In 1948, the streets of every major city in America saw a huge and sudden rise in the heroin supply.

Harry Enslinger was the commissioner of federal narcotics and he wanted answers. A confidential informant drops

a bombshell. The man bringing in the heroin is the head of the mafia's national crime syndicate

Lucky Luciano. That was a surprise. The mob didn't deal drugs but maybe things changed.

Anslinger set agents to Sicily where they caught Luciano preparing a half ton shipment of heroin heading to New York City by way of

Havana. Now the US government didn't have jurisdiction in Sicily so they brought in

the local police. They refused to make an arrest. Anslinger called the State

Department for help.

After a few transfers, his call is finally connected to the U.S. Embassy in Palermo.

A young man picks up the phone and says,

Sorry Commissioner, have your agents stand down, Lucky's with us.

Anslinger was confused.

He asks, what do you mean us?

The response was the last thing Harry Anslinger expected to hear.

Lucky Luciano, one of the world's most notorious crime bosses,

was working for the East.

As former allies became enemies, the Cold War began.

The Soviet Union suffered massive losses, liberating countries as it marched to Berlin.

And those liberated countries, they weren't giving them back.

Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, they became Soviet satellite states, and the Soviets wanted more.

How much more nobody knew.

Europe was in ruins.

...