Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia

Sterling, Claire

ISBN 10: 0393027961 / ISBN 13: 9780393027969

Published by Norton, New York, 1990

About this Item

24 cm, 384, illus., some wear, soiling, and sticker residue to DJ. How the Sicilian Mafia gained control over the international trafficking inheroin and cocaine, and how feuds nearly destroyed it, but didn't. Seller Inventory # 31771

Bibliographic Details

Title: Octopus: The Long Reach of the International...

Publisher: Norton, New York

Publication Date: 1990

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: very good, good

Edition: First Edition. First Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

Traces the development of the world's largest international crime syndicate and examines their control of the illegal drug trade

From Library Journal:

Four years of exhaustive research in police records, court documents, and other archives has convinced Sterling, author of Terror Network ( LJ 3/15/81), that the Mafia operates a massive conspiracy which moves quantities of drugs and money anywhere with impunity. This control of the world heroin trade started, Sterling says, when leaders of the Sicilian Mafia and five U.S. "families" met at Palermo in 1957 to establish their network of refineries and distributors. The U.S.'s current heroin problem results from the families' deliberate increase in the supply available, Sterling says, and she sharply criticizes the police in many countries for their failure to take the Mafia threat seriously, to pursue leads with satisfactory vigor, to look for past patterns in their own files, or to share current information across borders. Thought-provoking and well-done.
-Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.