The heroin trade boosted the fortunes of the Mafia in America during the 1960s but the fortunes it brought and the divisions it caused among the Italian mobster families ultimately sowed the seeds of their own destruction. Masterminding the trade was the ruthless and greedy Carmine Galante, head of the Bonanno family and his band of Sicilian killers, assassins who operated under the radar of law enforcement. The Sicilian Mafia were smuggling vast amounts of heroin into New York inside foodstuffs, distributed via Sicilian-owned restaurants in Brooklyn, hence it was dubbed 'the pizza connection'. But as the reckless Galante operated without the approval of the mob's board of directors, known as the Commission, sneered at their reticence about dealing in drugs and refused to share enough of the heroin proceeds with them, it was decided he had to go.
