How Al Capone's Empire Grew
Al Capone's Whiskey Importation Turns Into Cocaine Hydrochloride Al Capone had been a juvenile delinquent and gained his "scarface" nickname after he was slashed across the cheek while working as a night club bouncer. The once small-time thug moved up and up to become the head of a huge villainous organization, believed to be responsible for at least 300 murders. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre in which seven members of a rival gang were lined up against a garage wall and gunned down, is probably the most notorious and bloody killing attributable to Capone's reign of terror in Chicago's 1920's. However, Capone was more prominent in going against the law of prohibition. While alcohol was outlawed, Capone smuggled whiskey from Canada to New York and then on to Chicago. Bringing in this illegal good is what made Capone $105 million in 1927 alone. Although alcohol is now legal, the United States is still a consumer of illegal substances. One of these main illegal imports is cocaine. It is shipped up from Central American countries and then distributed throughout the states. The problem is that it's not just a few key people as it was in the days of Capone, but many take part in this country to country business. The government tries to control the problem, but can't get off as easy as convicting them of tax evasion as it did to Capone. Much has been written and said about Al Capone, most of which is completely false. One of the most common fictions is that like many gangsters of the Capone era, he was a native Italian. This is not true. This amazing crime czar was born in Brooklyn, taking the feudal Italian criminal society and turning it into a modern American criminal enterprise. Many Italian immigrants, like immigrants of all nationalities, frequently came to the United States with very few belongings. Many of them were peasants of rural Italy escaping the lack of opportunity. When they arrived at large American port cities they often ended up as laborers due to
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