Zaza's success was due to the fact that he was more involved in smuggling (first cigarettes and later drugs) and less interested in traditional Camorra extortion activities. He invested his illegal money in legitimate businesses like real estate, construction companies and restaurants. He was involved in the Pizza Connection heroin smuggling network of the early 1980s, and his name came up in connection with a September 1982 Paris meeting with other Mafiosi in which a 600 kg package of cocaine held in Brazil was discussed. In 1982, with the DEA on his tail, he allegedly was involved in importing 93 kg of heroin to his mansion in Beverly Hills in cooperation with Mafia boss Antonio Salamone. However, the DEA could not find the shipment. Zaza got his heroin supplies from the Corsican gangster Gaetano Zampa, based in Marseille.