Yes there is mutual respect Nino Giuffre said the Americans send youngsters to Sicily to train them and US Mafia families are recruiting their killers in Sicily because Americans are seen as unreliable and indiscreet.

Mob families in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia need new blood after being decimated by turncoats and arrests, Roberto Centaro, the head of the Italian parliament’s anti-Mafia commission, said. “Soldiers from Sicily are considered less likely to end up collaborating with police,” he said.

Dozens of Sicilians aged between 20 and 30 are believed to have been sent from towns in the Palermo area to the United States to help to shore up the ranks of clans such as the DeCavalcante family in New Jersey and the Bonanno family in New York.