Operation Underworld was the United States government's code name for its co-operation with the Italian-American Mafia and Jewish organized-crime figures from 1942 to 1945. The operation aimed to counter Axis spies and saboteurs along the U.S. northeastern seaboard ports, to avoid wartime labor-union strikes, and to limit theft by black marketeers of vital war supplies and equipment.
Suspicion about Mafia sabotage in the fire and sinking of Normandie (renamed Lafayette for war service), led to Operation Underworld
Meyer Lansky, known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States.
Lansky in 1958
Lucky Luciano, Lansky's partner in the American Mafia.