Francis Le Belge

French Mafia figure, France's last godfather. The son of a Flemish dock worker and an Algerian-born Spanish mother, he was brought up in the streets where he learned as a kid to emulate Lucky Luciano and Al Capone. At 23 he was already figuring on the police's file of organized crime as being a member of the French connection of drug running. On 3/16/1978, Belge was sentenced to 14 years in jail for heroin traffic. He was released on 6/29/1984, the first of many arrests and convictions in which he was always released due to lack of evidence. Hiding in Belgium, following allegations of heroin traffic, he was extradited to France in August 1988 and released in 1992 with no trial date being fixed. He was arrested again in 1993 as a suspect in gangland killings; set free due to insufficient proof. He was again suspected of embezzlement and not prosecuted and was arrested on 3/23/2000 under suspicion of procuring (pimp) activities. Belge even had the gall to sue France for the breach of the principle of reasonable procedures when he was remanded in custody for four years; he was awarded $11,500 and offered to give this money to Abbé Pierre's foundation as a gesture of contempt for the French legal system. Link to Wikipedia (French)