@ChiTown thats correct, Plescia and the rest of the gang were involved in peddling coke since it was the 1980's and besides the Colombians, the Outfit also dealt with the Hernandez family which was based in Matamoros, Mexico, and through Texas, they managed to send large shipments of cocaine and marijuana all the way to Chicago. According to the feds, the organization was headed by Elio Hernandez and his sons, and these guys were quite dangerous, mostly because they were known for doing ritualistic murders. So besides being drug dealers, they also represented a gruesome cult and sacrificed their victims in such a way, in which they believed was the only way to protect their dope peddling operations and above all, themselves. One of the family’s main representatives in the U.S. was one Mexican drug lord known as Manuel “Poncho” Jaramillo, who settled himself in Mission, Texas, which was a small place near the border. Even though Jaramillo supplied drug dealers around country such as in New York and Miami, according to the government, his main connections were in Chicago. Story goes that Jaramillo’s second job, besides overseeing their dope racket, was money laundering or in other words, he invested drug money in legitimate enterprises. But even for that, he still needed some good underworld connections, and there was no other organization for such “pleasures” if it wasn’t for the Mob. So one thing led to another and next thing you know, Jaramillo made a close relationship with none other than Chicago Heights capo Al Tocco.

@Cookcounty the Outfit always had so-called sub-crews and I wouldnt be surprised if they have few even today, concerning the larger territories that they control these days. Today I would divide the Outfit on West Side crew and South Side crew, since the Chicago Heights went under the jurisdiction of the Southsiders, while the North and Northwest Side went under the Westsiders including the Elmwood Park crew and Cicero, with the second crew being allegedly in charge of the todays Outfit with DeLaurentis holding Riccas or Accardos position.

@Hollander Giancana established a drug route which went though Mexico but it wasnt supplied with the Mexican product. You see according to some reports, the connection was established with the help of several underworld Chinese syndicates from Macao and Hong Kong areas who operated independently from the Triads. The plan was for smugglers from the Philippines to ship raw opium to a small island on the Pacific Ocean known as Guam, which in fact it’s an island on U.S. territory in Micronesia, in the Western Pacific. The transportation process was carried out mainly by individuals who were paid by the Asian crime syndicates, until they brought it in Mexico, where it was usually welcomed by local gangs who were on Giancana’s payroll. His “voice” in the Mexico area was his main attorney know as Jorge Castillo who in turn also worked as Giancana’s front man and contact with local Mexican authorities and criminal gangs. This “landing” point was obviously chosen mainly because of the constant raids on U.S. soil and because of that, now the main smuggling route extended along the Arizona-Mexico border and was mainly controlled by members of Cosa Nostra in alliance with some of the Mexican criminal factions such as the Savela brothers and one Chinese born criminal Hector Mar Wong who in turn was the main dope smuggling contact between Mexico and the Asian criminal factions