After an ultimatum from the Narcotics Bureau, the Cubans unwillingly gave Luciano the nudge and he returned to Italy with good long notices in the press. Bank drafts can be easily traced and bills of large denominations are suspect. So, according to the story released by government men, the boys got the idea of passing over the loot in small currency units carried in hand luggage by celebrities who would be given the freedom of the port because of their prestige. When Italian police raided Luciano's apartment last year they found, among other objets d'art, a solid gold cigarette case inscribed. For one thing, since repeal, many of the largest American and Canadian distillers, as well as some wine and liquor importers, are owned by the hoodlums who bought into them with their swollen prohibition profits.
Night clubs are perfect outlets for their wares.
Although many of the night clubs show a loss on the books, modern corporate set-ups utilize this fact in a diversity of ways. A man can lose on the operation of one of them but more than make up for it in the profit he obtains from his liquor sales to it. One of the gaudiest New York saloons never shows a profit on its books though hundreds of thousands are distributed to the bosses every year. Prices in this club are unusually moderate but it is impossible to get a table without slipping the headwaiter from five to twenty dollars. The underworld is dependent on a huge machine of workers, and when crime times are slow, the lower caste still has to be taken care of.