# Exhibit 3, east coast narcotic traffic: the 1954-58 Genovese heroin conspiracy 'via Cuba' (Senate narcotics hearings, pp. 923 and 1117)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/psi-1964-exhibit-3-genovese-conspiracy-via-cuba/

The Bureau of Narcotics history printed as Exhibit 3 says the principal conspiracy case it concluded in 1958, against Vito Genovese and others, 'began in 1954 and involved the smuggling of large amounts of heroin into the United States via Cuba.'

Exhibit 3, the Bureau of Narcotics' account of narcotic traffic on the east coast, was designated during the session of 30 July 1964 and printed in Part 4. At printed page 923 (NCJRS PDF page 1049) it says: "The principal narcotic conspiracy case, culminated in 1958 by the Bureau of Narcotics, involved boss racketeer Vito Genovese, John Ormento, Natale Evola, and Rocco Mazzie. This conspiracy began in 1954 and involved the smuggling of large amounts of heroin into the United States via Cuba." (The text layer reads "Rorco" once.) It says the heroin was distributed from New York City to Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, that Ormento and Carmine Galante were fugitives at the time of trial, and that the Supreme Court had directed the Second Circuit to reconsider the Genovese case.

A background sheet in the appendix (page 1117), on the Los Angeles distributor in the same case, describes the indictment as naming 37 defendants "in a gigantic conspiracy to violate the Federal narcotic laws. The conspiracy began in 1954 and involved the smuggling of heroin in kilogram lots from Europe to the United States via Cuba." It records that "On April 3, 1959, after 13 weeks of trial, a guilty verdict was returned against all of these conspirators" except the subject of that sheet, who was acquitted.

"Boss racketeer" is the Bureau's phrase. The Second Circuit's opinion affirming the convictions, [United States v. Aviles](/items/courtlistener-us-v-aviles-274-f2d-179/), is the court's account of the case; the district court's docket number was not read for this record.

## Sources

- National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303): https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/119303NCJRS.pdf
- NCJRS catalog record (NCJ 119303): https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/organized-crime-and-illicit-traffic-narcotics-hearing-us-senate