Italy was primarily a transit area for heroin, with most of it being absorbed by the U.S. market. The drug traveled from its source as either raw opium or morphine, although shipments of opium became increasingly uncommon, disappearing after 1963 (CPM: 1535). The advantage of morphine lies in the substantial weight reduction: two couriers carrying, say, ten kilos each could transport the equivalent in morphine of two hundred kilos of opium. Opium was mostly delivered by sea, whereas morphine could just as easily be sent by truck or plane. According to Contorno, morphine also liberated Sicilian dealers from the powerful boats belonging to Neapolitan smugglers, for any small boat would now do (TC: 159). To minimize losses in case of detection, large loads were sometimes split in Malta into multiple parcels (CPM: 1544).

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 631