Based on years of painstaking research, top-secret documents, and evidence exposed for the first time, The Marseille Connection by renowned attorney and Yale-educated historical expert Kenneth Foard McCallion is a riveting work of historical nonfiction about the international Marseille-based drug cartel Unione Corse. Spearheaded by the beautiful international model Patricia Richardson, Unione Corse had a virtual monopoly on the distribution of heroin in the U.S. and around the world, providing much of the illegal financing for President Richard Nixon's successful presidential campaign in 1968 and outsmarting every U.S. law enforcement and Congressional investigation.
THE UNSOLVED QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS BOOK:
1. Why did the U.S. government give so many ex-Nazis a "free pass" after World War II?
2. How did the French-Corsican mob buy their way into the Nixon White House by delivering $2 million in cash to his campaign fund?
3. Who designed President Nixon's War on Drugs to help the French Corsican mob by targeting its drug dealing competitors in Mexico and South America?
4. Why was Robin Moore, author of The French Connection, pressured by U.S. law enforcement to delete the final chapter of his book disclosing the identities of the drug kingpins who got away Scot Free?
5. How did the CIA get the nickname: "The Cocaine Import Agency"?
6. Why did the records of public hearings in Washington about the French Connection mob mysteriously disappear?
I was very pleased to be offered an advanced reader copy of this book. It is engrossing and covers a lot of material. There are extensive footnotes and citations – a chronology, appendix and endnotes as well as a lengthy cast of characters. Many of the people in the Cast of Characters are familiar, and there are references to “The French Connection” and “All the President’s Men”.
The book is written very well indeed and has an air of authority and is very credible. But the fact remains that the truth of these events remains under a “code of silence” that has yet to be broken. In fact after a while I started getting a bit worried by the idea that this review might draw me to the attention of some very unpleasant people who still want to make sure that this story remains hidden. There were public hearings conducted by the New York State Select Committee on crime. The archives and other public resources “do not have copies of the hearing records or the final report.” Also “The National Archive records relating to … critical players in this drama had also gone missing, although some filing cards … had been overlooked and were still available”.
Briefly then the book starts with strikes in the port of Marseille in the aftermath of WWII that were threatening recovery efforts by the United States that was sending food and other essential supplies. The Communist Party in France after the war was very strong, and controlled by Moscow. Stalin was keen to extend his influence beyond Eastern Europe. The OSS (precursor to the CIA) cut a deal with the Unione Corse (the Corsican equivalent of the Mafia) that there would be no interference with their drug smuggling (mostly heroin sourced from poppies in Turkey) if they broke the strike. This agreement was never recorded in writing and has persisted to this day. Most of the misguided “War on Drugs” was directed at latin America, with most of the emphasis on cocaine and marijuana. It is also clear that the CIA was directly involved in drug smuggling as a source of revenue for operations that were never authorised. While drug dealers and other small fry were picked up and prosecuted, the people who organised the smuggling remained untouched.
Drugs are, of course, exceedingly profitable and generated a considerable flow of funds and all of it in cash and thus untraceable. The funds found their way into all kinds of activities through money laundering and bribery of officials. Some of it, apparently, to CREEP to help the re-election of Richard Nixon.
Rather than attempt to summarise more of the book I am simply going to cut and paste the material I was sent which convinced me I should read the book. I trust that you will also be impressed and accept my assurance that you will not only enjoy reading the book but will also be convinced that there has been yet another cover-up of evil doing at the highest levels of government. Canadian readers also need to be aware that one of the most profitable routes for the heroin from Marseille into New York state and beyond was through Montreal.
Just out of curiosity I just Googled one of the main characters in the book. Originally all I could find was about the actress who played Mrs Tim Taylor in “Home Improvement”. This is not that Patricia Richardson.
