Auguste Joseph Ricord was the most important foreign national to be convicted of drug crimes on United States soil. Convicted in New York in December 1972, he was sentenced in January 1973. Ricord had immigrated to Argentina from France in the years after World War II. He became an Argentine citizen in 1957. His international drug ring was based in Rio de Janeiro and Asuncion, Paraguay. At U.S. President Richard Nixon's urging Paraguayan officials extradited Ricord to the U.S. to stand trial.