That is getting pretty close to the truth.
The Catholic Church once controlled the spice and drug trade... wars were fought over opiates. Why do you think there was a commonality between the mafia and the church wiping it’s hands of the criminal activities?
“The Catholic Church once controlled the spice and drug trade” — err.. that’s historically laughably false.
The spice trade was, under Roman times, controlled by Chola, Yemeni and Sassanid merchants.
In the Middle Ages it was controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire, Sassanids, then the Arabs along with various Indic powers.
From 1453 it was controlled (and closed off) by the Ottomans
From 1497 (rather later) until 1600 it was dominated by the portuguese. Then came the Dutch and finally, from 1800 onwards the BRitish.
At no point was “the Catholic church once controlled the spice trade”
And even more so the drug trade — that drug trade was largely the Brits — haven’t you heard of the Opium wars when a drug cartel (the British Empire) fought a war with China to force the Chinese to let them supply opoids to the Chinese?