have imported US$1.65 billion of heroin to the United States, namely the Northeast and the Midwest, between 1975 and 1984.[2][7]
For about a year, the prosecution, consisting of Richard A. Martin, Louis J. Freeh, Robert Stewart, Robert B. Bucknam and Andrew C. McCarthy, gathered hundreds of witnesses, wiretaps, and thousands of documents, which cost several million dollars to complete.[5] Arrests of conspirators were coordinated in the United States, Italy, Switzerland and Spain on April 8, 1984, following the capture of Gaetano Badalamenti and his son Vito Badalamenti together with Pietro Alfano in Madrid, Spain;[2][8] on November 15, they were extradited to the United States.[9] Badalamenti was formerly on the Sicilian Mafia Commission.[10][11] A day later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested nearly 30 people in New York City, seizing weapons and drugs.[7]
Turncoat witness Tommaso Buscetta (in sunglasses) is led into court at the "Maxi Trial", circa 1986.
One of these witnesses was Sicilian Mafia pentito Tommaso Buscetta, who had already revealed information to Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone to prepare for the Maxi Trial, was extradited in December 1984 to the United States where he received a new identity from the government, American citizenship and placement in the Witness Protection Program in exchange for new revelations against the American Mafia in the Pizza Connection Trial.[12][13][3][14]
Another witness was Sicilian Mafia pentito Salvatore Contorno, who followed the example of Buscetta, and began collaborating in October 1984, and also testified at the Maxi Trial.[15][16][17]
Former undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone, who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family between 1976 and 1981 using the alias "Donnie Brasco", also testified at the trial.[18]
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