Jacob "Yasha" Katzenberg (born 1888) was an organized crime figure in New York who supplied narcotics to mobsters including

Charles "Lucky" Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano ( ; ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian gangster who operated mainly in the United States. He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the ...

Waxey Gordon Irving Wexler (born January 19, 1888 – June 24, 1952) better known as Waxey Gordon, was an American gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. An associate of Arnold Rothstein during prohibition, he was caught up in a pow ...

, Charles "King" Solomon, Harry "Nig" Rosen, the Torrio–

Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( ; ; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of t ...

organization as well as mobsters in Detroit, Kansas City and St. Louis.

Biography

Born in Russia, Katzenberg grew up in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

and, by the mid-1920s, he had become involved with

Arnold Rothstein Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 6, 1928), nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish Mob in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have orga ...

in drug trafficking helping purchasing heroin from Europe and establishing pipelines into New York for distribution throughout the rest of the country. Following Rothstein's death in 1928, Katzenberg was readily enlisted by Luciano and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter to obtain heroin for their own operations as well as bootleg liquor. During the early 1930s, following regulations by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

for countries to reduce drug production to meet domestic medical needs, the availability of narcotics began to decline and Katzenberg traveled to Asia following the end of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

in 1933. Returning to Brooklyn, he established an opium processing plant on Seymour Avenue (reportedly backed by Buchalter and

Meyer Lansky Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the dev ...

among others rumored to be partners in the operation) along with several others. In December 1935, authorities discovered the plant following an explosion which destroyed much of the manufacturing equipment. However, agents with the Federal Narcotics Bureau were unable to obtain enough evidence to press charges against Katzenberg and his partners. Meeting with Buchalter and Lansky, the three agreed that he and Buchalter would continue smuggling narcotics from

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

into the United States through connections with officials within the United States Customs. It was later claimed by customs officials that $10 million was made from only six purchases made by Katzenberg between December 1935 and February 1937. Informants eventually infiltrated the drug ring and many of its members including Katzenberg were indicted by federal authorities. Fleeing the country, Katzenberg traveled to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and, although detained by officials, he was instead deported to neighboring

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

where he was held in custody until his extradition to the United States. Eventually convicted on narcotics charges, Katzenberg was issued a fine of $10,000 and sentenced ten years in prison. He would later testify against Buchalter and Johnny Torrio and, following his release, disappeared from public record.

External links

Yasha, "The Wandering Jew"
by Allan May

''Time'', December 12, 1938. {{DEFAULTSORT:Katzenberg, Jacob 1880s births Jewish American gangsters American people of Russian-Jewish descent Year of death unknown Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States

Biography

Further reading

External links