Cold War Narcotics Control

With more and more investigations connecting the mafia to drug trafficking, and with the start of investigations that would lead to the famous “French Connection,” Anslinger re-opened FBN’s first overseas post in Rome, Italy that had been closed with the outbreak of World War II.

After the war America’s attention turned toward the Cold War and the spread of Communism. China, a source country for opiates, became a target for a so-called Communist narcotics offensive. The McCarthy scare reinforced Anslinger’s worries that Communists were “flooding the world with dope to corrupt the youth of America.”

“When the Russians land on the moon, the first man they will meet will be Anslinger, searching for narcotics.”

— Mob Boss Charles “Lucky” Luciano

Chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver (D-TN), the 1951 Kefauver hearings examined the existence and role of the mafia in America. The Committee’s investigators were two FBN Agents who testified that “organized crime smuggled into and distributed enough narcotics to supply one-fifth of the addict population in America.” Anslinger’s FBN prepared a list of some 800 individuals with suspected ties to the mafia and drugs.

Congressional investigations continued in 1957 with the McClellan Hearings. Formally referred to as the “Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field,” these hearings delved further into organized crime in America. Anslinger testified before the committee whose members included John F. Kennedy, Joseph McCarthy, and Barry Goldwater. Robert Kennedy was its chief counsel.