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Another variation to the basic pattern involves the use of West Germany as either a temporary storage depot or as an operational base for Middle East middlemen who purchase the Turkish narcotics and resell them to French heroin producers. There are also middle- men operating out of other West European countries, particularly Italy, who facilitate the movement of narcotics from Turkey to France. These middlemen act either as forwarding agents for the French buyers or as independent suppliers, having acquired their stocks through their own connections in the Middie East.
Three basic smuggling routes are used in the transport of heroin from France to the United States: from Europe directly or via Canada, from Europe via Mexico, and from Europe via various other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 1969, heroin smuggled via the Latin American route has accounted for about one- third of the seizures. Regardless of the smuggling route, however, most of the heroin entering the United States apparently winds up in New York before being distributed to other parts of the country.
The direct Europe-U.S. route is the oldest French heroin smug- gling route and remains the most active. Direct shipments to the United States enable the French traffickers to avoid using foreign middlemen who might otherwise establish a closer relationship to U.S. buyers. The French smugglers have the advantage of concealing their shipments within a huge volume of transatlantic commerce and need pass through only one customs check. The risk to the French
CATCHING A BIG FISH
In March 1971, a Frenchman residing in Paraguay, Auguste Joseph Ricord, was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in New York in connection with the smuggling of 94 pounds of heroin in October 1970. In the indictment, Ricord was cited as being involved in cases dating back to 1935, in which more than 500 pounds of pure heroin were smuggled into the United States. On September 2, 1972, after lengthy court proceedings, the Government of Paraguay extradited Ricord to the United States.
On December 15, 1972, Ricord was convicted in the Federal Dis- trict Court in New York City of conspiring to smuggle narcotics. On January 29, 1973, he was sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison. Officials have said that Ricord's operation was responsible for half the heroin smuggled into the United States in the last five years-a total of perhaps 15 tons.
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