Before the rise of the Cosa Nostra, illegal drug trafficking in New York was mainly controlled by Jewish criminal organizations. Arnold Rothstein emerged as the leading Jewish crime boss in New York in the 1920s. Historical sources describe him as the head of drug trafficking in New York at that time, before he was murdered in 1928, but they also point out that he was a powerful gangster involved in various other criminal activities, including gambling and smuggling. His death created a power vacuum in the New York criminal world, which allowed the Cosa Nostra to gradually establish itself in the drug trade

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