The Mob was always into drugs. Don Vito Cascio Ferro, who established the first connection between the Sicilian Mafia and the US Families in 1909, did so to establish a heroin pipeline. Arnold Rothstein, the biggest gangster in America in the '20s, dealt drugs. Charlie Luciano dealt drugs. Vito Genovese called the 1957 Apalachin meeting in part to ratify the traffic in drugs.