It's amazing how far Cosa Nostra infiltrates the Italian Goverments,but they never seem to get to deep into the U.S goverment,apart from the Kennedys etc..


Salvatore ``Toto'' Cuffaro, president of Sicily's regional government, resigned today following a public outcry after he celebrated a five-year prison sentence against him by handing out pastries in his office.

Cuffaro was found guilty of obstruction of justice and sentenced on Jan. 18. A picture of him handing out cannoli the day after the conviction was published Jan. 20. Cuffaro, a member of the Union of Christian Democrats who previously said he wouldn't step down, is appealing the verdict. In Italy, the appeals process must be exhausted before sentences are served.

``I've seen growing hostility toward me personally in the last few days,'' Cuffaro told Sicily's regional assembly today. Repeating that he was innocent of all charges, Cuffaro announced his ``irreversible resignation.''

The day of the conviction Cuffaro said he wouldn't resign, a decision most of his political allies supported. It wasn't until a picture was published that showed him handing out cannoli -- a crunchy, cinnamon-flavored Sicilian pastry filled with sweet ricotta cheese and dusted with powdered sugar -- that his political supporters attacked him.

``A conviction and a five-year prison sentence shouldn't be cause for celebration,'' said Gianfranco Micciche, president of Sicily's general assembly and a member of the Forza Italia party, the day the picture was published. Forza Italia had been Cuffaro's main supporter.

Cosa Nostra

Palermo prosecutors had accused Cuffaro of tipping off Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia about police surveillance. The court said that there no evidence Cuffaro favored all of Cosa Nostra, only individual mobsters he may not have known were criminals.

Two days ago, Cuffaro tried to diffuse the controversy by telling the regional assembly that the sweets had been gifts.

``Regarding the cannoli, I repeat that I was simply moving the trays that had been given to me as gifts,'' Cuffaro said.

Sicily will have to hold elections to select a new regional president within three months.

Francesco Campanella, a low-ranking member of the Villabate, Sicily, mob family, testified in court on Jan. 16, 2006, that Cuffaro told him that investigators had photographs and recordings of him with Nicola Mandala, a convicted mafia boss. Mandala was in direct contact with ``boss of bosses'' Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested in April 2006 after 43 years on the run.

Before being arrested in 2005 and turning state's witness, Campanella was a politician in Cuffaro's party and president of Villabate's city council. Cuffaro and Clemente Mastella, who caused the collapse of Romano Prodi's government two days ago by withdrawing from the ruling coalition, were groomsmen at Campanella's wedding.