Charles Siragusa

Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent who testified to the Kefauver Committee on 27 June 1951 about his work with the Italian police on Lucky Luciano and on the Mafia's income from narcotics.

Role: "a narcotics agent, Federal Bureau of Narcotics" (his testimony, 1951)
Source: Kefauver Committee hearings, Part 14: Narcotics (1951), pp. 343–357
Rights: Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records state.

On the record

1951-04/1951-05 — In his testimony of 27 June 1951 he said that in late April and early May 1951 he worked with the Italian police in northern Italy, received copies of Luciano's interrogation statements, and was present in Rome after the airport arrest of an American carrying three kilos of heroin.
1951-06-27 — Before the Kefauver Committee he gave his position as "a narcotics agent, Federal Bureau of Narcotics," and said he had been in the work "Approximately 12 years."
1951-06-27 — Asked by committee counsel, "You mean narcotics distribution and smuggling is the principal source of income of the Mafia; is that correct?" he answered, "Yes, sir."

The committee’s contents page for Part 14 lists him among the witnesses. His statements about Luciano and the Mafia are an agent’s testimony and opinion. No record filed here gives his later career or his dates of birth or death.

Records

itemTestimony of Charles Siragusa, Bureau of Narcotics agent, 27 June 1951 (Kefauver Committee, Part 14, pp. 343–357)A Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent tells the Kefauver Committee of his spring 1951 work with the Italian police on Lucky Luciano and a heroin arrest at the Rome airport, and answers "Yes, sir" when asked whether narcotics distribution and smuggling is "the principal source of income of the Mafia."

itemKefauver Committee hearings, Part 14: Narcotics (1951)Printed hearings of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, Part 14, Narcotics: sessions in Jessup, Lexington, and Washington, May to June 1951.