Editing Unione Corse (section)

==Involvement in the heroin trade==
The Unione Corse was heavily involved in the heroin trade for a good part of the 20th century. It was heavily involved in the drugs trade in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South-East_Asia <u>South-East Asia</u>] in the 1940s, and after the French retreat from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indochina <u>Indochina</u>] in 1954, Corsican mobsters flew in drugs from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laos <u>Laos</u>] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Vietnam <u>South Vietnam</u>] by plane. The operations were collectively known as "Air Opium".

The most famous aspect of the Unione Corse's involvement in the heroin trade was what became known as "the French Connection". Between the 1930s and 1970s, they smuggled heroin refined in Marseilles to New York. Ultimately, international cooperation between law enforcement agencies dismantled the operation.