Auguste Ricord
Encyclopedia
Auguste Ricord, nicknamed Il Commandante, was one of the founding members of the French Connection
, a mafiosi-type organisation involved in heroin trade, based in France in the 1950s and 1960s.
An agent of Henri Lafont
, a member of the Carlingue
(the French Gestapo), under the Vichy regime
, he used part of the funds stolen by the Carlingue during the war to create drug laboratories near Marseille
. Heroin was refined there before being exported to the US.
Auguste Ricord was arrested in 1972 in Asuncion, Paraguay and then extradited to the US. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison and spent 10 years in jail until pardoned. He then returned to Paraguay in 1983 and died two years later.
French Connection
The French Connection was a scheme through which heroin was smuggled from Turkey to France and then to the United States. The operation reached its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it provided the vast majority of the illicit heroin used in the United States...
, a mafiosi-type organisation involved in heroin trade, based in France in the 1950s and 1960s.
An agent of Henri Lafont
Henri Lafont
Henri Lafont, real name Henri Chamberlin was the head of the French Gestapo during the German occupation in World War II.-Sources:*Magazine Historia Hors Série n°26 1972 by Fabrice Laroche...
, a member of the Carlingue
Carlingue
The French Gestapo or Carlingue was the name given to French auxiliaries of the Gestapo, based at 93, rue Lauriston in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and active between 1941 and 1944...
(the French Gestapo), under the Vichy regime
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
, he used part of the funds stolen by the Carlingue during the war to create drug laboratories near Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. Heroin was refined there before being exported to the US.
Auguste Ricord was arrested in 1972 in Asuncion, Paraguay and then extradited to the US. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison and spent 10 years in jail until pardoned. He then returned to Paraguay in 1983 and died two years later.
See also
- Lucien SartiLucien SartiLucien Sarti was a drug trafficker and killer-for-hire involved in the infamous French Connection heroin network. He was named on the television series The Men Who Killed Kennedy, as well as in a deathbed confession by former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt, as one of the men who shot at U.S. President...
, quoted in The Men Who Killed KennedyThe Men Who Killed KennedyThe Men Who Killed Kennedy is a 9-part video documentary series by Nigel Turner about the John F. Kennedy assassination. The series, which related various conspiracy theories, was extensively challenged on factual grounds....