The Corsican mafia is a collective of criminal groups originating from Corsica. The Corsican mafia is tied to both the French underworld and the Italian organized crime groups. In , Marseille was the main trading port of the French colonial empire and it had a Communist mayor, Jean Christofol , who was backed by the labour unions for longshoremen, transportation workers, and dockworkers.
In the coming Cold War , both the center-left French government and the US fought against Soviet influence in Marseille, while covertly employing illegal means to further that goal: the Guerini gang was employed to disrupt union and electoral gatherings, back strikebreakers and support US-funded anti-Soviet labor unions. From the s to the s, the Guerini brother were exempt from prosecution in Marseille. The Guerini brothers smuggled opiates from French Indochina using the Messageries Maritimes , a French merchant shipping company.
From the s to the early s the major Corsican organized crime groups were collectively termed the Unione Corse by American law enforcement. During the same era, they organized the French Connection , a massive heroin trafficking operation based in Marseille that sold to the American Mafia.
The end of the French Connection caused the disbandment of Corsican clans involved in the heroin trade. However, the evolution of the Corsican mafia has continued its several illegal activities hold-ups, racketeering , casinos , illegal slot machines , various drug dealing and prostitution. From the s, the Corsican mafia, which operated mainly outside Corsica, refocused partly on its native island. From then on, it continued to increase its influence.
It was in these years in particular that the Brise de Mer gang was born, which would subsequently become one of the largest criminal groups in Corsica and France. Since the end of the s, violent internal conflicts troubled the Corsican mafia, resulting in around murders on the island of Corsica. Today, the Corsican mafia consists of multiple families, allies, and rivals. Known groups in the Corsican mafia are the Venzolasca Gang nickname in reference to the village of Venzolasca , in northern Corsica, which are from key members of the gang , considered the Brise de Mer successors.
