cover image Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia

Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia

Claire Sterling. Simon & Schuster, $10.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-671-73402-2

At a 1957 gangland summit meeting in Palermo, American mobsters gave the drug franchise to the Sicilian Mafia, which now controls a multinational drug cartel and much of U.S. heroin and cocaine traffic. PW described this as ``an important contribution to our understanding of world crime.'' Photos. Author tour. (Feb.)