[citation needed] The Corsican mafia is an influential organized crime structure operating in France, as well as North African and Latin American countries.
In World War II, the Corsican mafia led by the Guerini brothers [fr] (Antoine and Barthélémy, nicknamed "Mémé") sided with the anti-communist SFIO faction within the French Resistance.
In 1947, Marseille was the main trading port of the French colonial empire and it had a Communist mayor, Jean Christofol, who was backed by the labour unions for longshoremen, transportation workers, and dockworkers.
From the 1960s to the early 1970s the major Corsican organized crime groups were collectively termed the Unione Corse by American law enforcement.
During the same era, they organized the French Connection, a massive heroin trafficking operation based in Marseille that sold to the American Mafia.