Having had no first-hand experience with organized crime, Mario Puzo relied on “research” in writing The Godfather. Among his sources was the testimony of Joseph Valachi, which in the early 1960s for the first time provided a public glimpse into the inner workings of the mafia. Valachi testified that mob bosses like Chicago’s Tony Accardo actually paid their underlings weekly stipends in order to discourage them from dealing drugs (Carl Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia, 242).

Several mob leaders publicly insisted that they did not condone drug smuggling. Joe Bonanno’s autobiography A Man of Honor declared that his “tradition” outlawed narcotics, which no true “men of honor” would traffic in. However, because of the high profits, a scattered few of his underlings had dabbled in it.

Frank Costello, whose biography has several parallels with that of Puzo’s fictional Vito Corleone, professed to be anti-drug. Though he was able to control members of his own Luciano family to an extent, he was not successful in convincing other mobsters in saying no. Indeed, his own successor, Vito Genovese, was sentenced to 15 years in prison following a narcotics conviction.

Law enforcement officers were skeptical of mob bosses’ claims to being drug-free, given the established links between organized crime and narcotics. It’s worth noting that Costello, the primary model for Corleone, was one of the most tied to “legitimate” public figures, so he had the most to lose, so it makes sense that he would try to keep as much distance between himself and drugs as possible.

Public disgust at narcotics smugglers was distinct from the way that Americans felt about Prohibition. Illegal alcohol, like gambling and to an extent prostitution, was seen as a minor vice that was in great public demand. Americans liked to make gambling illegal, for example, but also liked to gamble themselves. Or, as rumrunner Moe Daltiz apocryphally told the Kefauver Committee: “I wouldn’t have bootlegged it if you people wouldn’t have drank it.”

In writing The Godfather, Puzo was not seeking to author an accurate depiction of organized crime in America. Rather, he wanted to make a lot of money. He openly admits this in an essay collected in his book The Godfather Papers. As such, aimed to use his cobbled-together research on organized crime as the backdrop for a dramatic personal story. Also lost to many is Puzo’s incredible cynicism; in a deep reading of the text, Don Corleone is far from a heroic figure. For dramatic purposes, of course, Corleone’s refusal to provide protection for drug smuggler Virgil Solazzo drives the plot of the story, ultimately leading Michael Corleone to succeed his father as Don. So, while it might not be accurate, Corleone’s anti-drug stance did the job Puzo needed it to.