The Havana Conference Part 3

The next area of focus for the Havana Conference was the Global Narcotics trade, which was one of the most significant topics on the Havana Conference agenda. In the book “The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano” it is stated that Luciano said “I told ‘em I want ‘em to get the hell outa that business, to stop it right then and there, and to forget it.” However, this argument was falling on deaf ears. As the discussion continued about the huge sums of money that could be made from drugs, Luciano could see this was a conflict he was not going to win. Soon Costello leaned over and whispered, “Charlie, don’t hit your head against the wall. Vito rigged it before the meet started. Try to get out of it as soon as you can. Someday, they’ll all be sorry.” Many experts believe this information is incorrect and the belief that Luciano and the Cosa Nostra did not want to nor did they deal in narcotics is mythical and incorrect. The reality is that only a few bosses who ran lucrative gambling rackets were opposed to the drug trade. One of these bosses was Frank Costello, the acting boss for the Luciano family at the time. These anti-narcotics, pro-gambling bosses were not interested in the drug trade. They believed dealing drugs would have a negative impact on La Cosa Nostra because of the media and law enforcement attention it would bring to the organization. For these reasons and the fact that the general public considered drugs to be a very harmful unlike gambling these few bosses argued against dealing drugs. However the majority of the bosses, who were pro-narcotics had a valid counterargument; they argued that narcotics were far more profitable than any other illegal activity and if they overlooked the drug trade, other criminal organizations would pick it up, which would lead to power and influence fading away from the La Cosa Nostra.

The top boss, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano had been involved with drugs from a very young age. He came up as a street dealer in the late 1910s and in 1928 after the murder of his old boss, Arnold “The Big Bankroll” Rothstein, Luciano decided along with Louis “Lepke” Buchatler to take over Rothstein’s large narcotics importation. La Cosa Nostra had been involved in the narcotics trade long before the Havana Conference and well after it. La Cosa Nostra was the biggest importer of narcotics from the 1920s-1980s in the United States, until other drug organizations and cartels such as those of the Mexicans and Asians prospered. The specific concern of the narcotics trade for the Havana Conference was monopolizing it. Charlie “Lucky” Luciano’s deportation was hurtful for him but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Mob’s Narcotic operations.

Upon his deportation to Sicily, Luciano now had the opportunity to import heroin from North Africa via Italy and Cuba to the United States and Canada. He made affiliations with Sicily’s biggest and most powerful bosses such as Don Calogero “Calo” Vizzini of Villalba who assisted in the Allied invasion of Sicily and had the greatest political connections of all Sicilian bosses. Don Pasquale Ania, a powerful boss in Palermo was another boss who had become an affiliate of Luciano. Don Pasquale Ania had connections to legitimate pharmaceutical companies; these connections were a result of large scale heroin production being legal at that time in Italy.

At the Havana conference Luciano laid out the details of the proposed drug networks that would help monopolize drug trafficking for the Cosa Nostra. The proposed plan was as follows; after arriving into Cuba from North Africa, the mob would ship the Narcotics to US ports that it controlled primarily New York City, New Orleans and Tampa. After arriving in their destined ports the narcotics would be overseen by the Luciano Crime Family (later the Genovese Family) and the Mangano Crime Family (later the Gambino Family) in New York, the Marcello Crime Family would oversee the operation in New Orleans and in Tampa the Trafficante Crime Family would watch over the narcotics operation. All the delegates voted yes to approve the plan.

The Havana Conference Part 1

In 1946, Luciano, now living in Italy after being deported and barred from America had grown a curiosity about Cuba. In early fall 1946, when Luciano was living in Rome, he got word in a sealed envelope through a newly deported U.S Mafioso. In the envelope was a paper with three words, “December Hotel Nacional”. Two Italian passports were issued to Luciano in late September, in his real name, Salvatore Luciano. On those passports were visas for Mexico, Cuba and several other South American Nations. Since the moment he was deported, Luciano had been planning to get back to America, a plan which was now becoming possible and even though he still couldn’t get in to America, he could get very close to it. 

In late October Luciano left Italy for Caracas, Venezuela, from Venezuela he flew to Mexico City, where he boarded a private plane to Havana. Arriving in Havana, Luciano was greeted by his childhood friend and associate Meyer Lansky. Luciano first stayed in a luxurious suite in the Hotel Nacional and then moved into a spacious home in the suburb of Miramar. Lansky, on Luciano’s orders had organized the conference for the week of December 22 in the Hotel Nacional. Lansky suggested that Luciano should purchase a $150 000 interest in the Hotel Nacional, a hotel which was owned by Meyer Lansky and his silent partner, the Cuban President Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar.

In December 1946 the Havana Conference was in motion. Top Mafioso’s from all over the United States bolted into Havana. All of the guests brought envelopes full of cash for Luciano, to welcome him back from exile and to recognize the authority he still had in the Mafia. This money was handed to Luciano at dinner on the night before the conference started. The dinner was hosted by Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Joe Adonis and the money which Luciano was given amounted to more than $200,000. Frank Sinatra was performing at the Hotel Nacional that week and that was the cover story for the conference. The mobsters were supposedly all there for a gala party in which Sinatra was the entertainment. Frank Sinatra flew in from Chicago to Havana with Al Capone’s Cousins, Charlie, Rocco and Joseph Fischetti. Joseph “Joe Fish” Fischetti, an old acquaintance of Sinatra, acted as his chaperone and bodyguard, while the other two Fischetti’s delivered a suitcase containing $2 million to Luciano. The $2 million was his share of the U.S rackets he still controlled. 

The most significant items on the agenda of the Havana Conference were the leadership and authority of the Mafia in New York, the mob-controlled Havana casino interests, the narcotics operations, and the West Coast operations of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, especially the new Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Luciano’s main concern was the situation in New York. Luciano had been away from several months and was not happy with the growing tension in New York. Previous acting Boss for the Luciano Family, Vito Genovese had returned from exile in Italy and was not happy with Frank Costello being the boss and him just being a capo regime and having a minor role in the organization.