Cigarette smuggling made Michele “The Madman” Zaza a fortune and earned him another nickname: “King of the Blondes.”
Under questioning, he once testified: “First I’d sell 5 cases of Philip Morris, then 10, then a 1,000, then 3,000, and I bought myself six or seven ships that you took away from me… I used to load 50,000 cases a month. I could load 100,000 cases, $10 million dollars on trust. All I had to do was make a phone call. I’d buy $24 million dollars’ worth of Philip Morris in three months. My lawyer will show you the receipts. I’m proud of that! $24 million!”
Yes, Michele Zaza, I've heard of him. But he wasn't Sicilian, was he? Wasn't he Napolitano?
Michele Zaza]; Procida, April 10, 1945 – Rome, July 18, 1994) was a member of the Camorra criminal organisation who was also initiated in the Sicilian Mafia. He headed the Zaza clan n Naples. On July 18, 1994, he died of a heart attack in a Rome hospital where he had been transferred from the Rebibbia prison. His nephew Ciro Mazzarella, who had remained in Naples to control the territory, succeeded Zaza as the head of the clan, which started to be called Mazzarella clan, and no longer Zaza clan.
