Pizza Connection Trial

The Pizza Connection Trial stands as the longest criminal jury trial in the federal courts in U.S. history. The trial began on September 30, 1985 and ended with convictions of all but one of the 22 defendants on March 2, 1987.

The trial centered on a Mafia-run enterprise that distributed vast quantities of heroin and cocaine in the United States, and then laundered the cash before sending it back to the suppliers in Sicily. The U.S. defendants utilized a number of independently owned pizza parlors as fronts for narcotics sales and collections – hence the name “Pizza Connection”. Evidence at the trial proved that the enterprise shipped no less than $1.6 billion of heroin to the U.S. between 1975 and April 1984. Arrests of scores of conspirators were coordinated in the U.S., Italy, Switzerland and Spain on April 9, 1984, following the capture of Gaetano Badalamenti and several family members the previous day in Madrid, Spain. Badalamenti was the former boss of the Sicilian Mafia, and a key supplier of heroin and cocaine to the U.S. Mafia distributors.

The arrests were carried out by U.S. authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Customs Service and the New York City Police Department, who worked in extremely close cooperation with the Italian National Police and prosecutors, as well as the Swiss authorities. The arrests followed a two-year investigation carried out by U.S. and Italian authorities who shared highly sensitive information and agreed to coordinate their efforts to strike the U.S./Italian mafia-narcotics business.

Thirty-eight mafia members and associates were originally indicted in the case, and 35 were named in the charges presented to the jury. Of those 35, 4 were convicted in Italy, 4 in Switzerland and 4 were fugitives. Approximately 27 of the defendants were residing in the U.S. at the time of the arrests. Out of those, only 22 defendants ‒ believed to be just a fraction of the number of Mafiosi involved in the scheme ‒ eventually stood trial. Prior to the start of the trial, one defendant was murdered, one died of natural causes and another was murdered during the trial. All were Sicilian born, and many could not speak English. Each defendant had his own attorney for the historic trial, which made the courtroom especially crowded.

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