The Nation - News from Aug. 14, 1987
Accused “pizza connection” heroin kingpin Pietro Alfano pleaded guilty by telephone to charges of racketeering and drug conspiracy. Alfano, 51, a pizzeria owner from Oregon, Ill., and his lawyer, Patrick Burke, telephoned U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York from a hospital room to enter the guilty plea. Alfano was convicted in March in a 17-month, $1.6-billion drug smuggling trial dubbed the “pizza connection” because pizzerias were used as fronts for drug distribution, but the conviction was overturned last month. Alfano was critically wounded Feb. 11 in a mob assassination attempt in Greenwich Village.
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