Busting a pizza connection
Alfano's Pizza and Spaghetti Restaurant in tiny Oregon, Ill. (pop. 3,800), was a classic mom-and-pop eatery. The friendly Sicilian owner, Pietro ("Pete") Alfano, often tied on an apron and made the pizza himself. Townsfolk were understandably shocked last week when federal authorities arrested Pete, calling him a "main contact point in the United States" for an international drug-trafficking ring run by one of New York City's major Mafia families.
FBI Director William Webster and Attorney General William French Smith held a news conference in New York City last week to announce that Alfano and 30 others, including many key organized-crime figures, had been charged with conspiring to violate federal drug laws. The drug ring is believed to have smuggled 1,650 Ibs. of heroin (street value: $1.65 billion) into the U.S. since 1979.
The two alleged masterminds of the drug ring lived in different countries. Gaetano Badalamenti, arrested in Madrid last week, was the Sicilian connection. Badalamenti was described as one of the heads of the worldwide Mafia. His "big cheese" in the U.S. was Salvatore Catalano, purportedly a leader of the Bonanno crime family.
According to the FBI's 341 -page affidavit, Badalamenti and his deputies in Sicily purchased opium from Pakistan and Afghanistan, oversaw its production into heroin, then exported it to the U.S. There Bonanno-family members, including Alfano and his fellow restaurateurs in the Midwest, acted as middlemen. Finally, the money was collected by the Catalano Mob faction and laundered through prestigious New York City brokerage houses.
Federal authorities gathered evidence by wiretapping some 300 telephone conversations. According to court documents, important calls were exchanged from phones in or near Al Dente pizzeria in Queens, New York, owned by Catalano and a frequent meeting place for lieutenants in his faction of the Bonanno family. The smugglers spoke in obscure Sicilian dialects and in code. Shipments of heroin were called "cheese" or "tomatoes." U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani says the bust was part of a larger assault on the Mafia. "We can substantially crush organized crime," he said. "And we are doing just that."