Testimony of Charles Siragusa, Bureau of Narcotics agent, 27 June 1951 (Kefauver Committee, Part 14, pp. 343–357)

This testimony is printed in Part 14 of the committee’s hearings, from page 343; the next witness begins at page 358. Asked his position, the witness answered: “I am a narcotics agent, Federal Bureau of Narcotics.” He said he had been in the work “Approximately 12 years.” Committee counsel is printed as Mr. Moser; the chairman is not named in the passages read.

Siragusa said that in late April and early May 1951 he worked with the Italian police, and that Lucky Luciano had made three signed statements to them about an automobile discussed at the previous day’s hearing and other matters. All three, he said, were signed with “his correct name Salvatore Lucania,” and he translated from an interrogation report “made on May 5, 1951, in Naples.” Asked whether he suspected Luciano of involvement in narcotics shipments, he answered: “we had every indication to believe that he was directing the activities of this very large, very important narcotics distributing network from Italy.” He described the arrest at the Rome airport of an American with three kilos of heroin and a related arrest in Palermo.

Counsel then asked: “You mean narcotics distribution and smuggling is the principal source of income of the Mafia; is that correct?” Siragusa: “Yes, sir.” He said the title “Don” is given to “members of the higher echelon of the Mafia,” that Luciano and Nicholai Gentile held it, and that a number of Mafia members were in the United States.

These are a federal agent’s statements and opinions in answer to the committee’s questions. They are not findings of the committee or of a court, and this archive does not treat them as proof of anyone’s role.