Sicily's Mafia primed for reversal of fortune

FEATURE-Sicily's cornered Mafia primed for reversal of fortune
June 26, 2017, 03:00:00 AM EDT By Reuters

Reuters
(Repeats story first published on June 23 with no changes to
text)
* Sicilian Mafia seen regrouping after years of setbacks
* Large numbers of mobsters leaving jail
* Weak economy hurts mob, brings drugs back into focus

By Crispian Balmer
PALERMO, Italy, June 23 (Reuters) - Shortly before 8 a.m. on
a sunny spring morning, Mafia boss Giuseppe Dainotti was cycling
down a quiet street when two men on a motorbike drew alongside
and shot him three times, killing him on the spot.
It was a classic mob hit in the heart of the Sicilian
capital. People claimed to have seen nothing and only one person
admitted to even hearing the gunfire. A month on, no one has
been arrested.
Released from prison in 2014, Dainotti, 67, had served more
than two decades in jail for murder. The motive for his own
murder are not clear but police say the first high-profile Mafia
hit in Palermo since 2010 may signal renewed internal strife.
"The Mafia today is in search of a new leadership at a time
when a lot of the old bosses are coming out of prison," said
Palermo police chief, Renato Cortese.
"The danger is that some bigwig will be released and try to
put the Mafia back together again," he told Reuters.
Once all-powerful on Sicily, the world's most famous crime
gang, known as Cosa Nostra, "Our Thing", has been squeezed over
the past two decades, with many bosses put behind bars, many of
its businesses sequestered and many locals ready to defy it.
Despite these setbacks, no one believes it is dying. Indeed,
after years of decline, with the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta
overtaking it as Italy's most powerful mobsters, prosecutors
believe it is trying to rebuild, starting with its drug trade.
"The mafia organisation is once again looking to develop and
maintain a total monopoly on the extremely profitable narcotics
market," Matteo Frasca, the head of Palermo's Appeals Court,
said in a speech in January.
Italian prosecutors say the 'Ndrangheta has a stranglehold
on cocaine trade, but Cosa Nostra is a major player in the
Italian hashish market, often importing the drug from northern
Africa and selling it throughout Europe.
In March, police found 400 kg (880 lb) of hashish, worth an
estimated 3 million euros ($3.4 million), floating just off the
Sicilian coast after a drop-off went awry. In May, police seized
around 300 kg of hashish in a single raid in Palermo.
"For a while, the Mafia depended on public work scams and
extortion rackets for much of their money, but with the economy
in such a dire straits here, they are returning to their old
drug habits," said a senior anti-Mafia magistrate, who declined
to be named because he was not authorised to speak publicly.

SHOPKEEPERS' REVOLT
Sicily's economic output fell more than 13 percent between
2008 and 2015 and is only slowly recovering, while the jobless
rate is 22 percent, twice the national average.
The deep recession has made it much more difficult for
hard-up businesses to pay protection money, or "pizzo" in
Italian, to the Mafia and more than 1,000 firms have revolted
against paying that in Palermo alone in little more than a
decade.
In May, the trial started of nine men accused of extorting
cash from a dozen stores in the city's central Via Maqueda,
which were all run by foreigners, mainly Bangladeshis.
"It is an extraordinary affair. For the first time in
Palermo, a group of foreign storekeepers rebelled. They rebelled
together. It was a collective action," said Daniele Marannano,
coordinator of Addiopizzo, "Goodbye pizzo".
Addiopizzo is a grassroots civic movement that encourages
companies to fight back against Cosa Nostra.
"Lots of businesses still pay the pizzo, but they now want
something back from the Mafia for their money - help fixing
prices in their neighbourhood, help keeping difficult employees
in check, help collecting unpaid bills," said Marannano.
A local businessman, who declined to be named because of the
sensitivities involved, said one of the consequences of the
Mafia's decline was a rise in petty crime.
He complained that fruit groves operated by his family food
company were regularly raided at night by small-time thieves.
"That never used to happen in the past. A fly couldn't land on a
fruit tree without permission first from the Mafia."

POWER STRUGGLE
The state's fight against the Mafia only got serious in 1992
after the group murdered two of Italy's top magistrates,
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, triggering national
outrage and finally forcing complacent politicians to act.
Successive governments introduced waves of anti-Mafia laws,
allowing the state to seize mob assets, keep imprisoned mafiosi
incommunicado and far from Sicily, and develop protection
programmes for informers.
As a result, hundreds of mafiosi have been arrested over the
past 25 years, including Salvatore "Toto" Riina, the Boss of
Bosses, who ordered the murders of Falcone and Borsellino. He is
86 and believed to be terminally ill and likely to die in jail.
[nL8N1J31C7]
However, many other less prominent mobsters who were caught
up in the big anti-Mafia trials of the last two decades have
either been freed, like Dainotti, or else are coming up for
release, like Riina's nephew Giovanni Grizzaffi.
"The last Boss of Bosses was Riina. He was never formally
replaced and people felt kept in check by him, even when he was
in jail. When he dies, you might see a power struggle," said
police chief Cortese, who has a photograph of Falcone and
Borsellino hanging in his office.
Dainotti was shot dead on the eve of the 25th anniversary of
Falcone's killing, leaving police and politicians wondering
whether the date had been specially picked to signal that the
Mafia was back in action.
Rosario Crocetta, the governor of Sicily and anti-Mafia
crusader, has been the target of at least three mob plots to
kill him, most recently in 2010. He says the group is much
reduced, but ever evolving.
"They are chameleons," he said, two bodyguards standing
alongside his table at an outdoors cafe.
"You are never going to win total victory over the Mafia,
just as you can never totally defeat evil."

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/featuresic...-20170626-00073

I just read this this morning, lol good post my man...


It pretty much sums up what I have observed, and been posting about for the last two years or so....

Drugs are King.....

I always knew the Sicilians were trying to reactivate their Narcotics channels, and that this is the primary function of their relationship with the American LCN.


You think Rizzuto got the Sicilians involved in Hashish? He was HUGE in that before he died, I think he was the biggest Sicilian importer for hash, the other biggest clans are all the Naples clans embedded in Spain.....

Sicily prepares for Mafia kingpins' comeback: Fears the island could see the return of mob rule as old bosses are released from prison after completing their sentences


•Mafia boss Giuseppe Dainotti, 67 was shot dead in Palermo, Italy, last month
•Police say his murder signals renewed internal strife among notorious gang
•Dainotti was released from prison in 2014 after two decades behind bars

There are fears that Sicily could see the return of mob rule, as former Mafia bosses are released from prison.

Mafia boss Giuseppe Dainotti, 67, was shot dead in broad daylight in Palermo, Italy, at the end of last month.

The motive for the murder is not clear, but police say the first high-profile Mafia hit in the Sicilian capital since 2010 suggests there may be renewed internal strife.

Prior to his death, Dainotti had been released from prison in 2014 after serving more than two decades behind bars for murder.

He was shot dead on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Mafia killing of magistrate Giovanni Falcone, leaving police and politicians wondering whether the date was specially picked to signal that the criminal gang was back in action.

Following the murder, people claimed to have seen nothing and only one person admitted to even hearing the gunfire. No arrests have been made so far.

Palermo police chief Renato Cortese said: 'The Mafia today is in search of a new leadership at a time when a lot of the old bosses are coming out of prison.

'The danger is that some bigwig will be released and try to put the Mafia back together again.'

Once all-powerful on Sicily, the world's most famous crime gang, known as Cosa Nostra, 'Our Thing', has been squeezed over the past two decades.

Many bosses were put behind bars, many of its businesses isolated and many locals ready to defy the gang.

However, after years of decline - with the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta overtaking it as Italy's most powerful mobsters - prosecutors believe it is trying to rebuild, starting with its drug trade.

Matteo Frasca, the head of Palermo's Appeals Court, said in a speech in January: 'The mafia organisation is once again looking to develop and maintain a total monopoly on the extremely profitable narcotics market.'

Italian prosecutors say the 'Ndrangheta has a stranglehold on cocaine trade, but Cosa Nostra is a major player in the Italian cannabis market, often importing the drug from northern Africa and selling it throughout Europe.

In March, police found 400kg (880lb) of cannabis, worth an estimated 3 million euros ($3.4million), floating just off the Sicilian coast after a drop-off went awry.

In May, police seized around 300kg of cannabis in a single raid in Palermo.

A senior anti-Mafia magistrate, who declined to be named, said: 'For a while, the Mafia depended on public work scams and extortion rackets for much of their money, but with the economy in such a dire straits here, they are returning to their old drug habits,'

Sicily's economic output fell more than 13 percent between 2008 and 2015 and is only slowly recovering, while the unemployment rate is 22 percent, twice the national average.

The deep recession has made it much more difficult for hard-up businesses to pay protection money, or 'pizzo' in Italian, to the Mafia and more than 1,000 firms have revolted against paying that in Palermo alone in little more than a decade.

In May, the trial started of nine men accused of extorting cash from a dozen stores in the city's central Via Maqueda, which were all run by foreigners, mainly Bangladeshis.
Daniele Marannano, coordinator of the Addiopizzo (Goodbye pizzo) movement, said: 'It is an extraordinary affair. For the first time in Palermo, a group of foreign storekeepers rebelled. They rebelled together. It was a collective action.

'Lots of businesses still pay the pizzo, but they now want something back from the Mafia for their money - help fixing prices in their neighbourhood, help keeping difficult employees in check, help collecting unpaid bills.'

A local businessman, who did not wish to be named, said one of the consequences of the Mafia's decline was a rise in petty crime.

He complained that fruit groves operated by his family food company were regularly raided at night by small-time thieves.

'That never used to happen in the past. A fly couldn't land on a fruit tree without permission first from the Mafia,' he said.

The state's fight against the Mafia got serious in 1992 after the Cosa Nostra murdered two of Italy's top magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, triggering national outrage.

Successive governments introduced waves of anti-Mafia laws, allowing the state to seize mob assets, keep imprisoned members of the Mafia incommunicado and far from Sicily, and develop protection programmes for informers.

As a result, hundreds of mafiosi have been arrested over the past 25 years, including Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, the Boss of Bosses, who ordered the murders of Falcone and Borsellino. He is 86 and believed to be terminally ill and likely to die in jail.

However, many other less prominent mobsters who were caught up in the big anti-Mafia trials of the last two decades have either been freed, like Dainotti, or else are coming up for release, like Riina's nephew Giovanni Grizzaffi.

Police chief Cortese said: 'The last Boss of Bosses was Riina. He was never formally replaced and people felt kept in check by him, even when he was in jail. When he dies, you might see a power struggle.'

Rosario Crocetta, the governor of Sicily and anti-Mafia crusader, has been the target of at least three mob plots to kill him, most recently in 2010. He says the group is much reduced, but ever evolving.

'They are chameleons,' he said, with two bodyguards standing alongside his table at an outdoors cafe.

'You are never going to win total victory over the Mafia, just as you can never totally defeat evil.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4633160/Sicilys-cornered-Mafia-primed-reversal-fortune.html

True.. The only way for them to become big again is to make lasting partnerships with other Crime Orgs in the world. South American cartels, North African hash barons and/or Middle Eastern opium producers. And most importantly to build trust, so they can get their product on consignment, just like their Calabrian cousins..

Who's the bosses that's due to be released soon???

Or Dutch traders.

In Palermo Gianni Nicchi for example, the future of Cosa Nostra.

When is he due to be released?

Not just Gianni Nicchi,A LOT of big players that went down during late 80s and maxi trial are getting released.

They're probably back in jail before they know it.

Sicily's Mafia allies with feared Nigerian Vikings gang in Palermo

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/sicilys-mafia-ally-feared-nigerian-vikings-gang-palermo-1628019

Nicchi is/was serving 2/3 of a 13 year sentence since December 2009, so he could be out already.

After year's of decline, Sicily's mafia clans are heading to Germany in search of business.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...e-a7814961.html

How the mafia are moving in on aid money being poured in to deal with Europe's migrant crisis

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...l#ixzz4mK9VbHOG

Falcone statue vandalized, decapitated in Palermo
Premier blasts wretched cowardice on Twitter via @PaoloGentiloni

(ANSA) - Palermo, July 10 - Prosecutors in Palermo on Monday opened a probe into vandalism of the statue of slain anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone outside a school named after him in the Sicilian regional capital. The statue's head and part of the torso were broken off and used as a battering ram against the wall of the Falcone-Borsellino school. Falcone was assassinated by Cosa Nostra along with his wife and three members of his security detail in a bomb blast in May 1992.
His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino was murdered by the mob in an attack the following July that also claimed the lives of five policemen.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni blasted the vandalism. "Insulting the memory of Falcone is a wretched exhibition of cowardice," Gentiloni said via the @PaoloGentiloni Twitter account.

it's just like i said times ago, sicilian mafia is by far the biggest player in cannabis trafficking (marijuana and hashish) in italy; weed is produced in sicily and hashish is mostly imported from morocco
in the latest years about 80% of italian cannabis was seized in sicily, it is a huge quantity

Of the Italian mafias Sicilian Cosa Nostra saw the largest growth in Germany.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201708151056481817-germany-italian-mafia/

Nicchi is still behind bars, they now have transferred Sandro Lo Piccolo to the same prison. The two are bitter enemies.

http://www.palermotoday.it/cronaca/mafia/sandro-lo-piccolo-gianni-nicchi-carcere-l-aquila.html

nicchi will be released in 2024, lo piccolo faced life

One of the rising stars Giulio Caporrimo returns to prison for a few years.

https://www.nuovosud.it/63632-cronaca-pa...OZFcyllzcupr.99

i thought caporrimo was still in prison, he would be out in 2 years at most anyway i think
in the latest months anyway were released calogero lo piccolo and pino lo verde from san lorenzo 'mandamento'

Italian-German Mafia operation sees 37 arrested
Rinzivillo clan clobbered, two Carabinieri among suspects

(ANSA) - Rome, October 4 - The authorities in Italy and Germany embarked on a huge operation targeting to the Gela-based Rinzivillo clan on Wednesday. Police were executing arrest warrants for 37 people in Sicily, Lazio, Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna in Italy and in Germany.
Assets worth 11 million euros were seized as part of the operation. A Roman lawyer and two Carabinieri police officers were among the people arrested. The cops are accused of illegal access to the force's databases. They are suspected of passing on confidential information to members of the clan, which has long been allied with the Madonia and Corleonesi groups. The lawyer is suspected of being a go-between for the mafia with other professionals.

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2017/10...06a77aff9c.html

The boss Salvatore Rinzivillo used a representative to Germany to establish crime cells in Karlsruhe and Cologne, and sent out a relative to boost drug trade in Germany. They also contacted the Calabrian Antonio Strangio, former manager of the now renamed "Da Bruno" restaurant, where the Duisburg massacre claimed six lives in 2007.

Salvatore Mulè, boss of Palermo Center, is in custody. Three years ago he could have been killed by other bosses for having violated internal rules. Arrested also Carmelo D'Amico, boss of Bagheria.

Italy-Argentina cocaine ring busted
Arrests in Palermo, Rome, Udine

(ANSA) - Rome, October 12 - Carabinieri police arrested a number of people in Palermo, Rome and Udine on Thursday after unearthing a big cocaine-trafficking ring operating between Argentina and Italy to supply the Sicilian night scene, sources said. The drugs alleged went to pushers in clubs in the provinces of Palermo and Trapani.
As part of the operation, five kilogrammes of cocaine were seized in Buenos Aires.
As well as cocaine, the ring trafficked MDMA or MD, ecstasy, marijuana and hashish in the province of Palermo.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2017/10/...8c2b6155c2.html

the drug ring led by the cosa nostra bagheria family

How Cosa Nostra's 'cattle mafia' is destroying Sicily's farmers
Broken by prosecutors and rivals, the Sicilian mafia has retreated to its rural origins, driving farmers from their lands with grisly intimidation campaigns

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/14/cosa-nostra-cattle-mafia-sicily-farmers-intimidation

Italy breaks up Libyan fuel smuggling ring involving mafia

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy...a-idUSKBN1CN2HI

Francesco Corallo, the so-called king of the slot-machines, could face a trial into alleged money laundering after being notified by prosecutors that an investigation has been concluded. The move often comes before prosecutors request an indictment. The same notification was also sent to the former foreign minister Gianfranco Fini.
Corallo, who operates several casinos in the Caribbean, was arrested in St Maarten last year and extradited to Italy.

He's related to Tony Ducks, from like, waaay back, right?

No idea what part of Sicily Anthony Corallo's parents came from.

Boss Giuseppe Graviano did not respond to the judges in the State-Mafia trial, he had to report on taped conversations with another detainee. The boss could avoid responding to the Court as he was investigated in a related proceeding, which allowed him to remain silent. Graviano should have reported on some of his conversations in prison with the detainee Umberto Adonolfi. Dialogues, intercepted for months, were considered relevant for the negotiation process. During the conversations, the capomafia had narrated the alleged favors received by Silvio Berlusconi to which Cosa Nostra would have taken a hand in the early 90s massacres.

https://st.ilfattoquotidiano.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ED-img10659710.jpg

Mafia boss ordered hit on daughter who went out with cop
Son refused to carry it out

(ANSA) - Palermo, October 30 - A Mafia boss ordered his son to kill his daughter after she had a relationship with a Carabiniere, police said after the boss was among 15 arrested in a sweep against Cosa Nostra Monday.
"Your sister has become a cop," Bagheria boss Pino Scaduto told his son.
But the son refused to carry out his father's order for fear of ending up in jail, police said.
"I didn't want to be burned for doing it," he reportedly said on a police wiretap.
Police said the 'New Dawn' operation had dealt a "heavy blow" to Scaduto's clan.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2017/10/...4900896d88.html

Italian police on Friday arrested 17 people saying they had "decapitated" a Palermo Mafia clan.

The operation is a continuation of others against the 'mandamento' of Porta Nuova over the last six years and enabled police to decapitate the Borgo Vecchio clan, police told reporters.

Police said they had found the "master book" detailing all the clan's activities.

30 members of the santapaola/ercolano and mazzei families based in catania arrested by police charged with mafia association, drug trafficking and other crimes
included the current acting boss of the santapaola's

Paradise Looted
How Sicily Became Ungovernable

http://www.spiegel.de/international/euro...68.html#ref=rss

Great article , thanks !

Mafia, seized goods from international art dealer Gianfranco Becchina, linked to Matteo Messina Denaro.

http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/15/italia...8YP/pagina.html

Maxi blitz against the Mafia in Palermo, 27 arrests "So the affiliates elected the new boss"

Operation against the Santa Maria of Jesus family. The allegations are drug trafficking, extortion, abusive bait exercise

A maximal operation of the Rosabian carabinieri and the provincial command of Palermo is underway this morning to make 27 arrests. People in handcuffs are affiliated with the mafia family of Santa Maria di Gesù in Palermo. The allegations: mafia association, extortion, abusive gambling and betting exercise, drug trafficking, fraudulent transfer of values.

The actions of the operation called "Falco" come from a complex investigation carried out by Ros against the mafia family of Santa Maria di Gesù in Palermo, "the investigators explain. The investigation allowed "to verify the internal reorganization process of the partnership and the pervasive ability to infiltrate the local economic fabric, reconstructing the organization chart of the associates and identifying the current vertices, designated through a real electoral mechanism involving the men of honor. "

http://www.youreporter.it/embed/e162f790f68cbef8786d873575088a6b

Video of arrested, there is man with last name Gambino,is that common last name there or ?

Gambino, Lucchese and Bonanno are very common names.

On the same day as Riina Giovanni Lipari, 89, passed away the former capomandamento of the Porta Nuova family.

Sicilian judge Saguto indicted (3)
Wrongdoing in handling seized Mafia assets

(ANSA) - Caltanissetta, March 31 - A prelinianry hearings judge on Friday indicted suspended Palermo judge Silvana Saguto and other suspects charged with wrongdoing in the handling of seized Mafia assets.
Saguto is accused by prosecutors in Caltanissetta of alleged corruption and abuse of office in collusion with judicial administrative staff and family members.
In October last year prosecutors ordered the urgent precautionary seizure of money and property allegedly deriving from crimes attributed to Saguto and her alleged accomplices.
Saguto was suspended by the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), which is the judiciary's self-governing body, late in 2015 on the request of Justice Minister Andrea Orlando and Supreme Court Prosecutor Pasquale Ciccolo.
The "gravity" of her alleged behaviour has led to an "irreparable loss of prestige", the CSM said at the time.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_...addb0335a5.html

Mobsters, entrepreneurs targeted in trash-linked op
Alleged illegal management of refuse collection in Sicily

(ANSA) - Catania, November 28 - Catania's DIA anti-mafia unit on Tuesday executed arrest warrants for entrepreneurs, administrative officials and alleged high-ranking members of the Cappello and Laudani Mafia clans, sources said. The operation is linked to the alleged illegal management of refuse collection in the Sicilian towns of Trecastagni, Misterbianco and Aci Catena.
Businesses with a combined value of 30 million euros were also being seized as part of the operation.

Salvo Riina to a 'workhouse'

article

Boy, 6, used to distribute drugs in Catania
36 people arrested

(ANSA) - Catania, November 30 - A six-year-old boy was among those used to distribute drugs by a criminal organisation in the Sicilian city of Catania, police said Thursday after raiding the 'fortress' of the Librino district and arresting 36 people for pushing marijuana and cocaine. "This boy was deprived of a future," investigators told a press conference. They said efforts would be made to try to "recuperate" him to a normal life as soon as possible.

the drug-ring led by the santapaola family

Italian police on Friday arrested in Puglia the son-in-law of Toto Riina who must serve six months under house arrest for fraud. Antonino Ciavarello, 44, from Palermo, is the husband of one of Riina's two daughters.
The man, who lives at San Pancrazio with his wife, was found guilty of a scam perpetrated at Termini Imerese in 2009.

Massive Mafia op nabs 25, woman headed Palermo clan
Over 200 Carabinieri involved in operation

(ANSA) - Palermo, December 5 - Over 200 Carabinieri police with dog units and two helicopters were executing 25 arrest warrants early on Tuesday in a big anti-Mafia operation in Palermo. They people arrested are suspected members of the San Lorenzo and Resuttana Mafia clans. They are accused of crimes including mafia association and extortion.
A woman was allegedly at the helm of the Resuttana clan, according to the investigation that led to the operation.
The woman, Maria Angela Di Trapani, is the daughter of a mobster and the wife of a well-known boss Salvino Madonia.

Dell'Utri release bid turned down
Ex-Berlusconi aide pled poor health

(ANSA) - Rome, December 7 - A Rome detention review court on Thursday rejected a plea by Marcello Dell'Utri, an ailing former aide of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi serving seven years for mafia links, to be released from jail on health grounds.
Dell'Utri, who is suffering heart problems as well as cancer, is being held in Rome's Rebibbia Prison.
Filing the plea, Dell'Utri told his lawyers that he is at the end of his tether.
"I can't go on, I feel worn-out and tired," Dell'Utri told them a few days ago, the lawyers told the hearing.
But Rome Prosecutor-General Pietro Giordano told the court he opposed the ex-Senator's plea, saying that Dell'Utri's condition was compatible with prison detention.
Giordano's argument ran counter to that of experts appointed by his office, who had said Dell'Utri should be released from jail.
Dell'Utri's lawyers said a rejection of his plea to be released could have "serious psychological repercussions" on their client, who was already "exhausted" by his prison experience.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has asked the Italian government to assess whether keeping Dell'Utri in jail is a violation of his rights not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.
The request was made during the conveying to Rome of documents related to an appeal filed in Strasbourg on December 20, 2014, by Dell'Utri.
Dell'Utri, a former right-hand man of Berlusconi's, is not entitled to early release because of the gravity of the mafia-related crimes he was convicted of, Italy's highest court ruled in October.
External collaboration in mafia association is a crime excluded from those where early release can be granted, the court said. Dell'Utri is serving seven years for colluding with the mafia in Palermo.
The 76-year-old former close aide to three-time ex-premier and media mogul Berlusconi and co-founder of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party was convicted in 2014 of acting as an ambassador between the centre-right group and the Cosa Nostra Mafia in his native Sicily.
He was extradited from Beirut to serve his sentence.
Dell'Utri is also the former head of the media magnate's advertising arm and is credited with creating the media mogul's Forza Italia party in 1993, six months before it swept to victory in general elections.
In addressing the Strasbourg court, Dell'Utri said he had been convicted on the basis of a law that came into force after he committed the crimes he was convicted of.
He added that the charges against him were vague and imprecise.

Big operation underway in the hunt for MMD, 200 agents are searching the homes and businesses of some 30 mafiosi in the Trapani area.

I still remember when few years ago,really good poster "Carmela" said: every time at end of the year,they are talking how they are close to him,publishing articles and doing searches etc.

Looks like its same thing this year

True, like you said last year always during these weeks major operations in southern Italy. I wouldn't be suprised if Diabolik is celebrating Christmas outside Trapani, much safer and he isn't a guy who is hiding in a small farmhouse without TV and all the other stuff like Provenzano.

Four gunshots, one in the chest, one in the arm and two in the legs for Vincenzo Selvaggio, 27 years old. The attempted murder took place in the Zen 2 district in Palermo. The young man has family members who live there but lives in Zisa. His prognosis is reserved but he would not be in danger of life. Selvaggio has a criminal record for drug crimes.

a boy was shot dead in the catania center
enzo valenti was the son of a pillera-cappello mafia member, maurizio valenti

A boy ? How old he was ?

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/paramedic-kille...arlours-1652488


They killed sick people in ambulances just to benefit the Mafias funeral parlour.

21

Mafia and drugs, seizure of assets of 600 thousand euros in Palermo
23 December 2017

PALERMO. Goods for 600 thousand euros were seized from Tommaso Catalano, 56 years old. The provision, carried out by the police, was ordered by the Prevention Measures section of the Palermo court, at the suggestion of the quaestor.

Catalano ended up in investigations for drug dealing and possession of weapons since 1985.

In December 2015, he was arrested as part of the "Panta Rei" operation, together with 38 other people responsible for various crimes of criminal association, mafia, extortion, illicit drug trafficking and illegal detention of weapons.

Catalano, together with his son Pietro and others, was investigated for his membership in a traffic for hashish and cocaine between Campania and Sicily.

It was initially thought Messina Denaro might take over Cosa Nostra after the recent death of jailed boss of bosses Totò Riina.
But Italian police have since said there will be a power struggle, as well as negotiations, among various Sicilian Mafia factions.

Article about the situation in Catania.
The big names of the mafia gang at this time are in prison at 41bis. In this moment of organizational reorganization, the new levers come forward, very young, ready to command their small kingdom of the shop. But there are also new leaders who do not come from the mafia but have the money to buy drugs and supply the historic squares of the shop.
The narcos replacing the old bosses.

http://catania.livesicilia.it/2018/01/03...a-mafia_444233/

You mean to tell us that the Cosa Nostra has lost power even in Palermo? I know they have lost a little bit of power over the politics and so on over there, but not over the illicit trade. Maybe thats the case i dont know but that would just be sad i think haha.

Is there an English translation anywhere?

@ Hollander

Are they, rather is the article stating that non- mafia affiliated narco traffickers
are now part of the criminal landscape in Palermo? Are they still Italians, or another ethnic group entirely?

I'm asking cause this could tie into what BlackFamily was posting about, about the Mexicans franchising out to other criminal groups to gain market share in Europe.

Are these narcos connected to the Mexicans?

The article is talking about Catania in eastern Sicily. The second city of the island. They only mentioned some of the new players called narcos don't have a mafia background.

the article talk about catania not palermo
they say that there are several youngs, mostly involved in drug trafficking, who gain power in the neighborhoods
they are all local, in palermo and catania even the street drug dealers are usually italian; mexicans have nothing to do with them... i read that some of the new drug boss have direct links with the colombians, especially the ones from palermo
anyway they are under mafia control, because they come from poor neighborhoods dominated by the crime families

The Mexicans are becoming big players on Europe's drugs market according to Europol.

Can you link an article on that?

I would like to see Mexican/Colombian cartel in a beef with Italians,Albanians,Russians and just see if they would dominate it. Their violence is on another level but im curious if the European groups i mentioned would also level up to the Cartels violence.


I know there has been brutal violence in these countries to like beheadings and killing a rivals family etc. In Albania i know for a fact they cut a Police Chiefs brothers head and sent it to his office in the Police Station, and one time in 1999 right after the Civil war a gang showed up infront of their rivals house with a Tank and opend fire. But its not a every day thing like in Mexico.


Btw that Police Chief would get his revenge x100 and become one of the most powerful Mafia boss in Albanias history. His name was Aldo Bare

https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/mexican-cartels-expanding-influence-europe/

it's just speculation so far, almost all the big cocaine operations are linked to colombians
they are involved but barely compared to colombians, not even close

the only closer to mexican cartel violence in europe was the sicilian mafia in the 1980s

Don't forget Venezuelans, Brazilians, Surinamese etc...

Stefano Ganci died in the prison wing of a Parma hospital in late December, Italian police said on Wednesday. Ganci, 55, reportedly died of a heart attack. The trusted killer of Totò Riina, was serving life in the Emilian city. Among his victims were top Sicilian judge Rocco Chinnici, and deputy Palermo police chief Ninni Cassarà. He was also part of the Cosa Nostra hit squad that blew up magistrate Paolo Borsellino.

Italian authorities in the Sicilian city of Catania have seized a supermarket chain worth 41 million euros from 48-year-old Michele Guglielmino, who built a retail empire by laundering money for the mob. Guglielmino has a criminal record and is a known drug trafficker.

Mafioso Emanuele Di Cavolo (33) has been shot dead in Ramacca (Catania).

Mafia bosses, one politician among 56 netted in Sicily's major anti-mafia operation

ROME, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Italian police arrested at least 56 people in a huge operation targeting the Sicilian crime syndicate on Monday.

The operation hit leading figures and members of powerful clans in the Agrigento province in southwest Sicily, and raids were carried out in five other provinces as well.

Overall, some 16 mafia "families" were targeted, Italy's military police Carabinieri said in a statement.

Those arrested were variously charged with mafia association, drug trafficking, extortion, fraud, and vote buying.

Among the people brought to jail was 37-year-old Francesco Fragapane, the son of a notorious boss serving a life sentence under a special prison regime required for mafia prisoners.

Since 2012 -- after 6 years in jail for mafia-related crimes -- the man would have "rebuilt and led the alliance of mafia families" ruling over a wide mountainous area around Agrigento, Ansa news agency reported.

The mayor of the small town of San Biagio Platani was also among those targeted in the operation. The official was arrested under charge of external mafia association, for allegedly having sought the mafia's political support in exchange of favors, once elected.

According to prosecutors of the Anti-Mafia District Directorate (DDA) in Palermo coordinating the probe, the mafia group had "close connections with almost all of the other clans in Sicily, and with the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate" based in the Calabria region.

The investigation unveiled the targeted clans extorted money from at least 27 companies, including cooperatives managing migrant reception centers, police said.

Seven firms belonging to those arrested were seized in the operation, it added. Enditem

In the wiretaps the bosses from Agrigento didn‘t trust Palermo mafiosi so much.
"The province of Agrigento is more serious, there are no longer any trustworthy or reliable Palermo people," boss Luciano Spoto was caught saying on a wiretap. "Perhaps only in Corleone are there people with their heads on straight, people who keep their word," he said.

Messina Mafia clan decapitated, 40 arrests
Huge joint police, Carabinieri operation also elsewhere in Italy

(ANSA) - Messina, January 24 - Carabinieri and State police on Wednesday conducted a huge operation to execute 40 arrest warrants for people suspected of belonging to a Mafia clan based in the Sicilian province of Messina, sources said. The operation featured raids in the province as well as in other parts of Italy.
The suspects are accused of crimes including mafia association, extortion, robbery, fraudulent asset transfers and private violence.

Sicilian mafia don't seem to be in a good spot at the moment. Lots of arrests.


Is there a figure for how many people are members?

Laudani mafia family linked to Serie-B football club.

http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/6327

Around 5000 members ,as i said already , in Italy you are guilty until proven otherwise , a lot of people arrested in this big busts,later they set them free. Also this is all easily replaceable street people,people who are brains behind mafia,never gets arrested, i do agree that Sicilian Mafia is much weaker than it was in 1980-2000,but they will never see that power again,that time is over.

Why it's over ?
The ndrangheta seem to be the best and strongest in the world
And if they are working together then why would thre sicilians be strong again like they used to be ?

the power of the sicilian mafia and other persistent criminal groups float
it was very strong at the ending of 1800s, weaker under fascism in the 1920s, stable in the 1960s, at its peak in the 1980s, weaker nowadays etc. it depends of several factors, especially political situation

Six arrested in anti-Mafia op against Bagheria clan
Including alleged boss in charge of relations with local clans

(ANSA) - Palermo, January 30 - Carabinieri police in Palermo on Tuesday arrested six suspected members of the local Bagheria clan in an operation coordinated by DDA anti-mafia police.
The suspects are accused of mafia association and aggravated extortion against local retailers and entrepreneurs.
They include Paolo Liga, nephew of Mafia boss Giuseppe Scaduto, a leader of the Bagheria clan who was arrested on October 30 last year and who was in contact with fugitive boss of bosses Matteo Messina Denaro, investigators say.
Liga was allegedly in charge of his clan's relations with other Mafia clans in Palermo and Trapani.
According to a number of 'pentiti', Mafia insiders who turned State witnesses and aided the investigation, the Bagheria clan is able to reorganize after every police operation by immediately replacing its arrested members, according to investigative sources.
Palermo Carabinieri Commander Antonio Di Stasio said the arrests on Tuesday "targeted the process to replace the chiefs and historic affiliates with new generations of criminals, the sons of leaders of the most influential families of Cosa Nostra".

Benedetto Bacchi, one of the major Italian entrepreneurs in the gaming and betting industry, is the key character of the investigation of the DDA of Palermo that today led to 31 arrests. One million euros a month with clandestine bets.
The 31 persons are accused, for various reasons, of mafia association, laundering, self-laundering, fraudulent transfer of values ​​aggravated by the mafia method, unfair competition aggravated by the mafia method, criminal association aimed at the illegal collection of bets and fraud against the state, drugs and more.
Bacchi would have built a network of illegal betting agencies, more than seven hundred throughout Italy, capable of generating profits for over one million euros a month. Part of these sums, between 300 and 800 thousand euros a year, was then distributed to Cosa Nostra.
Among the arrested is Francesco Nania, head of the mafia family of Partinico, who was also able to create a thriving import-export market of food products with the United States.

Through a businessman close to Bacchi, the Cosa Nostra also allegedly set up a profitable food export to the United States.

“I’ll give you these tomatoes for 17.50 euros and you have to flood New York with them,” the alleged boss, Francesco Nania, was recorded saying in a wiretapped conversation.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/7590-game-over-for-italy-s-king-of-gambling-linked-to-cosa-nostra

Queen's research suggests the Sicilian mafia arose to power from lemon sales in the 1800s

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/qub-qrs020718.php

the drug dealer salvatore fiandaca was shot dead in riesi (caltanissetta) in a reputed mafia-hit

the accountant manager antonio zuccalà, was shot dead in barrafranca (enna) in an apparent mafia ambush

A 65-year-old mafia member, Gioacchino Alioto, was shot twice in Via Torremuzza, at Kalsa (Palermo) . The man was hit in the chest. Urgently operated at Buccheri La Ferla, he is not in danger of life.

A lot of mafia related murders in Sicily in past week...

The now former mayor of San Biagio Platani in Agrigento, Santo Sabella, resigned the day before the hearing at the Court of the Review of Palermo, and the alleged boss Giuseppe Nugara, with whom he would close an electoral pact in the 2014 administrative elections, remain in prison. The same decision was made for the 38-year-old from Santa Elisabetta, Francesco Fragapane, aspiring provincial head of Cosa Nostra and the main point of reference in the area.

There is a risk of mafia interference in Italy's upcoming general election, some of the country's top politicians warned on Wednesday. The report said that Italy's mafia groups and particularly the Cosa Nostra have shown "an extraordinary capacity for regeneration.
The death last year of Toto Riina, the Cosa Nostra's so-called 'boss of bosses', had "paradoxically" strengthened Italy's mafia, according to the commission's president, Rosy Bindi, who said the group was actively restructuring.
This gave the group a possibility for renewed strength, Bindi said, after being hampered by Riina, a leader who could not be replaced because of the clan's hierarchical structure but, due to his imprisonment, could not properly direct the group.

The attorney general of the Court of Appeal of Palermo has requested confirmation of the convictions (in all, 80 years in prison) inflicted on six alleged exponents or supporters of the mafia clan headed by Matteo Messina Denaro, involved in the "Ermes" operation in August 2015.

The investigation allowed to shed light on the last network of "postmen" at the service of the fugitive boss Castelvetranese.

Among them, the entrepreneur Giovanni Domenico Scimonelli, alleged boss of Partanna, has been sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment, a "white collar" considered to be among the closest men to Messina Denaro (he would also reinvest the money of the boss in Switzerland ).

Last January 17, Scimonelli, owner of a supermarket in Partanna, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Assizes of Trapani as considered the instigator of the murder of Salvatore Lombardo, killed with two gunshots, in Partanna, in front of the "Smart Cafe" bar, 21 May 2009.

the costruction worker salvatore ragusa was shot dead in front of his home in carlentini (siracusa)

mafia ambush in the province of catania
giuseppe destro, known by police, was shot dead with a rifle

the policeman luigi venezia was shot dead in lentini (siracusa) the mafia from catania tried to kill him in 1992 but he remained injured

Wasn't he retired?

Anyway, can you please check your pm.

https://www.iene.mediaset.it/video/toto-boss-chi-sara-il-successore-di-riina_13027.shtml?r=td-13027

This is just a shame, I dont understand Italian but i read on another forum that this guy is interviewing old bosses etc in Sicily and asking them stupid question like what do you think of the Ndrangheta taking your place as nr 1 and who is the new leader of COsa Nostra etc.. He even does this to Ninetta Bagarella , Toto Riinas wife. He is just busting their balls.

This shows how much the Sicilian mafia has lost their power, imagine doing this like 30 years ago, he would have been shot right away.. Damn i know for a fact that if he would have tried this with the local criminals here in the little city i live in Sweden someone would've beat him up. It has happend here..

This is just a shame i think. Someone should pay him a visit and put two in his knees at least.

sicilian mafiosi are not like street gangs they are not so stupid to beat or shot a man from a so popular tv show in front of millions people watching it
i agree sicilian mafia is not anymore what it used to be in the 1980s, but this intervews are nothing to do with losing power, of course for who understand what sicilian mafia is...
anyway some days ago somebody really shot tha car of another popular show investigating drug trafficking in palermo

http://www.striscialanotizia.medias...brumotti-allo-zen-di-palermo_32160.shtml

Ofcourse its a sign of losing power when someones breaking your balls and you do nothing about it? They could easily just send a youngin and mask him up so he could beat this guy. It wouldnt have landed on them or nothing, he could have done it in a nice way.

no, it is not a sign of losing power, it would be very stupid to shot him in front of millions people, even in mexico they wouldn't do it
i say similar reports even in colombian favelas and nobody touched the show troups, whatch what happened instead in the palermo zen lol
anyway if you watch the video better there were friends and relatives of the bosses who threatened the reporter

It would be insanely stupid to try and kill him, would cause public outrage and police heat.I do say that back in 1980's he would probably get cut into pieces and thrown into acid,because Toto Riina didn't give a fuck.

Interesting video: http://www.france24.com/en/20130517...heta-calabria-drug-trafficking-france-24 - Play around 9:55

Election Day in Italy!

i don't think so, even in the 1980s nobody would shot him in tv, and probably riina didn't care of him, it's just a showman not an investigative journalist
there is no reason to kill him

Berlusconi

Im not saying they should kill him infront of the TV, and im not saying they should beat him right there when he talks to them. But send 2 or 3 guys with masks , follow him, then beat him up.

Make him pay for mocking the Cosa Nostra, thats it.

The EU liberal èlite shit in their pants.

the show is recent anyway, last month, they could do something like burning his car or other stuff, who knows

https://www.eurasiareview.com/05032018-causes-and-consequences-of-sicilian-mafia-analysis/

Causes And Consequences Of Sicilian Mafia – Analysis

Do you guys know any documentary or movie/serie about Zen projects in Palermo?

A mafia supergrass who turned informant after her husband was killed by the Sicilian mob has won a seat in the Italian government - despite not being allowed to show her face in public. Piera Aiello, 51, had to do her campaigning as candidate of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement behind closed doors as her face cannot be shown in public for fear of mafia reprisals.

120 mn seized from fibre optics 'king' in mafia case
Measures target Agrigento entrepreneur Romano

(ANSA) - Rome, March 7 - Finance police on Wednesday seized assets worth over 120 million euros from Calogero Romano, an Agrigento businessman who owns several firms in the telecommunications and fibre-optic sectors, as well as construction businesses and a motor-racing track, sources said. The operation was in relation to a Mafia case, the sources said. Romano allegedly built his business empire with the help of Cosa Nostra bosses.
In 2016 he was convicted of external involvement in mafia association and handed a jail term of six years, six months.

https://womenintheworld.com/2018/03...rliament-after-surreal-election-victory/


If this is not a sign of weakness i dont know what is.

emanuele ferraro, with criminal records, was shot dead in favara (agrigento) in a mafia ambush

it's weaker compared to 1980s when it was the strongest criminal group in the world, but no so weak anyway
itailian police focus on it since the beginning of 1990s and it is still strong

As someone already said on this forum,groups like Sicilian Mafia, 'Ndrangehta etc are here to stay and their power floats,they had years when they were weaker and years when they were powerful , their peak was 1980's

no, i don't know
i think anyway that the only 100% white ghettos/slums in europe are in southern italy the other are all mixed up (whites/blacks/arabs/gypsies), even in eastern europe most of ghettos are gypsies zones

The repentant Navarria is upsetting the balances of the Catania mafia. A ruthless killer. Heinous. Unscrupulous. Mercilessly. "I was dealing with murders". As if it were a job like any other..

http://catania.livesicilia.it/2018/...strai-verbali-del-killer-pentito_452410/

Maxi blitz against the supporters of Messina Money: 12 arrests. There is also the "king of wind"
Seized agricultural activities, the gains were used to cover the lateness of the superboss. In the ordinance check the Senator of Forza Italy Antonio D'Ali, photographed with the mafia

Published 13/03/2018
Last modified on 03/13/2018 at 09:18

There are "heavy" names in the anti-mafia operation that last night has beheaded Cosa Nostra trapanese ready to rise again after the release of recent months. There is the name of the "king of the wind", the Alcamese entrepreneur Vito Nicastri, who after the maxi confiscations suffered had managed to keep hidden a further safe from where he pulled out the money to keep the head of the dome in hiding. Provincial, the boss Matteo Messina Denaro. Money delivered in 2014 by Salemi's mafia boss Michele Gucciardi to Francesco Guttadauro, nephew of the mafia boss of Castelvetrano, that money was expressly said came from Vito Nicastri who was arrested along with his brother Roberto.

The heirs of the mafia boss Leonardo Crimi, his son Salvatore, his wife Concetta Asaro and the homonymous nephew of the deceased boss have ended up in the cell. But among the names cited in the ordinance of the investigating judge Nicastro of the Court of Palermo emerge those of the D'Alì family, the brothers Giacomo and Senator Antonio, former undersecretary inside, followed and photographed to meet the mafia of Vita and Salemi to deal with the sale of land.

The survey was launched in 2014 and took a snapshot of the topical organization of the Trapani area, and in particular that of the agricultural centers of Vita and Salemi, capable of reaching even the most important salons of the province, and as a result the control of agricultural and commercial supply chains. In the background, the aid to continue to guarantee Matteo Messina Denaro, a fugitive since 1993, to whom large amounts of money have been made through controlled activities.

The arrested, also using professionals in the field of agricultural and real estate consulting, among which there would have been a well-known mazarese dealer Salvatore C--------, once the right-hand man of the former governor Totò Cuffaro, have succeeded, through factual societies connected to the mafia organization but fictitiously registered to third parties, to make significant investments in innovative crops for the production of timber as well as in catering. The investigations, also supported by the collaboration of the deceased entrepreneur from Castelvetrano, Lorenzo Cimarosa, cousin of the mafia boss Messina Denaro, and the new repentant Attilio Fogazza and Nicolò Nicolosi, have allowed us to discover how Cosa Nostra trapanese, through the brothers Nicastri, has managed to get their hands on the land possessions belonged to the family of the debt collectors Salvo di Salemi. As if to say that those lands did not have to escape the control of the mafia. All business ordered through the "pizzini" by the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro. Boss who has not forgotten the accomplices of all time, a part of the money earned has also gone to Epifanio Agate, son of the late Mafia boss of Mazara, Mariano Agate.

An investigation that goes as far as Trapani, where the new mafia boss, as indicated by the repentant Cimarosa, would be Franco Orlando, former municipal councilor of the PSI, a man of honor reserved for the will of Messina Denaro. And in Trapani the clan appears to have entered into negotiations for the lease of a large land owned by the D'Alìì family, and in September 2014 just Senator D'Alì was seen to meet with the mafia now arrested, among which the Girolamo Scandariato calatafimese, to negotiate the rent of its land destined to house a "paulownia" plant, trees for the production of precious wood. D'Alì, who has not re-nominated for the national elections, after an uninterrupted parliamentary period from 1994,

The operation called "Pionica", from the name of a rich agricultural district of Salemi, was performed in the night by the Carabinieri of the provincial command of Trapani, by the Ros and by the agents of the Dia, saw over 100 men employed, 12 orders of Preliminary custody in prison issued by the investigating magistrate at the request of the prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi and of the adjunct Paolo Guido of the DDA of Palermo. In general for all allegations of mafia association, extortion and aiding as well as a fictitious heading of assets. Three company complexes were seized, including the entire building complex as well as the relative means of work, fictitiously registered to third parties but considered an instrument for the pursuit of the economic aims of the criminal organization.

Antonio D'Ali is very powerful man,member of masonic lodges,whole D'Ali family is very powerful.

In September 2010 police seized assets worth 2 billion dollars from Vito Nicastri,which is record in Italy. Definitely very powerful names

The latest repentant Sergio Macaluso speaks: a trip to the very recent Cosa Nostra of the capital. With the flurry of names (over two hundred) and the backstory they contain. A mine of information. A journey through the very recent Cosa Nostra which concerns four lines: Resuttana (of which Macaluso was regent for a period), San Lorenzo, Porta Nuova and Pagliarelli. The bosses move a lot. It is a fluid mafia with continuous exchanges of information between families. There are identities unveiled and others to reveal, characters of which Macaluso indicates only the nicknames, mobsters, entrepreneurs and professionals in league with the clans. The stories of Macaluso will do much harm to Cosa Nostra.

http://livesicilia.it/2018/03/11/mafia-pentito-sergio-macaluso-palermo_940682/

http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/crona...ittima-mafia-truffa-200mila-1505496.html

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...ceb2100-7d1d-4d3e-8910-301aeefdd238.html

Man arrested for Mafia victim fraud. For 10 years he convinced his parents to be in contact with the man, who had died long ago, cheating and extorting them 200 thousand euros.
The scam went on for ten years, during which Francesco Simone, 44 years old from the small town of Basicò, convinced an old couple to be in contact with his son, who however had died of white lupara twenty-five years earlier.

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/03/15/e...corso-nhBYDylaxgpZYbQ5PfGthN/pagina.html

The EU rejects the brand of the restaurant chain "La Mafia sits at the table": a non-educational message

Italy has asked all'Euipo not to recognize the name, for the unsustainability of good publicity to organized crime

Published 15/03/2018
Last modified on 03/15/2018 at 12:20
EMANUELE BONINI
BRUSSELS
No, the mafia does not sit at the table and will not sit down. The EU Court rejected the proposed trademark for the Spanish restaurant chain "La mafia se sienta a la mesa" ("the Mafia sits at the table"), a choice that sees promoting Cosa Nostra as a synonym of quality in contrast with good taste and, above all, the fundamental principles on which the EU is based. No brand, then. It is "contrary to public order", according to the judges of Luxembourg. Via the signs then.

Sicily narco boss gets 16 yrs
Trusted kingpin of Messina Denaro, 'Mafia's FM'

Sicily narco boss Salvatore Miceli, the trusted drugs kingpin of No.1 Mafia fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro, on Wednesday got 16 years in jail for drugs trafficking.
Miceli, who was appointed by late superboss Bernardo Provenzano to run the drugs traffic between South America and Italy, was arrested in a Caracas hotel in 2009.
He had been on the list of Italy's 30 most dangerous fugitives for eight years.
Miceli was nicknamed "the Mafia's foreign minister".

Witness reveals meeting with Messina Denaro: «He is protected by the 'Ndrangheta»
23/03/2018 - 18:01by Editorial Staff
The weekly L'Espresso has collected the testimony of a 45-year-old Tuscan with "old friendships with Sicilians linked to Cosa nostra and Calabresi". The man told of having met him at the port of Palermo
Witness reveals meeting with Messina Denaro: «He is protected by the 'Ndrangheta»

Rome - «I met Matteo Messina Denaro. I met him at the port of Palermo, then we had another appointment in Tuscany, where he is protected by men of the 'Ndrangheta. This is what a 45-year-old Tuscan would have revealed to L'Espresso: a subject - writes the weekly magazine that has published an anticipation of the story that will be published in the issue on Sunday - with some judicial misadventures and old friendships with Sicilians linked to Cosa nostra and Calabrese belonging to the clan of the 'ndrangheta. Friendships allowed him to get in touch with the men closest to the wanted number one. "
The witness, says L'Espresso, "reveals meetings with Messina Denaro and the names of the people who assisted him. It also opens up new criminal scenarios in which the mafia is accused of murder and massacres. It turns out that the fugitive has obtained coverage also from exponents of the 'ndrangheta, the places in which he has lodged, and the territory he has attended. We learn of the increasingly precarious health conditions of the boss and the clinic in which he was treated. And it turns out that one of the fugitive's nephews is a magistrate serving in a prosecutor's office in Northern Italy. "

The revelations of the witness, according to the weekly, "are being examined by the magistrates of the District Anti-Mafia District Prosecutor of Florence, who has already found most of the statements, in some cases even with photographs documenting secret meetings with the entourage of Messina Denaro, delegating investigations at the Guardia di Finanza ".

This week the Palermo bosses Antonino Rotolo, Carmelo Cangemi, Salvatore Sorrentino and Giovanni Nicchi were sentenced to 12 years and eight months for cocaine dealing, with the aggravating circumstance of having facilitated the activity of Cosa Nostra.
The trial was removed from the main proceedings, the sentence of which has become final in 2012 with definitive sentences of more than two centuries in prison for the 18 convicted.

Gianni Nicchi is done,he is young,but they locked him up long time.

If not released for other reasons Nicchi is behind bars until 2028. Rotolo has life anyway the other two are fugitives.

angelo carità was shot dead in licata (agrigento)
he was charged with murder and sentenced to life but he's free waiting the end of the trial

The Court of Liberty of Palermo has annulled the orders for precautionary custody against the brothers Gaspare Salvatore and Vito Gucciardi, aged 56 and 58 respectively, of Vita, who were arrested on March 13 in the 'Pioneering' anti-mafia operation. The two brothers, assisted by lawyers Vito Galluffo and Carlo Ferracane, have already been released. According to the accusation the two would be part of a network of supporters of the fugitive boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Double murder in Bergamo, northern Italy, the victims are sicilians Carlo Novembrini (51) and a woman were shot dead in a bar.
Novembrini was a member of a mafia clan based in Gela.

His own brother confessed to the murders.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...d067eba-a73d-4240-ae87-18a9feb2ef81.html

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...ad20688-87af-4e6b-aa99-8253b4074748.html

Mafia clan planned to kill journalist

https://www.rt.com/news/424269-italian-mafia-journalist-threats/

‘Mafia didn’t die, it adapted’: Journalist in hiding talks to RT

Italy: police arrest 22 in search for Mafia fugitive Denaro
Apr 19, 2018 Updated 29 min ago (0)

MILAN (AP) — Italian police have arrested 22 suspected Sicilian Mafiosi as part of an ongoing operation aimed at capturing Italy's most-wanted Mafia fugitive Matteo Denaro.

The raids Thursday in the Trapani province in western Sicily attacked the network of "pizzini," the system of paper notes that support Denaro's flight. Police said their aim is to "progressively take away power from the criminal organization and impoverish its economic resources."

Denaro, a fugitive since 1993, is considered a possible successor to the "boss of bosses" Salvatore "Toto" Riina, who died last year in custody while serving 26 life sentences.

The operation was the latest move to root out Denaro, 55, who has long evaded arrest for his role in the bombing assassination of magistrates in the 1990s, along with other Mafia hits and crimes.

http://www.grandangoloagrigento.it/...l-boss-messina-denaro-16-anni-al-nipote/

Sister of fugitive godfather Matteo MessinaDenaro sentenced 14 years, nephew gets 16.


http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/6652


TRAPANI – The Cosa Nostra Sicilian mafia network, spearheaded by the highly sought-after Matteo Messina Denaro, was hit hard on Thursday morning, suffering a further setback after authorities confirmed the arrest of 22 alleged members of the group.

Police, Carabinieri and Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA) have ramped up the hunt for the fugitive head of the Sicilian Mafia. The raid in the province of Trapani intensifies the police grip on mafia affairs as they look to stamp out the illegal activity, particularly prominent throughout Sicily.

The widespread, albeit seemingly weakening, influence of Cosa Nostra has burrowed into the region’s social and economic operations, largely preserved through the mafia’s fierce culture of intimidation.

Authorities were able to identify, through the probe, Cosa Nostra’s pizzini notes, small paper annotations used by the Sicilian Mafia for high-level communications.

The 22 arrested reportedly have ties to the mafia families of Castelvetrano, Campobello di Mazara and Partanna, all based in Trapani. They await further investigation under numerous charges including mafia association, extortion, damage, possession of weapons and fictitious registration of assets.

The raid has given investigators a further insight into Cosa Nostra’s dealings, confirming Messina Denaro’s place at the head of the organisation as well as the heavy involvement of two of his brothers-in-law. Gaspare Como and Rosario Allegra, husbands of Bice and Giovanna Messina Denaro were amongst the 22 arrested.

Thursday’s blitz also follows last month’s seizure of one of Denaro’s closest advisors, Salvatore Miceli, who received a 16-year sentence on charges of drug trafficking. The former narco boss had directed the vast illegal drug network between South America and Italy, earning him the nickname, “the Mafia’s foreign minister.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...fia-godfather-sicily-dawn-raids-arrests/

Italy closes net on mafia godfather in Sicily with dawn raids and arrests

In historic ruling, court says Italian state negotiated with mafia

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...tate-negotiated-with-mafia-idUSKBN1HR2JJ

Pax Mafiosa: Guilty verdicts as prosecutors prove secret pact between Sicilian Mafia and Italian government http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profil...ts-as-prosecutors-prove-secret-pact-betw

https://www.corriere.it/english/18_...bc79e2-47e2-11e8-80f7-0314029e9b8f.shtml

How the mafia controls betting and rigs slot machines
Illegal gambling used to provide funds for mafia bosses in hiding, such as Matteo Messina Denaro

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...02bd26b-52c0-4839-8c99-cb567eb4cba2.html

Six nabbed for extortion near Messina

DIA report says there is an agreement between the 'Ndrangheta and the Sicilian Mafia to divide up Abruzzo and Molise in Central Italy for the control of drugs. In the past the region was under the influence of the Camorra. It's the first time the national leadership speaks of an organic division of the region by organized crime associations that agree for greater control of the territory.

https://rsf.org/en/news/sicilian-mafia-planned-murder-investigative-reporter

Update: Sicilian mafia planned to murder investigative reporter

Ambush in the Gela countryside. A 38-year-old man, BP, was hit by shotgun shots yesterday evening. The incident occurred in the district "Farello", a rural area not far from the city. P. would have reported wounds in one arm. Hospitalized in Gela hospital he is not in danger of life. According to what is learned, the police would have identified the man who took the shotgun. It would be an acquaintance of the wounded.

Nicola Amoroso, 37, has been captured in Germany, nicknamed Cola tri piedi, who has been wanted since last July. One of the most important fugitives in Italy and member of the Italian Crime Syndicate COSA NOSTRA, was arrested in Biebesheim (Germany).
The dangerous fugitive was wanted by the Italian authorities because of his involvement in several crimes and because of his mafia affiliation (belonging to the Scalisi clan - Criminal organization of the mafia family Laudani of Catania). The arrest is the result of a fruitful exchange of information between Europol, the Italian and German police and it represents the first result of the 'Eurosearch' project, initiated by the Central Operations Service, which locate and captures dangerous mafia fugitives targets in Europe. Europol supported the investigation by providing analytical and operational support and by organising a dedicated operational meeting at its headquarter in The Hague.

The Court of Cassation has confirmed the convictions of over 200 years in prison on appeal to bosses and followers of the province of Palermo.
The Roman judges reiterated the leading role of Antonino Sciortino who, at first instance, was acquitted and on appeal sentenced to 18 years. The trial stems from the New Mandamento investigation, so called for the project of the clan to constitute a superclan that would have unite the families of Camporeale, Monreale, Partinico, San Giuseppe Jato, Camporeale, Altofonte, Borgetto, Montelepre and Giardinello.
The defendants responded in various ways to mafia, extortion, possession of arms and drugs, theft of livestock and the murder of Giuseppe Billitteri , eliminated with the method of the lupara bianca March 22, 2012.

Mafia, blitz 'Montagna', arrested in Belgium the fugitive Daniele Fragapane, he was a captain of a football team in Brussels.
It has been four months since the blitz with 56 orders for precautionary custody against the alleged summits of the families of Cosa Nostra dell'Agrigentino. Daniele is considered the right-hand man of his cousin Francesco.

https://www.panoramitalia.com/en/travel/article/corleone-s-complicated-history/5127/

Corleone’s Complicated History

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/20/world/europe/italy-journalists-mafia.html

The Mafia Reporter With a Police Escort (and the 200 Journalists Like Him)

http://montrealgazette.com/pmn/spor...wcm/58de21b8-dfd0-4a10-a13f-bc670d80e02e

Reina faces hearing over links with trio connected to mafia

A 29-year-old man, Dino Salvato, was shot dead in Palermo. He was shot in the face on the western outskirts of the city. He had small criminal records. A crowd took to the streets after the shooting. The victims' relatives, desperate, crying and screaming in pain. The agents were busy keeping the order.

Italian police on Tuesday night arrested 11 representatives of the Noce clan, including its bosses and high-ranking members, who organized a local religious festival in order to make money, La Repubblica newspaper reported. In September 2015, the mafiosi staged a sagra, Italian local festival, in Palermo which was called "The Holy Heart of Jesus." The earnings of which went straight into the pockets of the criminal group. According to the investigators, Cosa Nostra has managed to re-establish its influence in the region since 130 of its members were released from jail and returned to criminal activities. About a dozen of them have again entered the leadership of mafia clans.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...gainst-italys-president-blocks-populist/

Death threats made against Italy's president after he blocks populist government

https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...ld-clue-to-recovery-of-stolen-caravaggio

Former mobster may hold clue to recovery of stolen Caravaggio

This week, the Palermo prosecutor asked 20 years for Carmelo Bartolone, considered head of Bagheria clan, 12 for Pietro Flamia, 7 for Luigi Di Salvo and Rosario La Mantia, 6 for Alessandro Vega and 2 for Antonio Lepre. The charges against them, for various reasons, are those of the Mafia association and extortion. For a seventh defendant, Gioacchino Di Bella, the absolution was instead requested.

The operation carried out by the carabinieri, followed a strong reaction from the part of the traders. Over thirty of them, decided to collaborate in order to free themselves from the mafia yoke and from the fear that caused them to oppose the lace, an illicit tax capable of gripping the whole local economic fabric.

The collaboration of some repentants like Sergio Flamia, Stefano Lo Verso and Antonino Zarcone, was fundamental during the investigations. Their contributions were used to frame the many pieces of the puzzle reconstructed by the DDA and the military.

Dont know if anyone says if, but i really appreciate these updates on Euro OC... keep em coming my man!! GREAT STUFF..

Hollander is one of the best posters on here,if not the best,he always post updates on various groups from Europe. Since the days of real deal,his posts keep me updated.

Thanks guys, but I'm sure some news from Italy slipped my attention. It's difficult to keep up with four major organizations.

A typical Dutch trait: false modesty

For real though, you always add quality stuff, which is greatly appreciated by me too H.

Another police blitz in the hunt for Matteo Denaro. Yesterday, in the areas of Castelvetrano, Santa Ninfa and Mazara del Vallo the police carried out dozens of searches against the supporters of the fugitive godfather. Investigated 17 people including Francesco Burrafato, 76, former head physician of the hospital of Castelvetrano. Denaro's hideout was discovered during the searches.

http://www.dw.com/en/migrants-put-mafia-mobsters-behind-bars-in-palermo/a-44194529


As i've mentioned before.. The Sicilian mafia has lost a loooot of power. I mean come on, people nowadays dont even pay their pizzos. Maybe its just fake news, anybody who lives down there that can say more precisly how it is?

http://www.dw.com/en/migrants-put-mafia-mobsters-behind-bars-in-palermo/a-44194529

Migrants put mafia mobsters behind bars in Palermo

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...a-threat-reveals-her-face-for-first-time

'It’s like coming back to life': Italian MP reveals her face to public for first time

that sicilian mafia is weaker than the past, particularly 1980s when it was at its peak, it is not a new thing, it was discussed tons of time so far
anyway the vast majority of shopkeppers still pay the protection, only a few denounces it and only if highly pressed by police usually (there is a new italian law that punish who pay the protection); also who denounces is often put under police protection, so the threat is till big
rubino and his gang were not even mafia members, they were a group of young criminals who terrorized migrant shoopkeepers, but according to police they were not members of mafia, and ballarò is only 1% of palermo

Nearly half pay up these days, in the 1990s at least four-fifths of Sicilian firms paid protection money.

half is a bit low, i think at least 70% still pay, it also depends on the areas, in some cities like palermo or catania 90% sure pay

Even here most of clubs/cafes/restaurants need to pay. I am sure in Sicily still around 70-80% pay

Where is here if i may ask?

Trends in extortion payments by companies to Italy’s Mafia

https://www.economist.com/business/...on-payments-by-companies-to-italys-mafia

I thought you know where i'm from,we talked already about that. It's Belgrade,Serbia. You are also forced to used security,which is controlled by 3 groups in whole city.

Maybe i've asked this before but i cant remember.. Do you guys think that Sicilian Mafia at its prime made more money than the Ndrangheta does today? They controlled the Heroin if im not wrong, the Ndrangheta controls much of the Cocaine.. Which is/was more profitable for the groups.

heroin at tha time was by far the most lucrative and sicilian mafia produced it in sicily, so i think sicilian mafia made by far more money with heroin in the past than 'ndrangheta with coke today, calabrians have to be export it from south america, they don't produce it in itay

https://www.courthousenews.com/mafia-buried-palermo-sicily-breathes-fresher-air/

Mafia Buried, Palermo Breathes Fresher Air

Italian police on Thursday arrested 10 suspected chieftains of Agrigento and Palermo mafia clans on suspicion of mafia crimes.
In another operation, Carabinieri arrested 27 people in Catania on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Mafia, an operation against the Cammarata family from Riesi. It
shed light on numerous murders, including arrests in the North
Twenty people in prison , five under house arrest . It is the result of the De reditu operation , with which the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Caltanissetta shed light on the bloody events that occurred in Riesi , in the province of Caltanissetta, at the end of the Nineties. Specifically, the investigators have dealt with six murders and two attempted murders , in a survey that also involved the production of drugs and a round of extortion. All in the shadow of the local mafia family. The accusations are in various capacities as a mafia association, an association aimed at the sale of drugs, murder, attempted homicide, an illegal port of arms and extortion.

photos of the arrested of the antimafia operation 're deditu' against cosa nostra family in riesi

http://caltanissetta.gds.it/2018/07/02/mafia-a-riesi-nomi-e-foto-degli-arrestati_878726/

The assets related to Luciano Salanitro, 51, were confiscated, considered close to the mafia "Santapaola-Ercolano". In particular, the "Rivombrosa" bar in Via Vittorio Emanuele, at the corner with the Via Del Plebiscito in Catania.Together with the bar activity, two apartments in the city center, a car, two motorcycles and several bank accounts were confiscated In total of 1.3 million euros

http://www.antimafiaduemila.com/home/primo-piano/70957-i-nuovi-boss-della-mafia.html


The new bosses of the mafia

Details Published: 07 July 2018
rain on neighborhoods g mutoloby Francesca Panfili
After the death of Riina and Provenzano, the reaction of the new mafia bosses in Palermo is to decide strategies and make decisions through extended meetings in which representatives of different mandates participate. The protagonists of these shared meetings, which have nothing to do with the old provincial committee of Cosa Nostra, are often old bosses who after years of detention are returning to freedom, ready to recover the power they had temporarily given. Many of them are famous representatives of families affiliated to the cosche for a very long time. And it is precisely these illustrious names that worry the magistrates.
Between new and old bosses who now return to freedom define the scenarios of the mafia of today and tomorrow.
These are names known as Calogero Lo Piccolo , son of the baron of San Lorenzo Salvatore Lo Piccolo , who now runs free to Palermo.
Although the Lo Piccolo dynasty has been decimated by arrests and convictions, the temporal limit of the latter and the recent release of many well-known names in the Cosa Nostra of Palermo, defines new balances of power that are established on the territory with new personalities that are affirmed after investigations and blitz of the police agitated the waters of organized crime.
In the post-Lo Piccolo period, inside Biondino took our place. Giuseppe Biondino, son of Salvatore Biondino, a man of confidence in Riina, was arrested last January. As is clear from the statements of the repentant Sergio Macaluso , head of Resuttana, the appointment of Giuseppe Biondino to capomafia was made by Giovanni Niosiche assigned him an orphaned area of ​​one of the most charismatic leaders of the Palermo mafia, Giulio Caporrimo . The latter was one of the faithful of the Lo Piccolo line and will soon end his prison sentence. Nunzio Serio
is also among those arrested who will soon be released, one of the men who represented the continuity with Caporrimo. Serio will be released, despite the sentence in Cassation to over 16 years in prison that will not be applied because of the so-called fungibility of the sentence. Together with Nunzio Serio , Giulio Caporrimo and Calogero Lo Piccolo , there are also Domenico Serio, Giuseppe Lo Verde and Massimo Troia who share the territory of San Lorenzo.
Analyzing the Cosa Nostra dei Biondino, we can also reconstruct the regents of the various Palermitan mandates in the light of the next releases.
The mandate of Passo di Rigano (Uditore area) has Baldassare Miglioreas a predominant figure. Better is the entrepreneur of the earth-moving sector that was among the arrested of the Perseus operation, a blitz that in 2008 prevented the attempt to convene the provincial committee of Cosa Nostra. Migliore has established relations with Biondino over time and has participated in his appointment as capomafia of San Lorenzo, decided during a meeting in which several representatives of other mandates such as Filippo Bisconti of Belmonte Mezzagno and Giuseppe Sansone dell'Uditore, both free today.
From this joint appointment of exponents linked to different mandates, we understand how the Mafia paradigm of Cosa nostra is increasingly inclined towards decision-making collegiality linked to intertwining between families belonging to different territories that come together to choose the boss of San Lorenzo.
In recent years many of those who have escaped the Corleone carnage of the '80s have returned to Italy. He returned to Italy from the United States Tommaso Inzerillo who escaped the charge of life imprisonment in America for the murder of two of his relatives. After his release, in 2005 he was again arrested under Operation Gotha.
Among the old names that come back from the past is that of Salvatore Grecowho in 2008 was involved in a measure against Rosario Inzerillo , the historic boss of Passo di Rigano. Sergio Giannusa and Gaetano Scotto
are again free at Resuttana . The first was one of Salvatore Fidanzati's men , boss dell'Acquasanta while Scotto was one of the men who acted as a bridge, even in the massacre of Via d'Amelio, between the vertices of Cosa nostra and the secret services diverted, according to the statements of the repentant . Also in the address of Resuttana, the name of Giuseppe Corona emerges from the information , condemned as a young man for the killing of a peer. His father was killed in the contrasts between thighs. Today for law enforcement
Giuseppe Corona turns out to be a figure to be framed. From recent investigations it would turn out to be the man of investments belonging to the Mafia powerful of the Madonia.
Among the prisoners belonging to the Tommaso Natale, Resuttana and Acquasanta area there are also Stefano Scalici , Salvatore Castiglione , Antonino Tarantino and Antonino Caruso . Francesco Di Pace , the man who dealt with the business of advertising screens in Palermo on behalf of Lo Piccolo, has also completed his detention period .
From the beginning of 2017 to today, a group of bosses arrested in 2011 in the context of investigations into the absconding ofGianni Nicchi including Vincenzo Annatelli , Giovanni Tarantino , Giuseppe Zizo and Mariano Morfino .
Also Giuseppe Bellino will soon be freed, as well as Filippo Burgio , owner of a motorcycle dealership turned into the post office used for Gianni Nicchi's inaction .
Many of those convicted of the Gotha trial have also been released, including Gaetano Badagliacca and Pietro Badagliacca of Rocca Mezzomonreale, Settimo Mineo and Carmelo Cancemi di Pagliarelli.
In Bagheria he is now at homeGiuseppe Scaduto known as 'Pino', another well-known name with an important past behind it. Gregorio di Giovanni, head of Porta Nuova,
is also free of a fine sentence , accused of having been the instigator of the Fragalà murder. Over the years, the Porta Nuova mandate has been the focus of tensions and intertwining family members that led to the murder of Giuseppe Dainotti and Giuseppe Di Giacomo . In the Palermo area, instead, Gaspare Rizzuto , son-in-law of Emanuele Lipari , comes forward . Meanwhile, Nicola Milan has completed his prison term and today the Gaspare Parisi is free at the Borgo

which once held the cashier of the mafia family to which it belonged.
Among the freedmen between Villagrazia and Santa Maria di Gesù are Salvatore Adelfio , Francesco Guercio , Sandro Capizzi , Massimo Mancino , Girolamo Rao and Ignazio Traina .
Capizzi was the boss of Villagrazia who, sentenced to life imprisonment, was released from prison for health problems. Together with Giovanni Adelfio he was one of those who wanted to convene the Provincial Commission of Cosa Nostra no longer convened since the day of the capture of Riina. At this meeting they would have to participate in old bosses including Pino Scadutoand others today again in circulation.
Among them there would also be the boss of Brancaccio Lo Nigro , a fugitive year later arrested because in possession of a fake document.
In Brancaccio, however, Fabio Scimò , Maurizio Difede , Angelo Vinchiaturo and Giuseppe Guttadauro are free . The latter is the doctor who in 2001, speaking with a colleague, clearly said that of the murder of the Church "whoever fucked up fucking kill him" and that "And why we had to do him this favor ..." . Giuseppe Guttadauro , as well as being the brother of the brother-in-law of Matteo Messina Denarowas the pivot of the investigations involving the former councilor Mimmo Miceli and the former president of the Region, Salvatore Cuffaro . The latter today lives in Rome as well as Benedetto Gragnano , brother of the two stragista bosses. Guglielmo Ficarra , Francesco Sciarratta and Salvatore Alfano
ended their sentence at the Noce . Among the old charismatic leaders today is home to Franco Picone while Fabio Chiovaro today is head of the mandate of the Walnut. Among the known prisoners of the province, in Prizzi there is Masino Cannella
, old councilor of Provenzano, the seventy year old nephew of Totò Riina , Giovanni Grizzaffi and Cosimo Michele Sciarabba .
New and old names are intertwined in the hegemony of the mandates of Palermo and the province.
Struggles of power to conquer or reaffirm the hegemony also continue today that the old bosses return free and despite the punishment and imprisonment remain so because from Cosa Nostra it comes out only because one repents or dies and this history teaches it. And the mafiosi released from prison who do not repent shortly after I am immediately re-arrested.

San Cataldo, the hands of the Mafia on procurement: 16 arrests, there are also officials of the Municipality

The hands of the Mafia on public contracts managed by the City of San Cataldo in the waste and construction sectors. Sixteen precautionary measures were taken for people close to our Nissena, municipal officials and entrepreneurs.

At the conclusion of complex investigations in the areas of the fight against organized crime and crimes against the Public Administration, coordinated by the Dda of Caltanissetta, patrols of the financial police financial police force group together with the soldiers of the Carabinieri of Caltanissetta have performed a 'order of personal precautionary measures against sixteen people, issued by the investigating judge of the court of Caltanissetta.

Among the people investigated are people close to the Mafia family of San Cataldo, officials and managers of the Municipality and a carabiniere in service.
Following the investigations, the investigating judge issued an order for custody in prison for the mafia association, an external competition in association with the Mafia and aggravated extortions against eight people considered close to the Mafia family of San Cataldo: Gioacchino Chitè; Calogero Maurizio Di Vita; Massimo Scalzo; Luigi Vivacqua; Cristian Ivan Callari; Alessandro Scalzo; Angelo Giumento; Domenico Terenzio, carabiniere in service at the tenness of San Cataldo.

While the house arrest was ordered for aggravated extortion for Salvatore Raimondi, a person considered to be inside the mafia family of San Cataldo; the entrepreneur legal representative of Ecolgest soc.coop. to r.l accused of corruption and troubled freedom of the charms; the former director of the technical office of the Municipality of San Cataldo Paolo Iannello.

The precautionary measure of the obligation to submit to the judicial police for corruption offenses against the employee of the Municipality of San Cataldo Medico was ordered; the freelance engineer Davide Francesco Iannello, the employee of the Municipality of San Cataldo Salvatore Schifano; the freelance architect, recipient of assignments by the municipality of San Cataldo Alfonso Gaetano Ippolito.

The investigation, coordinated by the Dda of Caltanissetta, began in 2016. The investigators were monitoring the assets of the Mafia family of San Cataldo. In the first phase of the investigations, carried out by the Carabinieri of Caltanissetta, mafia infiltrations emerged in the management of the urban solid waste removal service taken by the Municipality of San Cataldo.

The mafia family with intimidation would have imposed the cooperative "Geo Agriturismo" of San Cataldo, which with the company "Ecolgest" was responsible for the collection of solid urban waste, the continued recruitment of characters close to the mafia family who would often perceive the salary without carrying out any work activity.

From the investigation would have emerged several episodes of extortion by the Mafia family of San Cataldo at the top of which there would be Calogero Maurizio Di Vita, Gioacchino Chitè, Massimo Scalzo, Raimondo Scalzo and Luigi Vivacqua.

The interception activities would have made it possible to ascertain that Paolo Iannello, already head of the Municipal Technical Office of San Cataldo, together with his son Davide Francesco, had reached corrective agreements with Liborio Lipari, administrator of the company "Ecolgest", to disturb the administrative regularity of the public tender tender to allow it to be awarded to the "Multiecoplast" company of Messina, leader of ATI with the aforementioned "Ecolgest" company participating in the tender.

The interception activities carried out by the personnel of the Carabinieri of Caltanissetta revealed that Domenico Terenzio, a soldier of the Arma in service at the carabinieri of San Cataldo, systematically informed members of the Mafia group or their joint investigations: he was charged with allegations of violation of official secrecy, forgery and, above all, external competition in the mafia association.

Financial police seized three companies, as well as 66 properties (including a villa with swimming pool, apartments and land), 19 cars, 36 bank accounts and 5 life policies, worth almost € 21 million.
The addressee of the seizure is Pietro Formoso, collaborators of justice have indicated him as 'man of honor' of the mafia family of Misilmeri (Palermo), bound by close bonds of friendship to the former head of the mandamento Benedetto Spera. He would have accumulated a fortune thanks to drug trafficking. Formoso has recently been arrested.

According to the turncoat Sergio Macaluso (acting boss of Resuttana 'mandamento'), some months before the death of Toto Riina last year, a new provincial and probably regional commission of Cosa Nostra was formed.
Paolo Calcagno, acting boss of Porta Nuova 'mandamento' and Filippo Bisconti, acting boss of Misilmeri 'mandamento', said him they were going to be part of the new-born provincial commission.

Was formed? So that means Sicilian Mafia have functionable commission again ?

Yes this is pretty big, because the cupola hasn´t met since the arrest of Riina in 1993. Now it seems the recent years were full of summits and meetings. The new Dome exists. It meets and makes important decisions. Riina was the only leader able to summon it. During the last months of life of the godfather someone decided to move overtaking him.

They were numerous attempts to rebuild commission,it is indeed pretty big. As police focuses more on 'Ndrangheta , Sicilian mafia will be able to gain some of power they lost.

The turncoats are still a problem for them, so many in recent years. But in my opinion the policies of Provenzano have helped them a lot they keep a very low profile. He tried to stem the flow of pentiti by not targeting their families, only using violence in case of absolute necessity. Provenzano reportedly re-established the old Mafia rules that had been abolished by Riina.

Agree with you, if they kept doing things like Riina did,it would bring them to knees completely.

Although the times have changed since ´93 lol, you can´t get away with murders anymore, they have the DNA of most of the mafiosi.

Sicilians have caught their breath a bit, I think they might have a pretty strong comeback.

Nicolo Clemente was arrested at an address in Trapani, Sicily. He would be in direct contact with the 'godfather' Messina Denaro. The construction contractor Clemente (50), known in Sicily, was arrested by order of the judge of the Palermo Court. He would be an important player in Cosa Nostra, and possibly also a crucial link between the upper world and the underworld on the island.
Goods have also been seized. Justice in Sicily tries to cut as many lines as possible that the boss Matteo Messina Denarocould maintain. In this sense, Nicolo Clemente is an important link. Through him, someone like Denaro would influence the building world with strangulation contracts. The line from Messina Denaro to Clemente would run through a brother of the latter. Although the justice system in Sicily claims that the whole family of Clemente has been in contact with the Mafia for years.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...-overlooking-parlermo-part-of21m-assets/

Italian police seize villa overlooking Palermo as part of €21m of assets from Sicilian mafia boss

24 nabbed in Palermo clan bust
'Money-laundering king' Corona caught

Italian police on Monday arrested 24 people in a major operation against Cosa Nostra clans in Palermo.
Four of them were placed under house arrest, including a well-known Palermo criminal lawyer, Nico Riccobene.
The probe uncovered the leading role of a boss who has come to the fore since the death of boss of bosses Totò Riina last November, Giuseppe Corona.
Nicknamed the "money-laundering king", Corona was able to launder "rivers of money", police said.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V9cY8pKY0Q

$2.6 million has been awarded to the family of boy nabbed by the Mafia to silence his turncoat father. The victim, Giuseppe Di Matteo, was strangled and dissolved in acid at age 13.

He was held for 26 months, during which time he was tortured and kept in squalor.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...e-from-the-mafia-italian-mp-piera-aiello

‘I was tired of covering my face to hide from the mafia’: Italian MP Piera Aiello

Police blitz, the organization acted with threats and extortion, including drug trafficking among its criminal activities

Thanks to a dense criminal network they would have monopolized the Syracuse fruit and vegetable market. In the early hours of the morning the police blitz. Mafia criminal association aimed at extortion, trafficking of drugs, thefts in homes and farms. These are the accusations made in various ways to the 19 people against whom the investigating judge of the court of Catania has ordered the arrest. The investigation activity, carried out by the Syracuse mobile team, with the help of the police in Catania, has made it possible to ascertain the operations in the territories of the southern part of the province, where a criminal gropu, thanks to the intimidation force exercised by its members, it had monopolized and conditioned the entire fruit and vegetable market in the area. Illicit activities also involved extortion, the trafficking of drugs, the commission of theft to homes and farms. Sixty units of the State Police, with the Crime Prevention Department of Catania engaged in the "Araba Fenice" operation.

"Here we command, tell that to Messina Denaro." the bosses were secretly recorded talking to each other.

Guardia di Finanza and Carabinieri del Ros are seizing 60 million euros from Giovanni Savalle, an expert in the tax and entrepreneurial sector, considered one of the recyclers of the mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. The investigation, resulting from the prevention measure, has shown the existence of a system of multi-level bonds, which aimed to maximize profits. Investigators have identified investments in the hotel and real estate sector in the Trapani area.

Messina 'business committee' busted
Numerous arrests, assets worth millions seized

(ANSA) - Messina, August 2 - The Messina DIA anti-mafia unit on Thursday executed arrest warrants for local politicians, businessman and criminals over an alleged illegal 'committee' to manage public business in the Sicilian city. Companies and properties worth many millions of euros were also seized as part of the operation. Ten of the suspects were put under house arrest and one person was taken to jail.
The former president of the Messina city assembly, Emilia Barrile, is among the people under investigation.

Police: Sicily gangsters crushed limbs for insurance

https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/ne...gsters-crushed-limbs-insurance/37365177/

Hey, a score is a score..

A new fugitive of importance in Sicily. Vito Bigione, 66, was sentenced in July to 15 years for mafia association and drug trafficking.

According to police wiretaps Bigione replaced Vito Gondola (dead in 2017) as boss of the Mazara del Vallo mandamento; He has connections in Venezuela, South Africa and Namibia. He worked closely with the Calabrian Marando crime family from Platì.

Cosa Nostra fully controls the Palermo fruit and vegetable market through the influence of the Acquasanta family, run by the Galatolo clan. They impose the prices, the Dia confiscated 150 million euros.

RIP Rita Borsellino.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7031774/bridge-italy-mafia-weakened-cement/

CUTTING CORNERS They use weakened cement that’s ‘like putting up shelves with sellotape’ – so have dodgy Mafia deals caused TEN bridges to collapse in five years?

The Palermo mobster Giovanni Lucchese, 46 years old, nephew of Giuseppe Lucchese, known as Lucchiseddu, fierce killer of Cosa nostra, author of dozens of murders, brother-in-law of the mafia boss Pietro Tagliavia and son of Nino, convicted mafia boss, has begun to collaborate with justice. The wife of the repentant, Rosalinda Tagliavia, refused protection, not sharing her husband's choice. Both the Tagliavia and the Lucchese are families with strong mafia traditions. Giovanni Lucchese was arrested on July 19, 1997 in a police and financial police blitz after the investigation by the Palermo prosecutor, who lifted the veil on the new organization charts and affairs of the powerful thug in the Palermo neighborhood of Brancaccio.

9 Cosa Nostra arrests in Sicily
Assinnata clan decapitated

(ANSA) - Catania, August 28 - Italian police on Tuesday made nine arrests in an operation they said decapitated the Assinnata clan of Cosa Nostra in the Sicilian town of Paternò.
The strength of the clan locally was highlighted in December 2015, police said, when a religious procession for the patron saint of the town 'bowed' while passing the home of the clan boss.

When the mafia opts not to kill

https://eastwest.eu/en/eastwest-79/leading-figures-when-the-ma-a-opts-not-to-kill

In the Cold Case of the murder of the businessman Diego Passafiume a man was arrested. Filippo Sciara, 54, is considered a member of the mafia family of Siculiana (Ag), involved in the kidnapping of little Giuseppe Di Matteo. Passafiume, an honest 41-year-old entrepreneur in the earth-moving sector, had been killed on the day of his wedding anniversary, August 22, 1993, in Cianciana, a small town in Agrigento.

Three days ago police arrested in Palermo 22 people, the gang that run the drug trafficking (cocaine, heroin and cannabis) in the Ballarò area was led by Silvio Mazzucco and Giovanni Rao, reputed members of Cosa Nostra and close to Luigi Abbate, boss of Palermo Centro crime family.

Pope in Sicily to honour priest killed by mafia

https://www.afp.com/en/news/206/pope-sicily-honour-priest-killed-mafia-doc-1939v01

'Brothers and sisters' of the Mafia, repent, pope says in Sicily

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-p...ays-in-sicily-idUKKCN1LV09J?rpc=401&

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns last week’s police search of the home of Salvo Palazzolo, an investigative reporter who specializes in covering the Sicilian mafia and other criminal networks for the Rome-based newspaper La Repubblica.

https://rsf.org/en/news/italy-police-search-violates-confidentiality-anti-mafia-reporters-sources

The Court of Palermo confiscated assets for about 15 million euros from Francesco Paolo Maniscalco, 54, convicted of mafia association.
These are coffee and food distribution companies based in Palermo, and some bars including the Gran Cafè San Domenico.
Maniscalco had been part of the bandit commando that completed the robbery at the Monte di Pietà, from where jewels of several billion Lira disappeared in 1991.
Maniscalco according to the investigators would be close to the son of Totò Riina, Giuseppe Salvatore .

The mafia boss of the family of Santa Maria di Gesù, Salvatore Profeta, died. The boss was detained in the maximum security prison of Tolmezzo, in the province of Udine, to serve a sentence of 8 years and 2 months.
Profeta, 73, had been hospitalized for ten days in the hospital, and would have died of a heart attack.
He was considered among the most loyal men to the boss Stefano Bontade, assassinated in 1981 in the war unleashed by the Corleonesi of Totò Riina against the so-called 'losing mafia'. Sentenced to life imprisonment for the massacre of Via D'Amelio, where in 1992 Paolo Borsellino and the escort agents were murdered, He was released in 2011 after the various trials ascertained the false declarations of the false repentant Vincenzo Scarantino ..
Returning to the Guadagna, Salvatore Profeta took over the reins of the clan with his old style of 'godfather'.
Speaking of him, the former deputy prosecutor of Palermo, Leonardo Agueci, said: "Profeta was not only the recognized boss but also posed as such"; he had chosen a bar in the main square of the district as a 'office', and every day he received people, dispensed aid and favors to strengthen the control of the territory. "
The boss was arrested three years ago for the Mafia association, extortion and robbery.

La Sicilia publisher 150 mn seized in mafia probe

(ANSA) - Rome, September 24 - Newspaper and TV assets worth
over 150 million euros belonging to the publisher and editor of
the Sicilian daily La Sicilia were seized in a mafia probe on
Monday.
A Catania court ordered the seizure of the assets of Mario
Ciancio Sanfilippo, sources said.
The seizure regards his entire media group including La
Sicilia, majority stakes in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno in Bari,
and two regional broadcasters, Antenna Sicilia and Telecolor.
The court appointed judicial commissioners to take over the
day-to-day running of the group's activities.

http://uploads.maltatoday.com.mt/ne...s_is_back_on_the_black_list#.W6t5b_lKhdg

Maltese restaurant that changed name to avoid US sanctions is back on blacklist

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/201...a34c292-570c-413d-97c2-f235e6650262.html

2 nabbed for 1-tonne marijuana plot
Near Agrigento

Alfonso Caruana, the boss of the two worlds "friend" of Don Ciccio Messina Denaro

http://ilcircolaccio.it/2018/09/18/...ondi-amico-di-don-ciccio-messina-denaro/

He had turned to the Supreme Court, hoping to be able to commute the life sentence in 30 years in prison. Unfortunately for him, however, the judges of the Supreme Court, have rejected the appeal of the defense of Giuseppe Putrone, 61, brother of Luigi Putrone ex capomafia of Agrigento province. Giuseppe already served 20 years in prison.

Fugitive mafioso nabbed

(ANSA) - Trapani, October 1 - Italian police on Monday arrested in Sicily a fugitive mafioso wanted for wiping out a Brescia family in 2006.
Vito Marino, 52, is the son of a mafioso murdered by fugitive Cosa Nostra No.1 Matteo Messina Denaro in 1986.

Source: www.ansa.it/english/news/general_ne...5def001-3d2c-4eae-9672-cafd69c15bdd.html

Breaking News! Powerful mafioso Vito Bigione has been arrested in Romania. The boss called the "accountant" had been included in the list of the thirty most dangerous fugitives in Italy.

https://palermo.repubblica.it/crona...nia_il_latitante_vito_bigione-208123187/

Bigione, 66, sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for association aimed at the international traffic of drugs, was one of the first brokers who put in contact Cosa Nostra, the 'Ndrangheta and the South American cartels that manage the international traffic of cocaine.

so where does vito baldimenti son of the don from the pizza connection case stand in the new landscape he was a desserter chased like his father the island? is he a boss he beat the pizza connection case the feds put him on a plane rite after to spain i think

29 drugs arrests in Italy and Spain
Including 'jail killer' Santo Tucci

(ANSA) - Milan, October 3 - Italian police on Wednesday arrested 29 people in two drug trafficking gangs in Italy and Spain.
Among those arrested was Santo Tucci, 62, the so-called 'jail killer'.
Some 219 kg of cocaine was seized as well as several weapons.
Cocaine was brought to Italy from Costa Rica in baskets of pineapples, police said.

the cocaine importers are all sicilians (santo tucci, maurizio ponzo, luigi pappalardo and salvatore grasso) from catania that supplied the calabrians in milan and pavia
last may the catanian broker and businessman salvatore ponzo was shot dead in costa rica

He was on the most wanted list but I think his sentence was suspended by the Palermo Court because of the statute of limitation.
Most likely he lives in Brazil, where he would continue to manage business with the American mafia and the Sicilian one.

The State Police brought to prison yesterday, on the orders of the Palermo General Public Prosecutor, Rosalia Di Trapani, 70, wife of the mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo , recipient of a definitive sentence for extortion aggravated by the Mafia method .
The disputed episodes date back to 2006 when the boss's wife, during her husband's and her son's inaction, had imposed the lace on the owners of a meat-processing business . The investigators of the organized crime section of the Flying Squad in Palermo carried out the investigations against the woman.
She must serve a sentence of 8 years imprisonment.

Europol was quickly involved in this case, since Marino had international links to other EU and third party countries.

(ANSA) - Palermo, October 8,2018 - Claudio Fava, chair of Sicily's regional anti-mafia commission, on Monday received an envelope containing a 7.65-calibre bullet.
DIGOS security police have already opened a probe into the incident.
The envelope only contained the bullet, nothing else, DIGOS said.
The anti-mafia commission, under Fava's lead, is working on various cases including the so-called "Montante system" named after the former head of Sicilian industrial federation Sicindustria, Antonello Montante, who was placed under house arrest on May 14 on charges of conspiracy to commit corruption.
It is also working on cover-ups and "deviations" in probes into the 1992 Mafia bomb slaying of anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino.
Claudio Fava's journalist father Giuseppe was murdered by the Mafia in 1984.

Mafia, blitz with 18 arrests in the Catanese: former MP Pippo Nicotra in prison

Blitz against the Santapaola-Ercolano clan at dawn between Acireale and Aci Catena. Among the eighteen arrested in the operation of the carabinieri called "Aquila" there is also Raffaele 'Pippo' Nicotra former deputy UDC then passed in the ranks of the Democratic Party.

Among the charges for the 18 arrested criminal association mafia, extortion with the aggravating of the Mafia method, political electoral exchange mafia, attempted murder, detention for the purpose of drug dealing and illegal possession of weapons.

The crime alleged against Nicotra is the vote of mafia political electoral exchange. The military of Acireale investigated some electoral consultations in which there would be the contribution of exponents of the Catania family of Cosa nostra. Raffaele Pippo Nicotra was taken to prison in execution of a precautionary measure issued by the investigating magistrate at the request of the Catania district attorney's office.

The investigations, which were conducted by the investigative nucleus of the provincial command and the Carabinieri company of Acireale, would have allowed, inter alia, to ascertain, also thanks to the statements of some collaborators of justice, that the suspects were part of two groups historians of the Catania family. According to the collaborators of justice, the suspects would have imposed the lace against several local entrepreneurs over a period of several years.

Mafia-infiltration risk in Genoa- ANAC

Cantone expresses doubts about decree for city after disaster

(ANSA) - Rome, October 10 - Raffaele Cantone, the head of anti-corruption authority ANAC, on Wednesday expressed reservations about the government's decree for Genoa after the Morandi-bridge disaster. He noted that the commissioner tasked with overseeing the construction of a new viaduct to replace the Morandi bridge, which collapsed in August in a disaster in which 43 people died, was assigned "unprecedented" powers. He also warned of the risk of possible mafia infiltration in the reconstruction work. "The waiver of all extra-criminal regulations also entails the waiver of the antimafia code," Cantone told a Lower House hearing, adding that the decree had "shortcomings". "I don't think it is necessary to stress the intrinsic risks in this omission, above all because there are many activities linked to the reconstruction, from the movement of earth to the disposal of refuse, in which mafia companies, unfortunately, have undoubted know-how".

https://youtu.be/YH7juxcWIDQ

anti drug operation 'beautiful hybrid' in the province of catania dismantled a criminal group that produced tons of marijuana supplying several sicilian areas, among the arrested mobsters and 3 policemen

Vatican moves on Caravaggio stolen by Mob in 1969

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/201...0f19098-9b72-4107-a041-56305c02e078.html

Discover the real goodfellas in Sicily's Corleone, the heart of Mafia country

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/discover-corleone-sicily-a3960451.html

Partinico (Palermo), maxi anti-drug operation: seized 6 tons of marijuana plants. 4 arrests

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2018/1 ... #cComments

The police seized two shops belonging to the family of the mafia boss Giuseppe Dainotti, killed in an ambush in Palermo last year, because they do not have the health authorization. The shops, a butcher shop and another shop without a sign, located in Via Porta Carini, belong to the nephew of the mafia boss.

Two fugitives and an arsenal All leads to MMD
by Riccardo Lo Verso

The arrests of Bigione and Marino, the arms of Paceco. Something bubbling up in the Trapani area.


PALERMO - Two arrested fugitives and a rediscovered arsenal. Three sequential episodes only apparently unrelated to each other. If it is true that in the province of Trapani not necessarily all investigations must revolve around the figure of Matteo Messina Denaro, who is rooted in Trapanese roots of his criminal power, is with the figure of the fugitive that the three episodes oblige to confront.

In a few days between Vita and Paceco they arrest Vito Marino and find a weapons depot. Marino was a fugitive from 2016, when the life sentence for the Brescia massacre became final. It was he who exterminated, in 2006, the entire Cottarelli family - father, mother and seventeen year old son - in their villa. They arrested him in a sheepfold in the countryside of Vita.

Vito Marino is the son of Girolamo, called 'Mommo' u nano '. In 1986, the killer on board an Alfasud stopped in front of the Paceco boss and exploded two guns of machine guns. Messina Denaro was also shot. 'Mommu u nano' paid for his refusal to kill his brother-in-law's wife who had decided to collaborate with the magistrates. The past is not forgotten: Marino, with the prospect of remaining in prison for life, is one of the worst enemies of Messina Denaro.

How did you arrive at his arrest and find the weapons? Are the two episodes tied? Is there any confidential source behind it?

They spend a few days from the arrest of Marino and in an abandoned farmhouse in the Paceco countryside four ready-to-use Kalashnikovs are found, complete with magazines and ammunition. There was a sawed shotgun in a bin, two 38-caliber revolvers, a shotgun, a mab 38 submachine gun, and another mp-40 rifle. In short, an arsenal at the disposal of the Paceco and Salemi mobsters. And that is to say those who, more than others, have shown great fidelity to the fugitive godfather.

Just as loyal was Vito Bigione for years,manager of drug trafficking originating in Mazara del Vallo. They arrested him in Romania. Long beard and dark glasses to disguise. "My name is Matteo", he told the mobile policemen of Trapani. For years, Bigione, on behalf of the family of Mazara del Vallo, has managed the drug routes between South America and Europe, acting as a glue between Cosa Nostra, 'ndrangheta and South American cartels. Just in South America, now about ten years ago, Matteo Messina Denaro would have been sighted.

Bigione was very respectful with Vito Gondola, the last capomafia of Campobello di Mazara who died last year at the age of eighty. Messina Denaro blindly trusted Gondola. Until March 2010, the correspondence transmission system had been managed by the fathers of the fugitive, Vincenzo Panicola and Filippo Guttadauro, and by his brother Salvatore. When they were all arrested, the fugitive looked to the past to replace them. And he chose Gondola who was already present at the dinner organized in December 1991 based on oysters, lobsters and Dom Perignon in the house of Tonnarella where Totò Riina lived. It was there that the 'chief of chiefs' decided to exterminate the enemies of the Marsala mafia.

All the investigations that led to the two arrests and the kidnapping of arms are coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi and by the adjunct Paolo Guido, and that is the same as the magistrates who seek Messina Denaro. Something bubbling in Trapanese. We hope to bring the fugitive. Certainly the three news events are a sign that the territory is manned.

https://livesicilia.it/2018/10/14/latitanti-messina-denaro-bigione-marino_1003959/

Palermo prosecutor has requested a total sentence of 176 years for bosses and members of the Borgo Vecchio mafia family in Palermo. They are accused, for various reasons, of mafia association, extortion, fictitious heading of assets. The highest penalties (14 years) have been requested for the chiefs Fabio Bonanno, Domenico Canfarotta, Salvatore D'Amico, Elio Ganci, Luigi Miceli and Domenico Tantillo. The investigation that led, a year ago, to 17 arrests arises from the massive rebellion of the neighborhood merchants who denounced the requests for lace. Some victims have paid for 15 years.

it was not a rebellion, they just admitted to pay pressed by police because in italy now it is a crime to pay protection to the mafia

30 tonnes of marijuana seized in the province of agrigento the largest ever in italy

https://youtu.be/0fglpFFt-DY

Secret filming puts Italy on notice for new political scandal
The footage is set to embarrass the far-right League and a web of mafia bosses

https://www.thenational.ae/world/eu...otice-for-new-political-scandal-1.783241

Very good article H ! This just proves how powerful Sicilian Mafia is , and how closely they are working with politicians Thank you for sharing

Caltanissetta flying squad chief gets bullet in post
2nd such threat in Sicilian city, 3rd in Sicily this month

(ANSA) - Palermo, October 23 - The head of the Caltanissetta flying squad, Marzia Giustolisi, received a bullet in the post on Tuesday.
The envelope containing the bullet also contained threats, police said.
It is the second such Mafia warning in Caltanissetta this month.
On October 11 a prosecutor in the central Sicilian city also got a bullet through the post.
The envelope containing the slug was sent to Caltanissetta Chief Prosecutor Amedeo Bertone.
"I will not stop, I'll go on with my work, with my whole office," Bertone told ANSA.
The magistrate is is working on various cases including the so-called "Montante system" named after the former head of Sicilian industrial federation Sicindustria, Antonello Montante, who was placed under house arrest on May 14 on charges of conspiracy to commit corruption.
He is also working on cover-ups and "deviations" in probes into the 1992 Mafia bomb slaying of anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino, as well as continued investigations into the other Mob bomb slaying that year, of Borsellino's friend and colleague Giovanni Falcone.
Tuesday's is the third such threat in Sicily this month.
On October 9 Claudio Fava, chair of Sicily's regional anti-mafia commission, received an envelope containing a 7.65-calibre bullet.
His commission is also probing the Montante system and the Borsellino cover-ups.

As text said , this is not first time something like this happens , i am really interested what family is behind warnings,or maybe even masonic lodge.

Leoluca Grizzaffi was sentenced to six months of imprisonment,. condemned for the bow before the house of Totò Riina, in Corleone.

The event dates back to May 29, 2016, during the procession of St. John the Evangelist. When the procession arrived in front of the house of the ferocious godfather of Cosa nostra, the confrate sounded the bell and everyone stopped.

For the judge a clear act of respect for the struggling capomafia who died last 17 November. The man responds to disturbance of religious functions. The prosecutor had asked for two years.

At home, as Reppubblica.it reconstructs, there was not the wife of the boss Ninetta Bagarella, but the sister of the woman of who Grizzaffi would also be a distant relative. In any case, on the willingness of the confreres to pay homage to the Riina family, there is no doubt according to the judge, and that "bow" must be punished.

The European court of human rights in Strasbourg has ruled that Italy violated the rights of the late Mafia "boss of bosses" Bernardo Provenzano by maintaining strict anti-Mafia prison conditions in his last few months alive.

https://www.wral.com/ruling-italy-violated-mafia-boss-provenzano-s-human-rights/17944631/

Leo Sutera, senior historical boss of Sambuca di Sicilia, considered the current head of Cosa nostra dell'Agrigentino, was arrested for mafia association. He is considered one of the trusted men of the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro to whom he is linked by an old friendship and has entertained, until a few years ago, what the investigators define as 'proven contacts through the system of pizzini'. Despite the long periods of detention he would have continued to manage the mafia business.

Sicilian anti-extortion activist arrested on suspicion of extortion

Italian police have arrested a Sicilian consultant who made his living by helping victims of extortion. The man, according to authorities, embezzled public funds and threatened his clients for additional money.

The head of the Sicilian Anti-extortion Association, Salvatore C., has been arrested by Italy's financial police for allegedly committing extortion himself, officials said on Sunday.

Italy's Guardia di Finanza said the suspect was also charged with embezzlement and fraud, according to the DPA news agency.

The suspect made his reputation by helping victims of extortion and loan-sharking in the region of Italy dominated by the Mafia. The campaigner presented his activity as "a job" to his clients, pledging to help protect them and ensure they received compensation from the state.

According to investigators, however, the anti-extortion expert also demanded illegal payments from his clients. He would use intimidation tactics on victims already targeted by extortionists, and threaten to drop the case midway unless he received a 3-5 percent cut of the likely compensation money, Italian daily la Reppublica reports, citing police sources.

Italian police claim that Salvatore C. demanded bribes in at least three cases, including from a manager of a bookshop, when he said that paying him a 3 percent cut would speed up the compensation procedure. In a separate occasion, he received an envelope containing €1,500 ($1,705) from a family of a victim killed by the Mafia, after he threatened to stop his assistance as they were set to be granted additional funds from the state. Finally, a foreign national who owned bar in Sicily was forced to pay €3,000 under similar circumstances.

The authorities also believe that the head of the anti-extortion NGO embezzled some €37,000 of public grants for his personal use. In another incident which drew attention from the police, Salvatore C. allegedly advised a person to get a false diagnosis in order to get more money.

The consultant has been put under house arrest.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...1KC_CzCyV5cSwl4xio6J3HO6OtdPI_p-qnRZeVfs

Andrea Lombardo, from Altavilla Milicia, collaborates with the magistrates and the carabinieri of Palermo. Man of the racket, but also a defendant of murder along with his father Francesco, considered the regent of the mafia family of Altavilla Milicia. Andrea Lombardo, 36, has worked mainly on extortion and control of contracts between Altavilla Milicia, Bagheria and Casteldaccia.

In 2017 he was arrested for the murder of Vincenzo Urso on the night of 25 October 2009. Urso, a building contractor, had parked his Volkswagen Tuareg in via Ragusa, in Altavilla Milicia. He knew he was hunted down and tried to escape. It was riddled with a rain of 7.65 caliber bullets. The Lombardos are accused of the instigators of the murder.

A man was shot dead in an ambush that took place last night in Marsala, in Trapani. The victim is AM, a 52 year old criminal.

How the mafia got to our food

Really great article,worth reading!

Giuseppe Antoci had been warned more than once. “You will end with your throat cut,” read one note, composed entirely of individual letters clipped from newspapers in ransom-note style.

In May 2016, they came. Antoci, then president of the Nebrodi National Park, a protected area in Sicily’s north-east, was returning home from a meeting accompanied by his police escort. As his armour-plated Lancia Thesis rounded a bend in the Miraglia forest, he saw the mountain road was strewn with rocks, forcing the driver to stop.

First, two hitmen fired at the vehicle’s wheels to immobilise it. Then a shootout ensued. The would-be assassins eventually fled but Antoci recalls his terror that night: “The police tried to move me to another car but, in my fear, I didn’t recognise them. I thought I was being kidnapped. I thought of my family and prayed they were safe.”

Antoci believes the attempted hit was ordered by the Sicilian Mafia in retaliation for new regulations blocking millions of euros in EU subsidies on farmland from reaching it. It was the most serious Mafia attack on a state representative since the high-profile assassinations of several Italian prosecutors in the 1990s.

Siphoning off farm subsidies does not carry the same dubious “glamour” as the racketeering or drug running usually associated with the Mafia. But it has become a highly lucrative income stream for Italy’s organised-crime syndicates. Their forays into farming do not end there: in recent years, they have infiltrated the entire food chain, according to a Rome-based think-tank, the Observatory of Crime in Agriculture and the Food Chain.

Taking advantage of the decade-long economic crisis in Italy, the Mafia has bought up cheap farmland, livestock, markets and restaurants, laundering its money through what is one of the country’s leading industries. The value of the so-called agromafia business has almost doubled from €12.5bn in 2011 to more than €22bn in 2018 (growing at an average of 10 per cent a year), according to the Observatory.

It now accounts for 15 per cent of total estimated Mafia turnover. “The reliability of the business in the crisis brought about the interest of the Mafia,” says Stefano Masini, a law professor at the Observatory. “It’s profitable and not dangerous like the drug market. They are now inserted in the industry from field to fork.”

From the terroirs of Chianti to the ancient olive groves of Puglia, Italy’s Mafia organisations have put down roots throughout the food and agriculture sector, from production to packaging, transport and distribution. Police data indicates that all of Italy’s major crime syndicates — the Neapolitan Camorra, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the ’Ndrangheta from the region of Calabria — invest in farming.

According to Professor Umberto Santino, a Mafia historian from Palermo, the Mob’s interests in the agricultural industry now extend to “human trafficking, money laundering, extortion, loan sharking, illegal breeding, backstreet butchering and baking and the burial of toxic waste on farmland. It’s an integrated cycle, a full package of systematic interactions.”


In a globalised industry, the Mafia’s reach extends beyond Italy’s borders, affecting the path of food to dinner tables around the world. Often the methods remain old-school: bribery, intimidation, counterfeiting and extortion. But the cartels have also developed white-collar expertise in infiltrating the local councils and committees that award tenders and subsidies.

Under the scheme uncovered by Antoci, Mafiosi and their affiliates leased hundreds of thousands of hectares of public land in the Nebrodi Park from the state, using intimidation to scare away rival bids. When Antoci took over in 2013 he found 80 per cent of the park’s leases were under Mafia control, including a lease to Gaetano Riina, brother of Salvatore “Toto” Riina, also known as “The Beast”, the Sicilian Mafia chief who died last year while serving life imprisonment.

According to Antoci, it was rare that this land was actually farmed. A Mafia family could claim about €1m a year in EU subsidies on 1,000 hectares, while leasing it for as little as €37,000. “With profit margins as high as 2,000 per cent, with no risk, why sell drugs or carry out robberies when you can just wait for the cheque to arrive in the post?” he says by telephone from his home in the coastal village of Santo Stefano di Camastra, where he lives under armed guard.

The 50-year-old might not seem like a typical crime-fighting hero; small in stature, and a wearer of frameless glasses, he was the regional director of a bank before he entered politics in 2013.

Yet Antoci not only identified the Mafia’s scheme but devised the solution: new rules forcing even the smallest leaseholders to pass police checks, enforced retrospectively, with numerous confiscations of land. “When you take money out of their pockets, that’s when the Mafia retaliate,” he says.

Antoci’s would-be killers have not been brought to justice and the case was shelved in September. He was removed as president of the park in a political overhaul by Sicily’s new governor earlier this year. “Many in prison will drink a toast,” Antoci said at the time. But his measures have now been rolled out across Italy. In 2016, he was given a knighthood with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the highest-ranking honour in Italy, for “courageous determination in the defence of the law and against the phenomenon of the Mafia”.

Yet he says he underestimated the effect this work would have on him and his family. “I will never be the same person after that night.” With soldiers carrying machine guns on the street below, his three daughters don’t want to invite friends round any more. “This is not a life for them. I just did my duty, but in a normal country you wouldn’t have to risk your life doing so.”

Mafia syndicates in Italy have an estimated annual turnover of €150bn, according to a report by the anti-Mafia parliamentary committee in 2017. That is €40bn more than Italy’s biggest holding company Exor, which includes Fiat Chrysler and Ferrari. Their influence in the country remains vast; four in 10 Italians surveyed in October by Libera Terra, a co-operative consortium, said that where they live the Mafia “is a worrying phenomenon and its presence socially dangerous”.

In 1991 the prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, who was later murdered by the Sicilian Mafia, set up the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA), an FBI-style multi-force agency. Today it is led by General Giuseppe Governale, an upright, mustachioed Sicilian who has had a long career fighting organised crime. At the modern, cruise-ship-shaped DIA offices on the edge of Rome, Governale, 59, narrates, with considerable relish, the history of the Mafia in Sicily.

In one way or another, he says, criminal organisations have always had their hands in the soil of southern Italy. “Until the 20th century there was a system of vassals and feudal lords, with Mafia middlemen managing the farms on behalf of the landowners.” Mafia clans have long been linked to sheep rustling and both Toto Riina and Bernardo “The Tractor” Provenzano, his successor as capo di tutti capi, started out as almost illiterate peasant farmers, leaving school before they finished primary education.

In the 1980s, continues Governale, the heroin business moved the Mafia’s focus to the cities. “But it is the ties to the land that bind the members of the Mafia syndicates together, even when they have spread their tentacles as far as the US, Canada and Australia. They have an extraordinary quasi-religious sense of belonging,” he says. “If they were simple organised-crime organisations, we would have beaten them.” The Italian word for Mafia clan is cosca, meaning artichoke heart, he explains. “Because the Mafia is like an artichoke. All leaves link to the heart.”

If the Mafia’s rural roots make the food industry a natural territory, the creep of crime syndicates’ influence into our supermarket trolleys and lunch boxes has been accelerated by the financial crisis. The credit crunch forced companies to turn to the cash-rich Mafia for help. “Italy is the third-biggest agricultural power in Europe,” says Professor Santino, “but the sector is vulnerable because it is very fragmented and a lot of companies are in financial difficulty. The Mafia have behind them all their illicit earnings, they lower the cost of production and they can absorb the effects of the crisis.”

I visit Santino and his wife Anna, also a Mafia scholar, in downtown Palermo, where, 40 years ago, they transformed their own home into Italy’s first anti-Mafia study centre “because people still said that the Mafia didn’t exist”. It is named after their friend Giuseppe Impastato, the nephew of a Mafia boss who was killed for anti-Mafia activism. Their home is a library, stacked floor-to-ceiling with newspapers, files, photos and original court documents. Contained in 35 blue leather-bound folders are the sentences handed out at the so-called maxi-trial in 1987 in which more than 300 Mafiosi were convicted.

Santino links the “marked increase in the exploitation of Italy’s lands” by the Mafia to lower earnings from its drugs business and a drop in public money for procurement of government works contracts. He adds that the infiltration of the food trade also reflects the organisation’s growing propensity to enter legitimate businesses, assuming the form of entrepreneurs.

“The Mafia has always been successful at exploiting the country’s vulnerability because of this capacity to adapt,” he says. They stand for local office and send their children to law school in the US. “They have become bourgeois.”

For Roberto Moncalvo, head of Italy’s largest agriculture industry association, Coldiretti: “The main reason for the increase in Mafia in the industry is the potential for large revenues.” As consumers have become more interested in the origins of our food, parts of agriculture have become exceptionally lucrative. With margins as high as 700 per cent, profits from olive oil, for example, can be higher than those from cocaine — and with far less risk.

Expansion into agribusiness is useful for another reason, says Moncalvo, because “it provides a means to launder profits from more traditional businesses such as drug trafficking”. The Calabrian ’Ndrangheta Mafia, which controls an estimated 80 per cent of Europe’s cocaine trade, has so much cash that its leaders are prepared to accept losses of up to 50 per cent by investing in the agriculture business in order to clean their money, Governale says. Italy’s number-one Mafia fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, who has been on the run for 25 years, is believed to have invested extensively in olives.

Palermo’s wholesale market opens at 3am and by sunrise the noise reaches a crescendo, with market stallholders coming close to blows about the price of yesterday’s kiwis, while porters expertly stack crates of melons and prickly pears. A long queue forms at a three-wheeler van selling slices of thick Sicilian pizza bread.

In August, police raided the market. Investigators said there was an “invisible control room” setting the price of the goods, transport, porterage, parking, transport and packing material. One porter, who asked to remain anonymous, said that until the raid, the Mafia was in charge. “They would come to our stall once a week and ask for money. The people here knew who they were and so they paid. But a stall nearby didn’t pay so they set it on fire and our stall burnt down anyway.”

In recent years, a growing number of Italy’s produce markets have fallen under the control of the criminal underworld. Police believe they have even formed cross-regional alliances to carve up the spoils, with the Neapolitan and Sicilian Mafias agreeing a 2016 deal to impose their own businesses as suppliers, and transporters to and from, the biggest central Italy wholesale markets.

For the consumer, counterfeiting is the main danger. “The falsification of food products is now the second-most profitable enterprise in the EU after drug trafficking,” says Europol’s Chris Vansteenkiste. “Food is where the profit is. Women buy a handbag every few months but you have to eat every day.”

Counterfeited organic food is the most profitable area. In one operation, Italian gangs were found importing wheat from Romania and labelling it as organic, which commands a price three to four times higher. Knock-offs of prestigious Italian products such as mozzarella di bufala campana and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese have increasingly entered the market.

The DIA oversees operations against the agromafia conducted by all of Italy’s different police and law-enforcement forces. Specialist police tasters work to uncover adulterated foods, especially olive oil. Their taste buds are considered so precise that the findings are even admissible in Italian courts.

Records reveal a mind-boggling — and nausea-inducing — range of food fraud. Mozzarella has been found whitened with detergent, olive oil mixed with cheap imported north African oil, bread made with asbestos or sawdust and cheap wine repackaged as Tuscany’s Brunello di Montalcino.

In February last year, 42 members of the Piromalli clan in Calabria were arrested and 40 farms seized in connection with the export of counterfeit oil to the US, sold as extra virgin, which retails for at least €7 a litre. A number of those arrested are now in prison awaiting trial. According to police, about 50 per cent of all extra-virgin olive oil sold in Italy is adulterated with cheap, poor-quality oil. Globally the proportion is even higher.

When food is counterfeited, says Roberto Moncalvo, the consumer is “not just being defrauded, there is a risk to their health”. The undermining of the country’s most prestigious cultural export also strikes at the heart of Italy’s identity, he adds. “It is a problem of reputation. Italy is known the world over for good food.”

The Mafia’s infiltration of the food chain seems depressingly comprehensive, but there are pockets of resistance. In some areas, farmers have banded together in consortiums. In Calabria, one of the poorest regions in Europe, activist Vincenzo Linarello founded Goel, an association of 30 organic Mafia-free farms, in 2003. Its produce sells at a premium but many of its members have since been targeted by the local ’Ndrangheta.

“The Mafia want to discourage us, to stop us from showing that you can be free and disobedient,” says Linarello. “They want to send a message that in Calabria nothing is possible without the ’Ndrangheta.” He explains how the Mob tends to approach farmers: “They will ask you in exchange for a small favour, to employ someone, to buy your new tractor from so and so. In this way, little by little you lose control of your land and then you give up.”

In an idyllic location on the Ionian coast, a farm, A Lanterna, produces chillies, olives and lemons. The business has suffered seven arson attacks in seven years, one of which caused €200,000 of damage. The constant aggressions leave you “beaten down”, says owner Annalisa Fiorenza. “You begin to think, ‘Is it worth it?’ ”

The 39-year-old, who grew up in the next village and is a lawyer for the ministry of agriculture, bought the farm as a passion project with friends in 2003, when she found out it was abandoned. Attacks are never preceded by any message or demand, she says. “No one tells you who they are or what they want. They want you to seek out protection, to choose to submit.”

Since joining the Goel co-operative in 2012, Fiorenza has learnt to defend herself, using the attacks to create publicity and collect funds to restore the damage. “Then we throw a huge party to show that it’s useless to attack us,” she says. “If you strike one, you strike all. The fact that we are in it together gives us more strength.”

For anti-Mafia campaigners, a 1996 law stipulating that land and assets confiscated from the Mafia must be repurposed as community projects has been a key victory. Since then, 11,000 properties have been confiscated from the Mafia, about one-third of them farms.

In Corleone, ground zero for the Cosa Nostra and the source of the name for The Godfather’s Don Vito, Salvatore Riina’s old house is now the base for a 150-hectare organic tomato and legume farm employing former drug addicts, people with learning and behavioural problems and refugees. Through the Campi della Legalita programme, the co-operative hosts sixth-formers who volunteer for two weeks on the farm.

Its founder, Calogero Parisi, has flowing black hair and a cigarette almost permanently attached to his bottom lip. He tells me he was drawn into activism in the 1990s after taking part in the anti-Mafia caravan, a convoy of trucks that tours Sicily every summer. The Riina family farm that the co-operative took over in 2001 has faced many attacks from the Mob.

Land represents the power of the person, Parisi explains. “You can say ‘All this land is mine,’ ” he says. He recalls how first their vines were burnt, then a field of lentils. “Then,” he chuckles, as if talking about a mischievous child, “we planted a wood, but they sent their sheep to graze there all the time so the plants never grew.”

The original owner of the land was Riina’s nephew, Giovanni Grizzaffi. He was released from prison last year after more than 20 years and Parisi says it is awkward, to say the least, to see him around town. “Let’s say we are not on speaking terms.”

In April, two of the co-operative’s tractors, two trailers and a truck worth €70,000 were stolen, forcing Parisi to obtain a loan that will take five years to pay off. Since then he has been thinking more seriously about giving up. “We have to work so hard with an organic farm and we make so many sacrifices. We even sowed crops on Christmas Day. Sometimes you wonder if it is worth it.”

The final link of the food chain is restaurants and eateries, which provide the principal channel for money laundering. An estimated 5,000 restaurants in Italy are in the hands of the Mob, according to the Observatory. In Rome and Milan, clans are estimated to own one in five.

In Palermo, a group of graduates who wanted to open a pub were shocked to learn they would be expected to pay protection money, or pizzo. In defiance they founded Addiopizzo (goodbye pizzo), an organisation that supports businesses resisting extortion threats. Activist Daniele Marannano says: “We flyered a whole neighbourhood with leaflets saying ‘A people that pays pizzo is a people without dignity.’ ”

The softly spoken Marannano, 33, remembers the day in 1992 when prosecutor Paolo Borsellino was murdered by a car bomb in Palermo. “I was eight years old and coming back from the beach with my father. We saw my cousin in the street and he threw himself across the car to tell us. I will never forget it. I think, for those of us who lived through this at that age, it had more impact.”

At Addiopizzo’s headquarters, Marannano points to a map delineating the borders of Mafia families’ territory in the city. Many businesses who pay are not driven by fear but by habit and convenience, he says. “If I am a butcher and another butcher opens in my area with competitive prices, that’s annoying to me. If I’ve paid my pizzo, the Mafia will go to them and explain, ‘Amico, this is the price.’ ”

Natale Giunta, a well-known chef in Palermo, received such a visit when he opened a new restaurant in 2012. “There were three of them, including one person I knew, who made the introductions,” he recalls. “They said I had not asked permission and demanded €2,000 a month, plus double at Christmas and Easter.” Giunta refused to pay. But after the visit, he received bullets in the post. Then one of his catering vans was set on fire, causing €100,000 worth of damage. Giunta now has police protection.

Marannano says that when Addiopizzo started in 2004, those who dared to report extortion to the police could be counted on one hand: “Now I can say that people have a choice.” The bravery of those who resist, and the existence of grass-roots anti-Mafia movements that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, is heartening.

On its own, though, it is unlikely to force the clans to loosen their grip on the land. Aside from a special law brought in to protect Italian olive oil in 2013, current legislation against agricultural crimes is extraordinarily lenient, creating little risk for perpetrators.

A new law that would create several new crimes has been proposed by Elena Fattori, a Five Star Movement MP. It would seek to punish “public-health catastrophes”, the poisoning or contaminating of food or water, and “agropiracy”, the sale of counterfeit food. “In Italy, we have a lot of checks on food but no consequences,” says Fattori. “The risk is too low: the perpetrators just pay a fine and carry on. To protect public health and [protect] against the destruction of honest work we need to do much more.” The time frame for such a law is unclear: Fattori’s proposal is not part of Five Star’s agreed government programme with its rightwing coalition partners the League.

Beyond legislation, consumers can try to buy products with a transparent, ethical provenance. But Governale at the DIA believes the long-term solution is better governance. In deprived areas where the state doesn’t guarantee basic rights or services — from hospital beds, to transport for farm workers — people are more likely to turn to Mob bosses than to institutions for loans or protection, he says. “At the end, the population become almost supportive of those that suffocate them . . . 

“Since 1992, on the investigative level, we [law and order] have been at the cutting edge. But to win definitively, it’s not enough to investigate, we need to improve the level of society.” Otherwise, the Mafia becomes insidious in every sector. “In agriculture, its grip is parasitical,” he says. “The Mafia is fundamentally a weed and you need strong weed killer to kill it.”

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/73de228c...naXw-pGEDjYWHO-Bj60i8Zll-9caBsbt6F7XryW0

Mafia, 9 million euros confiscated from the boss Antonino Maranzano.

Massive Italian anti-mafia operation results in scores of arrests

Italy's anti-mafia police have struck a major blow to the Italian mob in an international sting. Rival groups were said to have worked together to make billions through online gambling.
Italy's National Anti-Mafia Directorate (DNA) arrested 68 members of organized crime families across Italy on Wednesday, with help from Eurojust — the EU's judicial agency — and police from Britain, the Netherlands, Serbia and Switzerland. Those arrested were members of the country's three major crime syndicates: Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Calabria's 'Ndrangheta and Apulia's Sacra Corona Unita (SCU).
Some 800 officers were involved in the raids, which were also aided by information given to authorities by a Sicilian mobster who feared the gangs "would never have let him quit," because of their thirst for money. The man had infiltrated the mafia's online gambling operations.

The new mob

Although previously rivals, the three families agreed to work together to embark on an online gambling scheme that authorities say netted them almost €4.5 billion ($5 billion). On Wednesday, authorities seized €1 billion in goods and cash in Albania, Austria, Britain, Germany, the Isle of Man, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, Serbia, the Seychelles and Switzerland.
Federico Cafiero de Raho, the head of the Italian anti-mafia unit, explained the novelty of the new cooperation between previously rival groups: "The 'Ndrangheta and the mafias of Sicily and Puglia [Apulia] no longer exist. They are now fluid organizations that manage different businesses between them."
Cafiero de Raho told journalists: "We have an increasingly clear picture. We can see from ongoing investigations how the mafia works together in different sectors. We need to establish whether there is a fixed leadership or if the deals change depending on the territories involved."

Secluded meetings at a mountaintop sanctuary

In the course of the online gambling investigation, prosecutors in Calabria said they also uncovered a secret meeting spot favored by the 'Ndrangheta: Our Lady of the Mountain (pictured above), a secluded Catholic sanctuary nestled in the Aspromonte mountains. The sanctuary is located outside the village of San Luca, where the organization was founded.
Apulian prosecutors in Bari said they think the Sacra Corona Unita was instrumental in facilitating collaboration between the Sicilian and Calabrian families. They added that "the younger generation made a decisive contribution to the business" by using technical know-how to help the powerful Martiradonna family break into the lucrative online gambling business.

The scheme

Authorities said the groups used a number of websites to collect bets in exchange for promotion and protection. Suspects arrested in Wednesday's sting are accused of crimes such as the illicit transfer of cash, illegal online betting activities and tax evasion.
Italian state prosecutors also published pictures that some suspects had posted of themselves on social media. The photos showed the overweight mafiosi sporting Rolexes and brand new Ferraris, others featured them relaxing in bathrobes at health spas or dining in fancy restaurants.
Nicola Morra, who now heads the Italian parliament's anti-mafia commission said: "We must defeat the mafia. We must fight every illegality, every silence, as they are fertile ground for that disgusting weed that we must tear up with all our strength."

Very interesting quote.

it is an overstatement... the level of cooperation in certain ventures, which we have also seen with drug trafficking, may blur the lines but the distinctive organizations are still there

They are all uomini d'onore, while keeping their own rituals a united mafia is their ultimate goal.

All the four mafias united.. I cant imagine any other organized group being more powerful than them if this would be reality.

It isn´t far fetched all mafias have links to freemasonry.

Mafia and online betting, another 36 arrests
Twenty new betting agencies in the provinces of Catania, Siracusa, Caltanissetta and Ragusa have been seized. The survey is the result of the maxi operation carried out five days ago in various regions of Italy.

Clan Laudani 17 arrests

GIARRE. A new and very hard blow was inflicted by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Catania to the articulation of the Laudani clan operating in Giarre and in the neighboring municipalities. At the dawn ofthis morning, the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Catania have executed an order issued by the investigating magistrate Loredana Pezzino, at the request of the deputy prosecutor Assunta Musella, against 17 subjects accused for various reasons of mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking, injury, theft in homes and laundering of illicit proceeds through fictitious headers of deposits and current accounts. All crimes aggravated by the purpose of facilitating the mafia association. Among the recipients stand out the names of Alessandro Liotta, considered at the top of the criminal organization, Salvatore Nicotra, known as 'Turi da Macchia', historical exponent of the mussi of ficurinia, and Davide Indelicato, considered the new face leading the group after the arrest of Liotta, in February 2017, as part of the anti-drug operation called Bingo. The operation, called smack forever, takes its name from the design in the shape of lips, with around the inscription forever, tattooed on the body of Giuseppe Musumeci, called 'u ciceraru'.

Investigators identified another nefarious pact between the Camorra and the Mafia. Men linked to Matteo Messina Denaro and members of the Nuvoletta clan held a summit in Giugliano. 21 people were arrested two days ago.

It´s the end of the year so we will see many police operations in the coming weeks.

Exactly , every year its same.

Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio on Friday cancelled a planned trip to Corleone after a mayoral candidate from his party there said he wanted to "open a dialogue with the relatives of mafiosi".

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/201...c38890e-1f87-47d7-a40c-c63f81886f08.html

Italian authorities seized more than €1.5 billion of assets linked to fugitive mafia boss

Italian authorities seized €1.5 billion in business assets linked to the notorious Cosa Nostra mafia.

This week, the Directorate of Anti-Mafia Investigations (DIA), seized real estate and tourism properties - resorts, golf clubs and shipping boats - belonging to the heirs of late mafia boss Carmelo Patti, who died in January 2016 at the age of 81.

The heir, Matteo Messina Denaro, 56, is the mob boss of the Sicilian mafia Cosa Nostra and has been wanted by Italian authorities since 1993 for planting bombs that killed 10 people in Florence and Milan.

This seizure "is certainly one of the most important in the Italian judicial history," said a statement from the (DIA). "It also allowed to establish links with many characters close to or belonging to the mafia family of Castelvetrano," they added.

Man this Matteo Denaro must be just as wealthy as El Chapo in my opinion? Ever year they seize assets worth billions linked to him.

i think yes
they seized about 4 billions from him so far

But how much of that is actually his. I mean they seize it from business men linked to him. I wonder if its his companies etc and he just put a name on it or if its business man that he just takes percentage from.

5 billions to be exact.

everything belongs to him, these businessmen are just his frontman who built an economic empire with his money

Here we go. In a huge operation palermo police busted the new Cupola, 46 arrested.
Settimo Mineo is the heir of Riina !

Italian Mafia 'godfather' Settimo Mineo held in Sicily raid

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46438789

Mineo was elected boss of bosses on May 29, in the first Commission meeting in 25 years.

This is big news, as the police focuses on 'Ndrangheta the Sicilian Mafia had time to rebuild a little

Mineo was a great enemy of Stefano Bontade, the prince of Villagrazia, and had escaped the ambushes that cost the lives of his brothers Giuseppe and Antonino.
He was the ambassador in relations with the other mafia families, the businessman, the control of illicit contracts and contacts with the American mafia.

there's gotta be a relation to manfredi mineo somewhere here i assume

They got Francesco Colletti. Settimo Mineo is known for having a leveled head. Him being picked as Boss of Bosses shows the families choosing more wisely instead of having a madman at the helm.

The death of Totò Riina was a turning point, they say. There was the sense of closing with the past and the beginning of a new era.
The Cupola would meet periodically to deal with pressing issues. In six months they managed to reorganize under traditional rules.
Mineo’s election also showed that the center of power had returned from Corleone to the Sicilian capital.

Although police arrested only 4 of the Commission there were all the capimandamento of the province of Palermo (14 or 15) according to wiretaps, only the capimandamento attended the meeting (probably in Passo di Rigano neighborhood), the others remained outside.

A close friend of Tomasso Buscetta has been arrested in Brazil for cocaine trafficking to Europe.

Lelio Paolo Gigante, 84, received members of the São Paulo Faction of the notorious First Command of the Capital (PCC) with samples of cocaine coming from Bolivia. According to police, he is not a member of the PCC, but the organization was part of his role as suppliers.

Gigante, according to the police, was the link between the São Paulo faction and the traffickers in Europe.

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201812051070422138-italy-mafia-crackdown/

'Mafia Can't Become Extinct Because It's a Type of Behaviour' - Criminologist

https://www.thelocal.it/20181210/godfather-arrest-a-crucial-blow-to-italys-mafia-say-police

'Godfather' arrest a crucial blow to Italy's mafia, say police

The Trapani mafia could get an advance because of this Palermo bust. They have probably 900 men.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/a...ected-accomplices-of-sicilian-mafia-boss

Police Investigate Suspected Accomplices of Sicilian Mafia Boss

In the past week nine people were arrested in Palermo over illegal gambling and evidence that Cosa Nostra bosses were rigging horse races. These are coaches, drivers and managers of stables. According to police the Hippodrome of Palermo was managed entirely by Cosa Nostra since at least the beginning of the 1980s.

They moved racing on streets too. There are bunch of videos on YouTube

One of their top horses Gloria Zuccaro.

Summer 1995. Dattilo, province of Trapani. Meeting between four mafia bosses. The question: "Graviano sees Berlusconi?". The answer: "Yes". The revelation is of the collaborator of justice, Giovanni Brusca, who "credits" the story to Matteo Messina Denaro, during an interrogation made on October 16 in front of the attorney of Palermo, Francesco Lo Voi, and to the adjunct Marzia Sabella. As reported by Brusca, Giuseppe Graviano would have met Silvio Berlusconi. Not only that: the boss of Brancaccio would have even noticed a watch on the wrist of the former premier worth 500 million.

During the summit in the Trapanese the capimafia spoke about the hypothesis of kidnapping the son of Pietro Grasso, then deputy prosecutor of the national anti-mafia directorate. Then the speech is turned on the "beautiful life, the clothing" and especially on the watches. The repentant made the minutes that Matteo Messina Denaro said: Giuseppe Graviano "saw one on the wrist of Berlusconi, which was worth 500 million". "I - says Brusca - I asked: 'But why, do they see?' 'Yes,' replied Messina Denato

The story was told by the newspaper La Stampa. "It seemed a secondary thing", then Brusca was justified. The report was sent to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Palermo, which will represent the accusation of the process of Appeal on the negotiation. As the Daily Fact argues, "the story of Brusca dates back to a period when the first Berlusconi government had already fallen, while Graviano was detained, having been arrested in January 1994. It is not clear from Brusca's story if the boss Messina Messina Brancaccio met the former premier as a prisoner or in the previous period, when he spent his hiding in Milan, where he was arrested ".

For the judges of the first degree the former premier knew of contacts between Dell'Utri and the mafia and he paid money to the clans until December 1994. Graviano is currently being investigated by the Palermo prosecutor in the procedure for extracting the negotiation. Recently he met in prison Fiammetta Borsellino, the daughter of the magistrate assassinated in Via d'Amelio, to whom he said: "Everyone says I was dating Berlusconi". To then add: "More than I was my cousin who frequented him".

The boss Colletti collaborates with the magistrates ! He had been arrested in the raid on December 4th and is a member of the Cupola.

https://www.lasicilia.it/news/paler...-lui-a-far-scoprire-la-nuovo-cupola.html

The Sicilian banker who left the City to fight the mafia

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...are-giacalone-left-london-to-fight-mafia

Italy Confiscates $40 Million in Assets Linked to Corleone Mafia

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/9063-italy-confiscates-40-million-in-assets-linked-to-corleone-mafia

According to one expert, the fact that they had to resort to old Mineo exposes a generational problem in Cosa Nostra "The average age of its members (many left the jails in recent years) is much higher than that of the 'Ndrangheta or the Camorra. It remains to be seen if there are any young people capable now of taking the reins."

according to who? lol in the latests years there had been tons of mafia indictments with tons of young people, even more than ndrangheta
also ndrangheta is limited to the fact the members are all related and from the same blood family, cosa nostra has a much higher recruitment pool
the average age of the bosses is higher because it's a vertical structure, the ndrangheta boss of bosses oppedisano was 80 years old too
camorra bosses for example are younger because they have a horizontal structure and a more fluid organization

No expert on the Mafia shares the optimism of the Italian minister, but the fact is that the illustrious Sicilian Cosa Nostra has been in a very difficult situation for some time. Especially after 46 important arrests at the beginning of this month.

"The Cosa Nostra is weakened and in a pending state," said the antimafia judge Francesco Del Bene from the office of the National Antimafia Directorate of DNA in Rome. Del Bene himself contributed to the weakening of the Cosa Nostra. He had been public prosecutor in Palermo for many years and was partly responsible for the arrest of the Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo in 2007 and a year later, during the Perseo operation, of a hundred Mafiosi of the Cosa Nostra in 2008.

Leadership
"After the death of Totò Riina last year, the big question was who would take over the leadership within the Cosa Nostra. Thanks to the arrest at the beginning of this month of Settimo Mineo and his accomplices, the structure of the "commission" (the top) of the Cosa Nostra has been rolled up. It has also been shown that the era of the Corleonesi (Liggio, Riina, Bagarella etc.) has ended.

The Corleonesi used to take over the power of the Palermitans in the Cosa Nostra through a coup d'état. Fortunately, their era, in which they made use of mafios terrorism, has passed, "said Del Bene. "As long as Riina was alive, he remained the boss. It is possible that he could send signals to the outside world from the prison despite the strict monitoring and strict rules. With the arrest at the beginning of this month of Mineo it has become clear that the power has returned to the Palermitans after the death of Riina. "

Members
De Bene states that it is difficult to estimate how many members Cosa Nostra now has. "In the past, the initiation ritual, where an oath was made and an image of the Virgin Mary was burned, was mandatory. Now that is no longer always the case. The Cosa Nostra must recruit new people because of the many arrests, also simple thieves who have no charisma and experience and are more easily regretful. "

The situation is therefore favorable in the battle between the Italian state and the Cosa Nostra. "It is an organization that, after many setbacks, desperately tries to settle again and to re-assemble itself with role distributions. That went wrong because of the many arrests. The Cosa Nostra has lost the great power it used to have with the Corleonesi. "There are also many ways to deal with the Cosa Nostra. "We have done a lot of arrests of mafiosi who actually go to jail for a long time, we have regret opticians, we can take telephone calls and confiscate goods from the Mafiosi. The latter is also fundamental. The state makes their property, such as real estate, available to the community or public authorities. "

But the Cosa Nostra still exists. "She is present everywhere in Sicily. There is also a lot of consensus for the Cosa Nostra, it is still widespread within the Sicilian mentality. This must be combated with proper education. But that is not enough. An alternative to the Cosa Nostra should also be offered to young people ", states Del Bene.

Big fish
The big fish, Matteo Messina Denaro, is still fugitive. He has been wanted by justice for 25 years. "He not only receives protection from the Cosa Nostra, but also from others. There is a lot of infiltration of him in the province of Trapani "(in the west of Sicily), according to Del Bene.

Del Bene explains that the Cosa Nostra comes in addition to money in other ways to money. "She deserves extortion, tenders, infiltration into companies that are imposed on people, various forms of drug trafficking (although the lion's share is the Ndrangheta from the southern Italian region of Calabria) and in recent years a lot in online gambling, that's hard to figure out. "

The percentage of stores and businesses that pay protection fees in Palermo is very high despite the fight against the Cosa Nostra. "They now ask less money, but they ask as many people as possible," says Del Bene. "Cosa Nostra does that because it needs liquidity. She must maintain the prisoners and their family members. If she does not do that then the risk increases that they will cooperate with the judiciary. "

That is one of the weak points of the Cosa Nostra. "She has a lot more regret optics than the Ndrangheta, which mainly consists of family members who will never tell each other. Cosa Nostra also has many other members who are separate from the family relationship. "

https://theshiftnews.com/2018/12/28...ia-in-foreign-countries-malta-tops-list/

Report maps presence of Italian mafia in foreign countries, Malta tops list

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8021019/eu-officials-lose-1m-day-fraudsters-mafia-bosses/

EU SILLY BUGGERS Bungling EU officials lose £1.1m a DAY by handing taxpayers’ cash to fraudsters and Mafia bosses

The fifth section of the Court of Appeal of Palermo has revoked the confiscation of assets for seven million euro from Mario Messina Denaro, 65, cousin of the fugitive boss of Cosa Nostra Matteo Messina Denaro, and of his wife, Benvenuta Anna Maria Forte, 66.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/pol...7bcf750-4193-4923-a433-b6fa69017f52.html

Villas seized from mafia illegally built

https://palermo.repubblica.it/crona...boss_riina_apre_un_ristorante-216087164/

Paris, the daughter of boss Riina opens a restaurant

https://www.thelocal.it/20190108/it...-from-the-family-of-mafia-boss-tot-riina

Italy demands €2 million in ‘expenses’ from the family of mafia boss Totò Riina

Interesting they choose the French capital.

Mafia link suspected in laborer's murder

(ANSA) - Palermo, January 11 - The investigation into the murder of Vincenzo Greco, 36, is following a mafia-related line of inquiry, sources said Friday. The construction worker was riddled with bullets on Thursday when driving an off-road vehicle on a road connecting Belmonte Mezzagno to Santa Cristina Gela near Palermo.
The victim does not have a criminal record and is the son-in-law of Filippo Casella, a man killed in 1994 when he was 32 years old in Belmonte Mezzagno.

Source: http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...ee7cdcb-c98e-4962-a41b-0c8a9764fcfb.html

According to anti-mafia investigators, a "pact" would have been concluded between Tunisian smugglers of cigarettes and the Mafia of Trapani and Palermo.

How far back will the mafia be set if and when Dinero is captured? And when it comes to drugs, is Italy buying from Mexico?

Yes, in the last ten years most major drug traffickers in Europe have links to the Mexicans.

The Mexicans are even investing in properties in Europe.

Are the Colombians still in the picture like they used to be? It looks like the two main groups are the Ndrangheta(the most powerful) and the Sinaloa cartel(right behind them).

Sure, mostly former Guerrilla and Paramilitary.

Is it true that the Ndrangheta really paid Thailand’s debt off and they’re using that as leverage against the government there?

I read about that too , we cant know that for sure , but i doubt it.

https://www.france24.com/en/20190114-mafia-boss-daughter-denies-cashing-with-paris-restaurant

Mafia boss daughter denies cashing in with Paris restaurant

Is she using the money that her father made from his illegal activities or were all of his assets seized and frozen?

https://www.salon.com/2018/06/24/le...ganized-crime-is-global-and-flourishing/

Giuseppe Lombardo, a Calabrian prosecutor specializing in the ’Ndrangheta’s finances, told me that by buying up the government debt of two Asian countries, Thailand and Indonesia, then threatening to dump it, the ’Ndrangheta had blackmailed entire nations into letting it operate on their territory. Their money, said Lombardo, had elevated the group to a position of invulnerability. They now occupied a "fundamental and indispensable position in the global market," he said, one that was "more or less essential for the smooth functioning of the global economic system."

Who know ? It wouldn't surprise me if her father had money hidden off shore accounts.

That still amazes me. Just another example of their power.

Good point

How true is it that the Calabrese have replaced the Sicilians when it comes to supplying the American mafia?

calabrians supply european market and australia, in north america they can have some grip in canada, but i don't think they supply american mafia

Matteo Messina Denaro, long thought to be Cosa Nostra's fugitive No.1, does not in fact have "an active role" in the criminal organisation, Palermo police chief Renato Cortese said Friday. "He does not have criminal strategies and the affiliates do not report to him," Cortese said.

Mafia, Italy-Germany blitz against Rinzivillo clan: 11 arrests

Rome, (askanews) - Important anti-Mafia blitz between Italy and Germany led by the Caltanissetta Police and the Rome Guardia di Finanza: 11 members of the Rinzivillo clan were thus arrested for crimes of criminal association aimed at trafficking and trafficking of narcotics.The operation of the agents of the Mobile Squad and of the Gico financiers was conducted in Lazio, Sicily, Campania and Umbria, and in Germany, Cologne and Mannheim, where, with the collaboration of the Criminal Police and the German Special Departments , handcuffs were taken for 4 affiliates, belonging to the German "cell", operating in the Land of North Rhine Westphalia.
The blitz is the conclusion of an investigation that at the end of 2017 had already led to the arrest of 37 people and the preventive seizure of assets for over 18 million euros.

Blitz after the story of the repentant !

Two other bosses emerge, members of the new Commission of Cosa Nostra in Palermo: Calogero Lo Piccolo and Leandro Greco. Their names are added to the puzzle that allows you to outline the contours of the new mafia.

The Palermo dda issued a decree against seven people in the context of the investigations on the reconstituted Commission. The project to restore life to the Dome had been discovered in December and had led to the arrest of 47 between bosses and followers.

The investigation has now allowed to identify two other prominent elements of the dome: Leandro Greco is the grandson of the historical capomafia of Ciaculli, Michele Greco; Calogero Lo Piccolo is the son of the San Lorenzo boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo. Both attended the meetings of the new provincial commission.

Calogero Lo Piccolo, 43, had already been in the cell where he serves a sentence for the Mafia. He would be the new head of the line and would take over the reins immediately after his release.

Greco

m2w, it looks like you were right about the younger guys these two already on the Commission !

According to turncoats 29-year-old Leandro Greco, despite unknown to police, is currently the most powerful boss; He was made boss of Ciaculli mandamento when he was only 23.
Colletti and Bisconti told police that he was the real boss of bosses although they elected Mineo. They started to cooperate because they were scared of him, considered very dangerous, they understood he wanted to take over the Cupola and to put his men as capimandamenti across the province.

of course i was right, the anti-mafia blitzes in the latest years are full of young people, so it's logic there are some young boss too

https://www.thelocal.it/20190122/new-generation-of-young-mafia-heirs

'New generation' of young mafia heirs arrested

Leandro Greco is also nicknamed " Michele ", in tribute of his grandfather, who headed the Cupola, but was little more than Riina's "puppet boss".

"Matteo Messina Denaro will be arrested soon this is certain.The boss I believe that today has no operational value in Cosa Nostra, is the regent of the Trapani mafia, but has no operation". This was said by the general Giuseppe Governale, number one of the Dia, during his speech at the Premio Mario and Giuseppe Francese. "For the capture of Messina Denaro working day and night a task force of policemen and carabinieri who work with great professionalism and generosity and therefore I am sure that will be brought to justice," said Governale.

The disappearance of strong figures like those of Riina and Bernardo Provenzano led Cosa Nostra to reorganize their ranks with a work of pacification between the various families. Thus the "winning" Corleonesi and the "loser" groups, decimated by the mafia wars, are now united, and together they have chosen a new path: abandonment of all traces of violence, sharing of the management of traditional trades (lace in the first place, but also drugs and bets), control of the procurement system, links with professional activities. This new criminal horizon was organized without the decisive influence of the superlatitant Matteo Messina Denaro who remains linked to a "dynastic" vision of the mafia.
The abandonment of the ferocious violence that has provoked the harsh response of the State is now the shared method in the reorganization of Cosa nostra, which on the one hand tries to maintain control of all the most profitable activities with a trial, according to Scarpinato, of "slow and underground change in the method of relating to civil society". In fact, a "progressive transition from violence to consensus" is taking place.

http://www.antimafiaduemila.com/hom...fia-torna-ad-essere-palermocentrica.html


http://www.antimafiaduemila.com/hom...-parenti-d-arte-con-voglia-di-mafia.html



After some reading, I posted this on Blackhand..predictably it drew silence.....

Okay, after sifting through the butchered translation, I got the following points...


1. The conflict between the Corleonesi and the Palermo clans is over, even if there is residual tension...

2. The deaths of Riina, Provenzano, and Bagarella ( is he dead or jailed?) along with the imprisonment of the Graviano brothers and Antonio Rotolo, ( Pagiarelli underboss of Motisi...Corleonesi hardliner....) as well as Denaros fugitive status have effectively ended Corleonesi power.


3. Leandro Greco has only recently entered Cosa Nostras hierarchy, even though he is the most powerful boss. HIGHLY Interesting here.....

4. Greco, if I read this right, wanted to reaffirm the ORIGINAL Cupola rules established by Buscetta. The way it was then, I think, was that family capos were not automatically on the Cupola. This served to strengthen the power of the Commision/ Cupola at the expense of the individual clan capos....

5. Greco used Colleti and Bisconti to organized the outlying clans. Then when it came time for the big meeting, it's not exactly clear to me.....

On the one hand, it seems Bisconti made excuses to not attend, ( he was being followed..) when really he feared for his life.

He feared for his life, because after using him and Colleti to get the outlying clans on board, Greco then EXCLUDED them from the summit. He told em that it was because of police surveillance. He said that he would appoint representatives FOR them, and that they would be TOLD, what they needed to be told.

So this is really a Palermo based version of Corleonesi rule, similar structure......I'm thinking as I'm typing, sorry...

Greco was rearranging clans, appointing regents, if I read correctly he CREATED A NEW POSITION, " Supervisor of the Province"(?) or whatever, the translation is fucked I'm sure. Like Provincial Acting Boss or some bullshit.... SOO much of this shit is so familiar to me.....

7. I dont usually take Wiki any kinda serious when it comes to this shit, but the entry on the Greco clan is intriguing......



It says that they were very close business partners of Calabrian clans in Olive oil. It also is stated that the Grecos wanted greater cooperation amongst the clans, and coordination with Ndrangheta and the Camorra for drugs and Waste Management.

This is HIGHLY interesting because it WAS THE GRECOS who sponsored ALL the families outside Sicily, the 3 in Naples, Probably the Piromallis and Macris, AND the one in Brazil. So Greco WOULD be the point man for all this.

It's interesting also how it says the Grecos were out of LCN, but somehow worked their way back into the power structure. Ill get some flak for this, but to me, it sounds remarkably similar to the Violis and Buffalo. I know, what a fuckin can of worms there right? ( I'm willing to discuss that point...)

8. With Grecos ties to the Naples families and Calabria, basically his connections WITHIN ITALY, combined with LoPiccolos ties to America through the Gambinos, I think this WOULD have made an interesting team..

Any Thoughts on any of this

Bagarella is jailed, he is not dead. But without Rotolo,Graviano Brothers and so on , he doesn't mean much at all. Days ago they said Matteo Messina Denaro is not involved in any day to day operations, old enemies are united today,working together,thats why we see so much effort lately to reorganize cupola.It is just matter of time before they succeed.Grecos are Sicilian Mafia since forever,but they do indeed have very strong connections to Camorra/'Ndrangheta clans,no wonder why he was elected boss so young.Michele Greco was very powerful figure,but also Riinas puppet,he did what he was told to.

@m2w

I was wondering, as the most knowledgeable on sicily whats your take on all this?


Also, I was wondering if you had any Info on the Grecos ties to Calabria....

Michele Greco who passed away in 2008 had links to Antonio Macrì, but more important the Greco family also has blood relatives in Dasà in Vibo Valentia, so it's a Sicilian-Calabrian family.

Cabrini don't forget the boss of bosses Mineo has very close links to the US, he came up under Buscetta.

I read somewhere that few Greco family members were both members of Sicilian Mafia & 'Ndrangheta.

The Sicilians are well-known including that nutcase Pino Greco. There was in the 60s even a war within the family.
I think Calabrian boss Angelo “Lino” Greco is related to them.

@Hollander

Interesting info on Mineo... Do you think he still has links to American LCN through the old network of contacts?

And on the Grecos, so they are close to the Clan Mancuso?

Any more Info you might have on thier Calabrese connections would b ed greatly appreciated.....

the greco's have connections with the ndrangheta, but i don't think they have relatives over there, just business links
mineo has links to american lcn, like several other bosses, lo piccolo has links too and probably leandro greco

There was a war between the ndrangheta faction and Sicilian faction?

No between the Sicilians and it happened in the 1940s not 60s.



They wanted to restore the old structure and traditional rules like it was before Riina. Police recalled that the “provincial commission” structure was created in the 1950s as the decision-making forum for Sicilian and U.S. Mafia families, so it's only logic this new commission also involves the Americans.

Police arrested 17 members of Cosa Nostra in Caltanissetta province on charges of mafia association, murder, drug trafficking and extortion. It concerns the cold case murder of Gaetano Falcone, which took place in Montedoro on 13 June 1998. Among the arrested Domenico Vaccaro, the capomandamento.

https://www.newsbook.com.mt/artikli...lth-in-malta-registered-company/?lang=en

Italian businessman with mafia ties concealed wealth in Malta-registered company

The mafia has earned €3 billion (£2.6 billion) over the last decade siphoning off EU funds intended for a national park in Sicily, according to a former director of the protected area who survived an assassination attempt by the mob.

Giuseppe Antoci narrowly escaped with his life in 2016 when assailants ambushed his car at night, placing rocks across an isolated, winding road.

Two or three men opened fire but were fought off and forced to flee by the quick reactions of the director’s police escort.

In a new book, he explains how Cosa Nostra clans in eastern Sicily have made huge profits by siphoning off EU funds intended for the farmers who graze sheep and cattle.

Who does that 3 billion go to exactly do you think? How much would a boss see out of that?

https://www.agrigentonotizie.it/cro...ntagna-requisitoria-4-febbraio-2019.html

Mafia, the maxi investigation "Mountain": requested 54 sentences for 600 years in prison
„

Fifty-four convictions for over 600 years in prison have been requested by the adjunct prosecutor of Palermo, Paolo Guido, and by the DDA Geri Ferrara, Claudio Camilleri and Alessia Sinatra against the fifty-four defendants of the maxi investigation "Montagna" that has disarticulated the new mafia families of the Aggrentino.

The pm announces heavy demands for punishment
The highest sentence proposed by the Palermo prosecutor Paolo Guido and by the prosecutors of the Dda Geri Ferrara, Claudio Camilleri and Alessia Sinatra against the fifty-four defendants of the maxi investigation "Montagna" was 20 years in prison. The request for the penalty, which would have been 30 years without the reduction of one third of the rite, was put forward for the thirty-eight year old Francesco Fragapane, presumed head of the mountain and son of Salvatore, head of the Cosa Nostra province of Agrigento over the years Ninety, as well as for ten other defendants, held responsible for the mafia family of their countries.

The repentant Quaranta confirms: "Vizzì collected the extortion"
This is Salvatore Di Gangi, of Sciacca; Pasquale Fanara, of Favara, Giovanni Gattuso, of Castronovo di Sicilia, Vincenzo Mangiapane, of Cammarata, Giuseppe Luciano Spoto, of Bivona, Antonino Vizzì, of Raffadali, Luigi Pullara, of Favara, Stefano Valenti, of Favara and Giuseppe Nugara, of San Biagio Platani. Here are the other requests: Adolfo Albanese, 71 (10 years and 8 months in prison), Giuseppe Blando, 54 years (11 years), Vincenzo Cipolla, 56 years (15 years), Domenico Antonio Cordaro, 53 (6 years) , Franco D'Ugo, 53 (4 years), Giacomo Di Dio, 50 years (11 years), Santo Di Dio, 50 years (10 years and 6 months), Angelo Di Giovanni, 46 (15 years), Stefano Di Maria, 25 (9 years), Vincenzo Dolce, 52 years (3 years), Francesco Maria Antonio Drago, 51 years (3 years), Daniele Fragapane, 33 years (12 years), Raffaele Fragapane, 41 years old (11 years old) )

“

Potrebbe interessarti: https://www.agrigentonotizie.it/cro...ntagna-requisitoria-4-febbraio-2019.html
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Ciment, the maxi investigations "Icarus" and that one "Montagna" have taken out the whole leadership structure of the Agrigento Cosa Nostra. It ended with the arrest of the boss Leo "the professor" Sutera last October.

Very interesting interview with Francesco Inzerillo brother of Salvatore one of the guys who returned from the US.

https://www.palermotoday.it/cronaca/mafia/intervista-boss-francesco-inzerillo-scappati-mineo.html

The mafia boss Francesco Lombardo, of Altavilla Milicia, an affiliate of Cosa nostra, has become a collaborator of justice. The news was made known in the classroom this afternoon, Thursday, January 7, by the same Lombardo, who also announced that he had changed the defender during the hearing of the trial in which he is charged with the Mafia and extortion.

The son Andrea already repented
This is the second 'defection' in the family: a few months ago the son Andrea, also a man of honor, had passed through the ranks of the repentant. He had launched an appeal to his father, during the trial in which he is accused of murder, to become repentant of the mafia like him.

Son succeeded his father
Lombardo was arrested in 2012. To take his place at the top of the family was his son, who for two years held the reins of the clan, and then end up in handcuffs in the 'Reset' investigation. Three months ago the scion passed from the side of the state. His father followed him and began to collaborate with the added Salvo De Luca and the PM Francesca Mazzocco.

In a few months, three repentants
In just a few months it is the third head of the Palermitan who decides to speak with the magistrates: after the ' blitz Cupola 2.0' , which revealed the reconstitution of the Provincial Commission of Cosa Nostra, the boss of Villabate Francesco Colletti began to collaborate with the PM and the godfather of Misilmeri Filippo Bisconti.

Nicolò Testa (considered the head of the Bagheria mafia family) was sentenced to 13 years and 6 months in prison. 12 years in prison for Girolamo Ciresi, 5 years for Franco Bertolino, 7 years for Salvatore Lauricella for being part of the clans mafiosi of Porta Nuova and Bagheria.

Mafia clan managed the sale, 16 arrests

CATANIA, 12 FEB – Sixteen members of a mafia group accused of handling drug trafficking were arrested by Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Catania and by the Police.
They were charged of mafia association and criminal association aimed at trafficking and dealing with drugs and the port and the possession of weapons. With the operation, called the 'Armored City', the Catania District Attorney believes it has disarticulated the historically named Tomasello-Mazzaglia-Toscano cosca and now run by two 'families', Amoroso and Monforte, and linked to the Santapaola-Ercolano clan at the top of Cosa Nostra. Among the arrested the ex mayor of the town of Biancavilla, Marcello Merlo.

Mafia harvests 25.4 bln euros from Italy's agro-food industry: report

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-02/15/c_137822170.htm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...hapo-guzman-salvatore-riina-mexico-italy

Tale of two drugs lords: from Cosa Nostra to Guzmán – it’s strictly business

Mafia: son of the repentant Siino commits suicide after beating his wife. At home he had 104 weapons

Giuseppe Siino, son of the collaborator of justice Angelo, shot himself on Saturday night after yet another violent quarrel with his wife. The two lived in a protected location since Angelo began to reveal important secrets of Cosa Nostra.

continua su: https://www.fanpage.it/mafia-figlio...ida-in-casa-dopo-una-lite-con-la-moglie/
http://www.fanpage.it/

The boss Vito Triassi passed away on Tenerife where he lived. A public funeral in Siculiana was banned. Triassi brothers are affiliated with the Cuntrera-Caruana clan.

https://www.corriereagrigentino.it/...negati-al-boss-siculianese-vito-triassi/

Mafia, money to the family of Matteo Messina Denaro: three arrests
The three entrepreneurs had got their hands on the world of betting and online games: the shops forced to install their devices
These are Calogero Luppino , Salvatore Giorgi and Francesco Catalanotto.
Luppino, with the help of Giorgi, who ran the mafia "mandate" fund, provided for the legal expenses and other needs of the boss inmate Franco Luppino and for the financing of the heads of the Mafia families of Campobello di Mazara, Mazara del Vallo and Castelvetrano . Through the third arrested, Francesco Catalanotto, very close to the brother-in-law of Messina Denaro, Rosario Allegra , were also given money to the family of the fugitive godfather. Assets (about 5 million) are being seized against the suspects.
Meanwhile, the Palermo gup suspended until March 19, 2020 the preliminary hearing against the boss Messina Denaro, wanted since 1993. The main defendant - is the reasoning - is fugitive and there is no evidence that he has received documents in the proceeding against him.
Instead the proceeding against the 32 co-defendants continues, including the capomafia's brothers-in-law, Gaspare Como and Rosario Allegra, both in prison at 41 bis.

Mafia and drugs, 32 arrests in Agrigento. In handcuffs ultrà leader of Juventus

Editorial board
04/03/2019
Politics , Sicily
The men of Dia have arrested 32 people on charges of mafia association: they passed drugs using mafia methods. In the handcuffs the mafia boss of the city Antonio Massimino

PALERMO - Mafia association , participation and competition in criminal association aimed at trafficking and drug dealing exacerbated by the mafia method, illegal possession of weapons , kidnapping for aggravated extortion and damage by fire. These are the charges made by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Palermo against 32 suspects who were arrested in Agrigento and in the provinces of Palermo, Trapani, Catania, Ragusa, Vibo Valentia and Parma. The men of the Dia carried out the measures , while the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Agrigento carried out two other precautionary custody orders against the same number of suspects for the crime of competition in kidnapping and sexual violence aggravated by the mafia method.

The blitz, called ' Kerkent ', allowed to disarticulate a criminal association with an operational base in Agrigento and ramifications in the Palermitano and Calabria: the main activity of the gang was the drug trafficking "through - the investigators point out - a group armed criminal ".

The boss who revolved around the drug was Antonio Massimino , released in 2015 and returned to the spotlight. Among the arrested there is also Andrea Puntorno , the well-known head ultras of Juventus (he led the 'good guys') who had left Turin for some years to return to his birth city, Agrigento. Already in the past he was arrested for drugs, which would always remain his main activity. In the latter period he managed it in league with the capomafia of Agrigento Antonino.

There are links with Zungri clan of the ´ndrangheta but also with the Stidda.

Ex-councillors among 25 nabbed in Mafia op
Accusations include mafia association, vote buying


(ANSA) - Palermo, March 5 - Two former councillors were among 25 people arrested by Carabinieri police in an anti-Mafia operation in the Sicilian province of Trapani on Tuesday, sources said. The politicians were named as Paolo Ruggirello, a former councillor in the Sicilian regional assembly for the centre-left Democratic Party, and Ivana Inferrera, a former member of the city of Trapani's executive.
Ruggirello is accused of mafia association while Inferrera is under investigation for mafia-linked vote buying, according to the sources.
During the investigation, the Carabinieri uncovered an alleged Cosa Nostra 'cell' on the island of Favignana and they seized asserts worth around 10 million euros.

https://herdongazette.com/new-mafia-boss-of-bosses-arrested-in-sicily/281297/

New mafia ‘boss of bosses‘ arrested in Sicily

https://www.occrp.org/en/27-ccwatch...ostra-leader-among-32-arrested-in-sicily

Cosa Nostra Leader Among 32 Arrested in Sicily

Two politicians among mafia arrests in Trapani
INSIDER NEWSDESK | 5 MARCH 2019

TRAPANI - Police of the Provincial Command of Trapani have arrested 25 people facing allegations of mafia association, political-mafia electoral exchange, extortion and damage.

Among those who have been arrested are two political figures. The first is ex regional deputy of the Democratic Party (PD) Paolo Ruggirello, accused of mafia association, as well as former councilor of Trapani Ivana Inferrera, who is being investigated in relation to charges of political-mafia exchange.

Ruggirello, 52, from Trapani, was a candidate for the last political elections, however he was unsuccessful.

According to investigators, the two politicians “offered” themselves to the mafia, proposing themselves as “points of reference” for the clans and, in some cases, even entrusting them with the management of the electoral campaign.

As part of the investigation, the military have identified a "cell" of Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, on the island of Favignana and seized assets of some 10 million euros.

On the island brothers Francesco and Pietro Virga, the sons of Trapani mafia boss Vincenzo Virga who has been in jail since 2001, had taken over the prestigious Grand Hotel Florio, which is now under seizure. They too are among the 25 arrested in the police blitz in Trapani.

Palermo's court of assizes sentenced to life imprisonment Pasquale Merendino and Giuseppe Correnti, accused of the murder of Massimiliano Milazzo, a 26-year-old of Misilmeri, beaten, tortured and killed in June in the country in province of Palermo. After having cut off a hand with a hoe, the two killers would have burned and made the body disappear. The motive for the crime was identified in the contrasts between the victim and the defendants in the management of the drug dealing and for some thefts committed by Milazzo.
The young man was considered a loose dog and, according to the prosecutors, would have been punished for this with death. The decision to cut off his hand would be taken to make clear the meaning of the atrocious gesture committed.

https://www.ragusanews.com/2019/03/08/attualita/mafia-torturato-ucciso-ergastoli/97326

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...mafia-hitmen-to-kill-ex-lover-say-police

Woman hired Sicilian mafia hitmen to kill ex-lover, say police

Mafia: 110 years after the murder, Palermo remembers policeman Joe Petrosino !

Police arrested 32 members of Cosa Nostra in Palermo, Porta Nuova family, on charges of mafia association, extortions, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Double murder in the tough Zen quarter in Palermo. The victims are a young 18-year-old boxer, Giacomo Lupo, and his father Antonino of 53. A macabre coincidence, the young boxer known in the area, lost his life in the street named after the American boxer of Italian origin Rocky Marciano.

The new mafia in Palermo : 15 districts managed by 81 families

http://www.addiopizzo.org/index.php/la-nuova-mafia-a-palermo-15-mandamenti-gestiti-da-81-famiglie/

The funeral of the Mafia boss Tommaso Spadaro, who died a month ago in Perugia at the age of 82 while he was serving house arrest , had been held in the church of the Palermo cemetery of Sant'Orsola. Yesterday, however, in the church of Santa Teresa alla Kalsa, in the heart of the Sicilian capital, a solemn function was held officiated by Father Mario Frittitta, arrested in the Nineties and then acquitted for having said mass in the den of the fugitive Pietro Aglieri.

Mafia: An ambush failed by the killers last night in Pachino, a hot spot for investigators. The gunman fired 5 pistol shots at the address of a 55-year-old, Corrado Vizzini, who was miraculously wounded only, even though the health workers subjected him to a surgical intervention during the night and reserved the prognosis. The man is admitted to the De Maria hospital in Avola.

Mafia boss amongst those investigated in Scopelliti case
INSIDER NEWSDESK | 18 MARCH 2019

REGGIO CALABRIA - Seventeen mafia members, amongst which notorious boss Matteo Messina Denaro, are under investigation after a breakthrough in the murder case of Italian Supreme Court prosecutor Antonio Scopelliti, shot dead almost 28 years ago.

Scopelliti was murdered on 9 August 1991 while visiting family in Calabria. He was at the time preparing to argue against Cosa Nostra in court in the Maxi Trial, which is still to this day the biggest trial ever against the Sicilian mafia.

The murder is long thought to have been the result of a collaboration between ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, and the Sicilian mafia, but subsequent trials failed to convict any of suspects.

However, with the help of mafia informer Maurizio Avola, a breakthrough has been made in the case as the firearm thought to have been used in the murder was recovered from its hiding place in the Catania countryside.

The firearm will now be analysed for finger prints and will undergo a forensic ballistics examination to determine whether it matches evidence found on the murder scene.

Amongst those being investigated is renowned mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. Messina Denaro has been a fugitive since 1993 but is thought to still be a prominent mafia boss.

Messina Denaro is one of seven Sicilians under investigation, alongside ten men linked to Calabrian group ‘Ndrangheta.

Scopelliti’s daughter Rosanna, coordinator for Antimafia movement Ammazzateci tutti, today spoke out on the breakthrough: “Truth and justice for the Calabrian people. For the nation. Because dad was never only ours. Dad was the patrimony of this country. A country for which he gave his life […]

“Killed after having turned down an enormous sum of money. Killed for having done his job with the proficiency that defined him. Killed leaving us, leaving a young me, a lesson that is hard to understand in its entirety: respect for one’s own dignity. A dignity that is not for sale […]

“Because this truth brings that redemption of a land that does not belong to Antonino Scopelliti’s murderers, but rather a land that has never stopped remembering. Never stopped engaging. Never stopped proudly believing that something good can come from the sacrifice of our victims.”

http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/7864

Francesco Manzella, 34, with criminal records, was shot dead in Palermo

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/palermo-cannabis-mafia-sicily-drugs-a8830756.html

Palermo, cannabis and the mafia: How illegal drug control keeps high-strength marijuana out of Sicily's capital

The San Cocimo group was busted, 14 arrests in Catania for mafia association and extortion, fictitious heading of assets, usury, possession illegal arms and drugs crimes.
"Operation Z" is the name of the blitz that led to the imprisonment of the sons of the boss who lives in Gorizia, Maurizio Zuccaro: Rosario and Filippo, in addition to Luigi Gambino, 50, considered one of the leaders of the San Placido group.
From the investigation it emerged that among the ranks of the mafia group included the wife and children of Zuccaro and Gambino, who are disputed the role of promoters, leaders and in any case organizers of the San Cocimo group, as well as Angelo Testa - cousin of Zuccaro - Carmelo Giuffrida, Francesco Ragusa, Michele Colajanni, Giuseppe Verderame, Simone Giuseppe Piazza and Giovanni Fabio La Spina, as members of the team.

Vito Palazzolo free !

Vito Roberto Palazzolo, considered one of the biggest launderers of dirty money on behalf of Cosa Nostra, who remained a fugitive for years in South Africa where he accumulated a billion-dollar fortune, has returned free after having obtained the probationary award from the social services.

Palazzolo, born in Terrasini, in the province of Palermo and sentenced to 9 years for mafia association, served six years in prison.

Ten people were arrested in an anti-mafia operation of the Palermo mobile team. The accusations, in various ways, are of mafia association, extortion aggravated by the mafia method and drug trafficking.
Those arrested are considered exponents of the San Lorenzo - Tommaso Natale mafia. The investigations were coordinated by the Dda and made use, among other things, of the statements of a collaborator of justice.
The organization was also particularly active in the field of drug trafficking, so much so that one of those arrested, thanks to the help of Cosa Nostra, who paid regular sums of money according to the narcotic sold, established himself as the main drug dealer in the Zen district.

(ANSA) - Enna, March 26 - Carabinieri police staged a huge operation on Tuesday targeting a Cosa Nostra clan based in the Sicilian province of Enna, sources said. Police were executing 21 arrest warrants as part of the operation, which took place in the province as well as in other parts of Italy. The people arrested are suspected of crimes including mafia association, homicide and extortion. The bust was the result of a probe by investigators based in Caltanissetta into a Mafia family in the town of Pietraperzia.
This probe shed light on several crimes, including the murder of a man in July 2017.

Confiscated 40 mln assets to entrepreneur
Amodeo had been convicted of aiding and abetting

(ANSA) - PALERMO, APRIL 3 - The Dia di Trapani has notified the entrepreneur of Alcamo (TP), Giuseppe Amodeo, 64, who works in construction and in the tourism-hotel sector, and to his family, the decree of confiscation of their assets (for around 40 million euros) provided for by the fifth section of the Palermo Court of Appeal. For years he has moved his center of interests to Castelvetrano, where he managed a hotel located along the road that leads to the archaeological park of Selinunte. In the second half of the nineties Amodeo was involved in an investigation that brought to light the plots between the mafia and entrepreneurship in Trapani and was arrested along with other entrepreneurs. On 3 July 1998 he was charged with the crime of competition in mafia association, as considered near the mafia families of Trapani and Alcamo led by Vincenzo Virga and Antonino Melodia, held to life imprisonment. Amodeo negotiated a sentence of one year and four months for aiding real and personal aid, with the aggravating mafia.

Ministry prevents daughter of mafia boss from assuming role

https://www.lastampa.it/2019/04/05/...-role-H50vIMqAK2oKK4rz6uj3MI/pagina.html

No house arrest for Giovanni Brusca . For years the mafia collaborator of justice has never apologized to his victims or even to the relatives of the people he killed. The surveillance court of Rome writes this, explaining why it rejected the request for home detention by the lawyers of the former mafia boss of San Giuseppe Jato. Condemned for dozens of murders and massacres, including those of Capaci and Via D'Amelio , and for having kidnapped and killed the small Giuseppe Di Matteo , the son of a repentant, Brusca was arrested in May 1996. Two years later he began to collaborate with magistrates.

https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/...n_malta_fuel_smuggling_bust#.XLT3JuhKhPY

Defence attacks police intelligence on Malta fuel smuggling bust

The investigation of the super-fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro is at a turning point. The most dramatic. This morning police arrested two investigators accused of having passed confidential information on some Trapani mafia member of the godfather's entourage. They are the Colonel Marco Zappalà, an officer of the Carabinieri serving in the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate of Caltanissetta, and Giuseppe Barcellona, ​​a Carabinieri member working for the Compagnia di Castelvetrano.
The former mayor of Castelvetrano, Antonio Vaccarino, who was already convicted of drug trafficking and then became a confidant of the secret services, was also arrested.

Credits to Carmelo for original post.

That's why Messina Denaro is considered one of most dangerous wanted men in the world.

Mafia, corruption and wind power: this is how Nicastri shakes the Lega government - Five Stars

It is a mega investigation by the prosecutor's offices of Palermo and Rome that starts from Alcamo and Calatafimi and reaches the gates of the Lega and Cinque Stelle government, with the powerful Northern League undersecretary for Infrastructures Siri accused of pocketing a 30,000 euro bribe.
At the center the lord of the wind Vito Nicastri, considered close to Messina Denaro and already hit by a confiscation of more than one billion euros. In exchange for the bribe Siri would have advocated amendments in favor of wind power. "It makes me laugh," says the undersecretary, who has not resigned. To maintain relations with Nicastri, Paolo Arata, a Genoese mediator. Due to a disturbance in the interception it is not clear whether the bribe was only promised or even pocketed.
The other excellent suspects are the former provincial councilor and former manager of municipal technical offices Angelo Mistretta (currently head of the Urban Planning Department of the Municipality of Castellammare del Golfo), with him the entrepreneur of Calatafimi Francesco Isca and still beyond Vito Nicastri and Paolo Francesco Paolo Arata, Giacomo Causarano, Manlio Nicastri, Alberto Tinnirello also plowed.

Vito Nicastri was in house arrest already.

No public funeral for the boss Mario Campailla in Ragusa. The 56-year-old was considered the regent of the Stidda. Nicknamed Saponetta, the 56-year-old died this week in a sinister accident while aboard his motorcycle. Released from prison for two months.

Orazio Pino, turncoat and ex member of the Santapaola crime family was shot dead in the town of Chiavari (Genoa) where he lived; he left the witness protection program years ago

Credits to Carmelo.

Former state witness murdered in Chiavari
Victim helped investigation into 1990s Mafia war in Sicily

(ANSA) - Genoa, April 24 - A Sicilian man who was a former state's witness was killed in Chiavari, allegedly shot in the neck with a small-caliber pistol from close range. Pino Orazio's body was found outside his car in a supermarket parking lot.
The 70-year-old victim was an important State witness who helped investigators get to the bottom of a bloody mafia war that took place in Catania in the 1990s.

Sicilian Mafia snitch shot dead in parking lot – Testified against Catania’s notorious Santapaola Clan in 1990s http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profil...ot-dead-in-parking-lot-testified-against

The Public Prosecutor's Office requested this week the indictment of 18 people, including the big men of the Noce crime family.
Giovanni Musso, 48, had waited his turn. In the blitz of last year police reconstructed his rise to power in the Noce district. A power also exercised by requiring a priest to 'bless' a neighborhood party organized just to make money. After joining the old regent Giuseppe Castelluccio, Musso would become the new headmaster.

Carabinieri blitz in Catania triggered the arrest of 26 members of the Misterbianchese clan, protagonist of the bloody mafia war of the 90s against the group of Giuseppe Pulvirenti, of Malpassotu. Furthermore, the investigation shed light on one of the murders of that era and precisely that of the Christian Democrat city secretary Paolo Arena, shot dead on 28 September 1991.

The raid was taken this morning at dawn.handling and laundering in competition, illegal possession and possession of illegal weapons, fraudulent transfer of values ​​and corruption, with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method. The magistrate has also ordered the seizure of current accounts, real estate and commercial activities for a total value of over 1,500,000 euros.

Further details, with names and details, will be provided during a press conference. Today's blitz arrives a few days after the murder in Chiavari of the former repentant Orazio Pino, one of the protagonists of that mafia war.

Found this article....

I knew, even if they have a lot of production, there's NO WAY Sicily makes the best marijuana or concentrates in Europe. They control the LOCAL market.....

Holland, still I believe has the BEST stuff, and all the hash is still the preferred concentrate, which is still dominated by Gangs from Naples I believe.....




https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/palermo-cannabis-mafia-sicily-drugs-a8830756.html

True, but if the sicilians got the expertise and seeds from Holland they can produce high quality themselves.

Camorra doesn't dominate the Dutch hashish market as far as I know.

Moroccans living in the Netherlands definitely bring in a ton of hashish because they can directly source it from their native area in the Riff. The stuff is solid quality.

The, in my opinion, best hashish in the Netherlands is still stuff that's trafficked by the Dutch networks (often 'Kampers' from Brabant and South Holland). They mostly have direct lines to Pakistan and Lebanon to source the stuff.

Albanians move a shitload of hashish around Europe, including the Netherlands, as well. They seem to take a quantity over quality approach, but it's solid enough.

The established Italian community in the Netherlands has never been publicly associated with Italian organized crime, but from an internal report it can be concluded that between 1989 and 1990 about 30 criminal investigations were conducted in various places in the country into the big three mafia groups. But the first reports in the 70s did not relate to the Italian mafias but to members of the American Genovese family, who belonged to Meyer Lansky.
There is no doubt that the well-known Mafia organizations are involved in criminal activities (or have them carried out) on Dutch territory. Clans of cosa nostra have imported drugs directly and indirectly - via Belgium and Germany - from the Netherlands. Contact persons in both The Hague and Amsterdam were called in for this. South American cocane importers maintain close contacts with representatives, brokers, of one or more camorra clans in Amsterdam, via a few Italian restaurants (in the city and its surroundings).
Italian anti-mafia investigations have shown how the 'ndrangheta has used the Netherlands for its cocaine trafficking since the 1980s.

They definitely set up shop in the Netherlands. I don't think they have much interest in any kind of local "control" in the Netherlands though.

Belgium seems to have a bit more noticeable Italian OC activity. I'd say Belgian Limburg is one of the most important bases abroad for the Ndrangheta. Liege and other parts of Wallonia on the other hand are more Sicilian. They're all over though; a few years ago a Camorra member was arrested in Antwerp for raids on a few jewel shops throughout Belgium.

In 2011 Belgian intel still named Italian OC the most prevalent kind of "foreign" OC with at least 24 active criminal networks connected to the Cosa Nostra, Ndrangheta and Camorra. Italian OC was followed by Dutch, Albanian, Moroccan, Turkish (including Turkish-Assyrian and Turkish-Kurdish) and to a lesser extent "Russian" (including Russian and Georgian Jewish, Chechen, Georgian, Armenian, Azeri, Georgian Kurdish), Israeli, Chinese, Greek and Lebanese networks.

9-yr term requested for Mannino
Former Christian Democrat bigwig on trial over State-Mafia talks

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...1c34068-494e-4b7e-8143-da0cb40a6414.html

Antonio Di Liberto, 48, was shot dead in the town of Belmonte Mezzagno (Palermo); he was the brother of the ex mayor Pietro, close to the local mafia family.

Brother of former Sicilian mayor killed
Near Palermo

(ANSA) - Palermo, May 8 - The brother of a former mayor in Sicily was killed by gunshot wounds near Palermo on Wednesday.
Antonino Di Liberto, 49, was murdered at Belmonte Mezzagno, about 20 km from the Sicilian capital.
His body was found face down in his car parked in Via Umbria, police said.
He was the brother of the former mayor of the town, Pietro Di Liberto.
He worked as an engineer for a firm which lost a contract from power giant Enel because it was accused of having family links to Cosa Nostra.
Carabinieri are leading the murder probe.

Major hit !!

Antonio Di Liberto is a cousin of Filippo Bisconti, the boss of Belmonte Mezzagno who has repented and who in recent months has filled out reports by reconstructing the Cosa Nostra business not only in the area between Misilmeri and Belmonte Mezzagno but above all in Palermo.

Bisconti was arrested along with Settimo Mineo as they tried to rebuild the Cupola and restore order among the families.

I think he was killed because of his cousin , Bisconti. He was shot dead in his bmw.

This is like the old days when they go after relatives.

Italian PM sacks Salvini ally suspected of corruption and mafia ties

https://www.thelocal.it/20190508/it...r-suspected-of-corruption-and-mafia-ties

The mafia boss mentioned is Messina Denaro.

Italian anti-mafia champion sentenced for corruption

Sicilian member of Italy’s employers’ organization found guilty of links to the mob.

A former anti-mafia champion, Antonello Montante, was sentenced to 14 years in jail on Friday for a string of offences including corruption, according to Italian media reports.

Montante, who has always denied the charges against him, was the national spokesman on legal issues for Italy's employers’ organization, Confindustria, as well as the head of its Sicilian branch.

The sentence was tougher than expected as the prosecution had asked for 10 years. It could have been higher still; the jail time was cut by a third because of the type of trial Montante agreed to. Without that, he would have been jailed for 21 years: “Almost like a murder,” complained Giuseppe Panepinto, one of his lawyers, who said an appeal would be launched.

A probe was launched in 2015 after a string of mafia turncoats told prosecutors that, despite his attacks on organized crime, Montante was actually involved with Sicilian mob bosses — in particular Vincenzo Arnone and his father Paolino, who were best men at Montante's wedding in December 1980.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors uncovered what they dubbed "the Montante system" — a complex web of informants whose job it was to provide the former Confindustria man with information on his rivals and on the probe into his alleged mob links.

Prosecutors said they found a haul of documents in January 2016 in a room in Montante's villa at Serradifalco, near Caltanissetta in central Sicily. There were dossiers on politicians, prosecutors, investigators and others full of details collected by his informants. The suspicion is that the dossiers were to be used for blackmail, wrote the daily La Stampa.

The sentence “shows the gravity of the so-called Montante system,” said Nicola Morra, chairman of the Italian parliament's anti-mafia commission. However, Montante's lawyer Panepinto said his client had been set up by the mafia.

It's not the first time an anti-corruption figure has been arrested for such offences. In 2015 Roberto Helg, then head of Palermo’s chamber of commerce and a leading figure in the fight against corruption, was arrested after pocketing €100,000 extorted from a local businessman, although in that case the mafia was not involved.

Prosecutors have long denounced attempts by the mafia to infiltrate anti-corruption efforts in a bid to delegitimize them.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/ant...ScxmyB2TvhjLVbuiD39OVA_LI-ZCPkbbjTAiHfCM

What would you say are the strongest Sicilian clans these days?

Just by sheer number, it seems like the most clans are situated in Palermo and its province followed by the province of Agrigento.

Clans from Palermo followed by Trapani not Agrigento. Trapani is Sicilian mafia powerhouse for last 40 years.

In Sicily you have families that have much bigger power than mafia clans. For example you have Guttadauro's,they are members of multiple clans from all over Sicily,they are extremely rich and powerful. Giuseppe 'The Doctor' Guttadauro who is prime of Palermo hospital , is boss of Roccella family,probably member of freemasonry too,he is close to powerful politicians.Carlo Guttadauro capodecina of Bagheria family and Filippo Guttadauro powerful member of Castelvetrano family.

Then you have D'Ali's.(Matteo Messina Denaro's father started as armed guard for them) Antonio D'Alì Sr. was CEO of Banco Sicula,one of biggest private banks in Sicily,he was also member of P2. His son Antonio D'Alì jr. is a senator for Silvio Berlusconi's party Forza Italia, he was also under-secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, the institution responsible for fighting organised crime. Giacomo D’Alì is a counsellor of the Banca Commerciale Italiana in Milan. Antonio D'Alì jr. was photographed meeting with powerful Sicilian mafia members last year.

Thanks for the info. It does seem like Agrigento has a lot of mandamenti though; 10 as opposed to 4 in Trapani.

They have 7 mandamenti: Agrigento, Palma di Montechiaro, Burgio, Canicattì, Santa Margherita Belice, Cianciana and Santa Elisabetta.
Of course there are also stiddari operating there.

Stiddari and Cosa Nostra are working together in these past years.

A mafioso authorized the murder of his daughter.

"Better a dead daughter than separate," repeated Antonino Pipitone, an authoritative adviser to the Acquasanta mafia family. He could not bear that his daughter Lia attended a distant cousin, who had become her best friend; in the neighborhood it was said that the two young people had an extramarital affair. And the confirmation seemed to arrive when the young woman announced that she wanted to leave her husband, to go far from Palermo. An affront to the Cosa Nostra subculture.

"The murder was designed within the mafia environment and had to be carried out by simulating a robbery", writes judge Maria Cristina Sala in the reasons for the sentence that on July 17th sentenced Vincenzo Galatolo and Nino Madonia to 30 years. The regent of the Acquasanta family and the head of the Resuttana district are considered the instigators of the crime. "And the father authorized the murder," said the repentant Rosario Naimo.

https://palermo.repubblica.it/crona...spetto_che_tradiva_il_marito_-216666989/

Maxi-blitz in Rome against the Fragalà clan, a crew of the Santapaola crime family led by the boss Salvatore Fragalà, 33 people arrested across the capital and Catania on charges of mafia association, extortions, arsons, kidnapping, illegal possession of weapons and international drug trafficking.
"Among the people arrested is Francesco D'Agati, a man from" Cosa Nostra ". Years ago he was head of Villabate, near Palermo. One of the districts at the center of Dda's historic investigations in the Sicilian capital ". This was stated by Rome's acting prosecutor, Michele Prestipino, during a press conference."A two-year investigation, started with Giuseppe Pignatone, and which brought to light a well-rounded mafia family, because the components reside and operate in this criminal space. In the exercise of these activities - explained Prestipino - the clan of Catanese origin "federated" with other criminal groups, in particular with men close to the Casalesi with whom they started a mafia cartel. Over time we have in fact caught relationships with the Fascianos of Ostia and with the Neapolitan groups of the Senese ».Among the arrests today, there are also three women. Among these is Astrid Fragalà, former president of Confcommercio di Pomezia. The woman is now under house arrest.

http://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/4516/Prayer_and_preaching_to_fight_Mafia_in_Italy

Prayer and preaching to counter the impact of Mafia in Italy

Magistrates probed for Borsellino
Carmelo Petralia and Annamaria Palma may have 'favoured mafia'

(ANSA) - Palermo, June 11 - Two magistrates who worked in the Palermo anti-mafia pool have been placed under investigation in a probe into suspected cover-ups regarding the 1992 assassination of anti-mafia judge Paolo Borsellino.
Carmelo Petralia and Annamaria Palma, who worked on the bombing, have been placed under investigation with possible charges of complicity in aggravated calumny and having favoured Cosa Nostra.
Borsellino was murdered in July 1992, two months after his friend and colleague Giovanni Falcone.
The two crusading magistrates were instrumental in the creation of the pool.

Rosario Allegra, brother-in-law of the fugitive boss Matteo Messina Denaro, has died at the hospital in Terni, arrested by the prosecutor in Palermo on charges of having taken the reins of the "family" in the absence of the wanted family member.

Allegra, married to Giovanna Messina Denaro, who had been detained for 41 bis for years, had been admitted to the Terni hospital after a cerebral aneurysm. The process called Anno Zero, in which he was accused of mafia association, had been postponed.

The fugitive godfather has two other brothers-in-law, Vincenzo Panicola, Patrizia's husband, and Gaspare Como, Bice's husband, both in jail for mafia association, under the 41 bis regime.

Young man killed in the Syracuse area

AVOLA (SIRACUSA), 12 JUNE – Andrea Pace, 25, was killed tonight in Avola, in the Syracuse area, with blows firearm. The young man with several criminal records would have been the victim of an ambush around 3 at night, reached by several gunshots. The Public Prosecutor's Office coordinates the investigations conducted by the Carabinieri.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...b85c807-fc82-4219-8222-8f5cad76b756.html

Seven held in Agrigento anti-Mafia op

https://fr.euronews.com/2019/06/18/...31-personnes-liee-a-la-mafia-mardi-matin

Sicilian police arrest 31 Mafia-related people

Police in Catania arrested 31 people linked to the Mafia on Tuesday morning. Main target: the Cintorino family, linked to the Sicilian Cappello clan.

Between extortion, fraudulent transfers of money and drug trafficking, the mafia has been seized assets related to the Santapaola family for a million euros. Seizures made mainly in the tourism sector, fully controlled by the mafia in Catania and the surrounding areas.

A jet-ski rental company, a bar, and a seaside resort in Giardini Naxos have been the subject of these seizures.

http://www.ansa.it/sicilia/videogal...3159bd5-63de-46bf-87e0-81309a162182.html


Mafia: police confiscate assets from an entrepreneur linked to the Cappello clan

ANSA) - MONTEDORO (CALTANISSETTA), 26 JUNE - Goods for a total of 2.5 million euros were confiscated by Dia Caltanissetta from the brothers of the mafia family of Montedoro (Cl), Gaetano Falcone, 72, and Nicolò, of 69, the latter died on June 15 last. The two provisions were issued by the Cassation following the seizures arranged in 2015 by the Caltanissetta Court on the proposal of the Dia director. The Falcons are considered "men of honor" by Montedoro, and Nicolò played the role of "representative", also with top management, of Cosa Nostra del Nisseno, led by the historic boss Giuseppe 'Piddu' Madonia.
Overall, the assets confiscated from the Falcone brothers consist of 5 farms and 87 buildings (between buildings and land), as well as numerous banking relationships, for a total value of over 2 and a half million euros.

Castelvetrano, hunt for the accomplices of Messina Denaro.

Yet another police blitz in the night between Castelvetrano, Mazara del Vallo and the villages of the Valle del Belice, for the search for the fugitive mobster Matteo Messina Denaro. In total 130 police officers involved in the maxi operation in Sicily still in progress, belonging to the Mobile Teams of Trapani and Palermo and to the Central Operational Service.

They carried out checks and searches to hit the network of supporters of the fugitive - old mafiosi, professionals, traders - who in the past few years had been suspected of being supporters of the red primula of the Trapani mafia, wanted since June 1993.

Documents and materials defined as interesting were seized in the homes of some of the suspects, 19 in total. Once again it is confirmed that the inaction of the boss Matteo Messina Denaro is covered by subjects belonging to the so-called gray area of ​​Cosa nostra, between professionals, politicians and exponents of Freemasonry, for the names that have emerged so far from the investigations.

Next Sunday, in Castelvetrano, a delegation from the national anti-Mafia commission will arrive, headed by its president, the pentastorked senator Nicola Morra.

The portrait of Messina Denaro in the living room of the family home, in Castelvetrano

In the Messina Denaro pizzini found between 2006 and 2007, there were traces of five unsuspected names.

The first was a politician that Bernardo Provenzano had "made available" to Messina Denaro. The second, a priest who wrote to him: "If you need the blessing of Jesus Christ, you know where and how to find me". The third, an entrepreneur who was ready to take over some shares of a company to do big business in the province of Trapani. The fourth, a "friend", who had been devoted to the old Messina Denaro, and now serves his son. The fifth is a printer who assured that he had printed a new document for the fugitive godfather. Five, and who knows how many others, still protect the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro.

PALERMO - There are names known to the judicial chronicles and others so far unknown . People already under investigation, relatives of mafia and mafia victims, but also "unexpected" characters.

The list of suspects who have been searched in the hunt for Matteo Messina Denaro opens with the name of Giovanni Agate, 53, of Castelvetrano who at the end of the nineties negotiated a sentence in a trial against the pizza takers of the godfather fugitive.

The list continues with Raffale Arimondi, 59, entrepreneur,he too from Castelvetrano, and in the past investigated with the accusation of being a nominee for the mafia boss; Antonino Ingoglia, brother of a victim of the mafia war that two decades ago bloodied the province of Trapani: Errico Risalvato, former municipal councilor of Castelvetrano and family friend of Matteo Messina's brother Denaro, Salvatore; Andrea Moceri, a well-known olive farmer who has been seized with a millionaire fortune.

And then there are some "new" names, like those of three women: Adriana D'Incerto, or professional training worker, Leonarda Furnari and Katia Lombardo. New and young names, since they are between 35 and 40 years old.

Here is the complete list of people to whom the Public Prosecutor of Palermohas notified a search decree carried out by the policemen of the Palermo and Trapani mobile teams and by the agents of the Central Operational Service: Giovanni Agate, born in Castelvetrano, 52; Antonino Amaro, born in Castelvetrano, 44 ​​years old; Raffaele Arimondi, Castelvetrano 59 years; Giovanni Asaro, Mazara del Vallo, 63 years: Luca Burzotta, Mazara del Vallo, 57; Antonio Cognata, Campobello di Mazara, 68 years old; Adriana D'Incerto, Castelvetrano 39 years; Leonarda Furnari, known as Nella, Castelvetrano, 35 years old; Vito Gaiazzo Vito, born in Mazara del Vallo, 64; Leonardo Giglio, born in Vita, 54 years old; Vincenzo Indelicato, Castelvetrano, 50 years old; Antonino Ingoglia, born in Trapani, 57, Katia Lombardo, Castelvetrano, 40; Mario Mangiaracina, Castelvetrano, 39 years old; Pietro Messina, Castelvetrano 64 years; Andrea Moceri, Campobello di Mazara, 61 years old: Onofrio Napoli, Partanna, 60 years old; Antonino PIazza, born in Mazara del Vallo, 57 years old; Errico Risalvato, born in Castelvetrano, 67 years old.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/201...bd003ae-5d0c-477a-846d-8bd3c0bdd526.html

Nicastri helping with Arata probe

Mafia: blow to the Brancaccio clan 02 July 2019
07:25
NEWS
Operation 'Maredolce', 25 precautionary measures, seizures for 1 mln
ANSA) - PALERMO, 02 JULY - The State Police is carrying out a precautionary measure against 25 people accused of mafia-type criminal association, aggravated extortion, fire, following a delegation from the Palermo DDA which coordinated the investigations. fraudulent transfer of aggravated values, self-laundering, possession of drugs for smuggling and smuggling of Foreign Processed Tobacco.
The "Maredolce 2" operation carried out by the mobile team, shed light on one of the key territorial articulations in the economy of our Palermo: the mafia branch of Brancaccio and, in particular, the corso dei Mille family.
Investigators have radiographed the economy of a mafia clan already hit in July 2017 by the "Maredolce" operation. During the operation assets for an approximate value of one million euros were seized from the organization.

Three major Palermo bosses were recently released from prison. Giulio Caporrimo, regent of the mafia district that belonged to the Lo Piccolos. Salvo Genova, regent of the family of Resuttana and Domenico "Mico" Farinella, head of the district of San Mauro Castelverde.
In the meantime they have lost track of Giovanni Motisi, one of Europe's most wanted. Motisi known as u pacchiuni, 60, the boss of Pagliarelli sentenced to life imprisonment, has been a fugitive since 1993. Over the years the prosecutor's office in Palermo has never stopped scrutinizing all the ideas, which led investigators also to Spain, England, South America. However, no concrete trace of Giovanni Motisi has emerged.

The drug broker Paolo Lumia, from Mazara del Vallo (Trapani), was arrested in Bolivia. Lumia, 51, was released in the past few months, he had been obliged to stay but, however, had become unavailable. According to the investigators Lumia would manage trafficking of cocaine between Colombia and various countries of the world. He was based in Barcelona, Spain, for years and apparently he had a relationship with "the daughter of one of the largest South American drug traffickers".

Mafia: new blow to Agrigento clans, 9 arrests
Operation "siege", returns to the domiciliary municipal councilor

(ANSA) - AGRIGENTO, 12 JULY - The Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Agrigento carried out 9 pre-trial detention orders issued against top executives and affiliates of the mafia families of "Cosa Nostra" in Licata (Ag) and Campobello di Licata (Ag) . The operation, carried out on the input of the Palermo District Anti-Mafia Directorate with the code name "Assedio", follows the investigation that on 19 June had already triggered 7 detentions for armed mafia association. The Carabinieri have thus dealt a new heavy blow to the mafia families of Licata and Campobello di Licata. Once again under house arrest for external competition in a Mafia association a local councilor in charge of Licata, Giuseppe Scozzari, who had resigned precisely following the first arrest. On him, the Public Prosecutors provided the Palermo magistrate with further elements that would have further strengthened the probationary framework. During the stalking, the carabinieri filmed summit and secret meetings between the top management and the mafia gang members. Even an extortion for construction work in Germany has been ascertained. Also documented the interests of the clan in the slot machine sector, through a compliant distribution company of electronic gaming equipment.

Forty years ago Giorgio Ambrosoli was shot dead in Milan. "The culmination of a certain way of doing finance, of a certain way of doing politics, of a certain way of doing economics"
The night of 11 July 1979, forty years ago, the lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli was killed with three pistol shots under the house in Milan, in Via Morozzo della Rocca: he was 45 years old. From 1974 he was liquidator commissioner of the Italian Private Bank, an institution almost bankrupt by the Sicilian banker Michele Sindona, who had established relationships with very important pieces of politics, finance and organized Sicilian crime. The day after his death, on 12 July 1979, Ambrosoli should have signed a formal declaration to confirm the need to liquidate the bank and attribute responsibility for the situation to Michele Sindona.
The killer was the Italian-American mafioso William Aricò, who was later found to have been hired by Michele Sindona and paid with 25 thousand dollars in cash and another 90 thousand credited to a bank in Lugano.

The boss of Agrigento province Leo Sutera, 68, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison, he's close to Messina Denaro.

https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/..._sanctions_on_darren_debono#.XSxtfuhKhPY

Russia blocks Malta bid for UN smuggling sanctions on Darren and Gordon Debono

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...08935f5-a013-4104-b734-f64cc3cebd95.html

Threatening letters sent to judges
Patronaggio and Vella get gunpowder, bullet

11 people were arrested in Messina, 9 in prison and 2 under house arrest, accused of being part of a criminal gang that ran an international cocaine trade between South America and Sicily.

Among those arrested was Ramirez Della Rosa, ex-boyfriend of Marysthel Polanco, one of the so-called "olgettine", the girls who attended the "elegant" dinners organized in their residence in Arcore by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Gdf seizes 11,000 cannabis plants
Planting from 9 tons of marijuana for a value of 20 mln

(ANSA) - CATANIA, 18 JULY - A plantation of 11 thousand 'skunk' cannabis plants, built on an area of 1,500 square meters, was seized by the Catania finance guard in a vast citrus orchard with 'terraces' of Militello. The operation was completed by soldiers from the Gico operational anti-drug group of the economic and financial police core. The seized marijuana, equal to about 9 tons, submitted to the first qualitative analysis, presents a high content of active principle (Thc), and could yield, in the retail sale, over 20 million euros. The plants, of Dutch origin, were on average 120 centimeters high and were irrigated with a sophisticated water system.
     Also seized a cottage where the drug was dried on an iron fence, two camping tents that were used by the 'farmers', a Ph meter to check the degree of acidity of the water used for irrigation and 25 kg of fertilizer.

The operational strategies of Cosa Nostra increasingly express a particular propensity towards the gaming and betting sector.

is son vito badalmenti of pizza connection fame back in the fold. he would be almost 60. he father was gaetano the pizza connection book was great. vito won at trial in nyc they deported him to spain and hes been a ghost, but they were on the inzerillos side i belive back then

He was on the "Italy's most wanted list" from 1995 until 2012 when the statute of limitations was declared expired lol..
He lives in Brazil.

Mafia, the drug axis between Palermo and Naples: 12 arrests take place

https://palermo.gds.it/articoli/cro...ti-8e8c4cd5-54fc-4e42-83f1-6d0c2ab92ead/

3 anti-drug operations in sicily run by mafia clans (palermo, gela, enna), 44 arrested, big quantities of cocaine, hashish and weed (locally produced) seized

https://www.lasiciliaweb.it/2019/07/23/blitz-antidroga-tutta-la-sicilia-sottosopra/

anti-drug operation in palermo led by giuseppe vallecchia member of noce family and brother - in - law of the boss fabio chiovaro, 16 arrested based in the neighborood of zisa

https://palermo.gds.it/foto/cronaca...ti-1d0999b8-1356-4ecb-8060-4c2f9c8aa7be/

28 million euros seized from businessman salvatore santalucia frontman for messina province mafia clans
https://www.blogsicilia.it/messina/...messinese-in-affari-con-nicastri/493024/

There a quit a few Grecos in the ´Ndrangheta.

most important drug dealing squares in palermo run by mafia bosses



https://palermo.gds.it/articoli/cro...io-c2e8d5e0-2d4b-4c4a-a957-3cefa4e5150f/

The lieutenant colonel Marco Alfio Zappalà was transferred under house arrest, arrested last April 16 along with the former mayor of Castelvetrano, Antonio Vaccarino, and another carabiniere. The investigation refers to the investigative context concerning the hunt for the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro. The three are accused in various capacities by the Dda of Palermo (added Paolo Guido, substitutes Francesca Dessì and Piero Padova) of "abusive access to a computer system" and "disclosure of official secrets" and also to the former Dc politician is challenged the aggravating circumstance of having favored Cosa Nostra and the inaction of Matteo Messina Denaro.

The officer - in service with the Dia of Caltanissetta at the time of his arrest - left Enna prison on Saturday morning and has since been in his home, on the orders of the magistrate of the Palermo court, Piergiorgio Morosini, who has " partially accepted "the request of the lawyers Giuseppe Crescimanno and Claudio Gallina Montana. Last week the same investigating judge had canceled the house arrest for Giuseppe Barcellona, ​​who has been on the loose since last July 22nd. Vaccarino, known for having corresponded with the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro (in 2007) on behalf of Sisde, had been released from prison after just 15 days.

According to the indictment, Zappalà would have received from Barcelona (responsible for the transcription of the interceptions at the company of Castelvetrano) some 'screenshots' of conversations between two subjects subjected to investigation in which they commented on some aspects of the funeral of Lorenzo Cimarosa, collaborator of justice died due to a serious illness in January 2017. In turn the Lieutenant Colonel of the Dia would have sent the contents of these 'screenshots' to Vaccarino, who showed them to Vincenzo Santangelo, owner of a funeral home and already convicted of mafia. As part of the survey, the data contained in some IT devices seized from the three suspects were extrapolated, but content analysis is still ongoing.

https://palermo.repubblica.it/crona...ari_ufficiale_dei_carabinieri-232306307/

Mafia: 7 arrested, even two Masons
CC operation coordinated by Dda Palermo against the Licata clan

The police of the Ros and of the provincial command of Agrigento are carrying out a detention order, issued by the Dda of Palermo, against 7 people under investigation for mafia association and external competition in mafia association. At the center of the investigations of the carabinieri were the mafia family from Licata (Ag) whose structures and hierarchies were outlined. In the course of the investigation infiltrations were discovered in the entrepreneurial activities being carried out in the Agrigento area and the role occupied inside the cosca by two Masons who were venerable masters of two lodges: they would be a regional official and the son of a boss.

The Carabinieri went to two lodges of the Grand Orient of Italy in Palermo and Licata to acquire the lists of members, an important step of the anti-mafia operation "Halycon".

The police of the Agrigento mobile squad arrested, in execution of a European arrest warrant, the 32-year-old of Favara, Mario Rizzo, a former collaborator, never admitted to the protection program, accused by the Belgian magistracy of conspiracy and drug trafficking.

Rizzo is accused of " being placed in an organization dedicated to the cultivation of doping plants ". The measure was carried out after Rizzo, who in the past few months started a collaboration with the law by first shedding light on an ambush against a restaurateur, then revealing alleged plots on the Belgium-Favara axis, he returned free having ceased precautionary measure in the investigation of the attempted murder.

The 32-year-old, who recently retracted saying that his had been "a false collaboration", has appointed Calogero, the lawyer, as defense counsel. The agents took him from his home waiting to hand him over to the Belgian authorities who, last summer, had already tried to execute the European arrest warrant but the concomitant Italian legal affair had blocked the extradition.

doping plants? Marijuana?

Yes, funny translation..

Its surprising how many Euro mobsters grow, and run grow ops.

The guys in the States dont seem to be as involved in Cali, Rado, Oregon, Michigan grow ops........

Also surprised if they didnt invest heavily in the legal sector...

Anthony Casso was a huge drug guy weed, coke, heroin..

Cabrini, this case is the only one I'm aware of where the NY mafia had direct links to Cali grow ops.

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/15-million-drug-ring-led-by-gambino-crime-family-busted

At the center of the "Halycon" investigation into Mafia and Freemasonry is the official of the Sicilian Region, Lucio Lutri, "venerable grandmaster" of a powerful Palermo Masonic lodge.

https://news.wbfo.org/post/shopkeepers-sue-sicilian-mafia-first-ever-migrant-led-case

Shopkeepers sue Sicilian Mafia in first-ever migrant-led case

there is no way only 50% pay protection, they are by far more even today

The working section of the Palermo review court annulled the custody order and released Massimo Mulè, head of the Porta Nuova mafia district, subjected to detention, with another 50 people, on December 4 last year, as part of the operation Cupola 2.0, on the attempt to reconstitute the commission of Cosa nostra, so as to return to ensure coordination between the districts of Palermo and the province. Mulè, assisted by lawyers Giovanni Castronovo and Marco Clementi, had already obtained a first cancellation with referral to the Court of Cassation on 2 April.

The wait in court and the offenses
The boss "saved" by the repentant

by Riccardo Lo Verso

Palermo. Nino Rotolo wanted the student to die , but something happened

PALERMO - He had to die, but the words of the repentant have saved his life indirectly. New details emerge on the death plan that a few years ago had been planned to eliminate Salvatore Sorrentino, nicknamed the studentino , arrested last December on the charge of having become the right-hand man of Settimo Mineo, Pagliarelli's mafia boss. From the possible death to the return to the field, after having finished serving a sentence

Justice collaborator Vito Galatolo dell'Acquasanta , who had already talked about the affair, added new details. Sorrentino had been involved in robbery, so he was put in charge of the mafia family of the Santa Rosalia Village. He was close to Nino Rotolo, boss of Pagliarelli who dictated the law from his villa to the Editor after having managed to get himself arrested by pretending to be sick.

The rumor of Sorrentino's betrayal had spread and Salvatore Lo Piccolo , the baron of San Lorenzo, had passed into the army . In the war between Pagliarelli's boss and Lo Piccolo, the studentine had chosen to take sides with the second.

The background reconstructed by Galatolo would have happened at the Palace of Justice in Palermo : "... we were in court at the Palermo court and there was Sandro, Sandrino and there was Franco Inzerillo (Alessandro Mannino and Francesco Inzerillo were both recently arrested in the blitz against the district of Passo di Rigano, ed) ... we had a trial for our own business and there was Sorrentino, Salvino, a man of honor of Pagliarelli's family ... who then went ... contrasted with Nino Rotolo ”.

What happened? "Sandrino was shocked Sandrino Mannino by the words that came out of Rosario (wrong name, ed) Sorrentino said cuckold and cop ... to Nino Rotolo ... because Sorrentino betrayed the Rotoliani, he left with the Lo Piccoliani betrayed them in prison ... ".

Everything was ready for the ambush, but there was a change of program: ".... because doctor (Galatolo turns to the public prosecutor, ed) today unfortunately the declarations when they come out in the newspapers they don't give the confirmation to a collaborator of justice what he says, because Rosario Sorrentino had to die like Fabio Scimò (recently arrested on charges of having become the strong man in Brancaccio, ed) ... they had to die ... since then they go out ... they come to know and then if they do they confirm that what a person, a collaborator says ... ".

The reference could be to the words of Francesco Franzese and Antonino Nuccio, repented of the San Lorenzo clan, who already in 2008 told that a mafia war was about to break out. And Sorrentino was on the list of those who had to die at the hands of Nino Rotolo.

Still Galatolo: "Sandrino Mannino was shocked , but don't tell her these things, you tell us about them but don't tell them why they kill you he says ... you are a person now .. you go out you know where to go to find here on the other side ... then they arrested the Lo Piccolo and this Salvino rightly ... in prison we say he stayed out of there and out of here ... eh they managed to take him again slowly and take him in the district let's say. .. if Nino Rotolo was out, Dr. had killed him ... ".

Sorrentino not only remained alive, but he has also carved out a leading role in the new mafia, alongside Settimo Mineo, the elderly boss who presided over the meeting of the new dome.

https://livesicilia.it/2019/08/17/l...ese-il-boss-salvato-dai-pentiti_1079693/

The public prosecutor Marcello Musso was run over and killed on the bike: he had Totò Riina condemned
„
Overwhelmed and killed on the bike the prosecutor who had Totò Riina condemned and fought against the Corleonese
Marcello Musso was 67 years old. He began working in Sicily: a battle against the mafia which then continued in the North, in Milan. For a long time he had questioned the gotha ​​of Cosa Nostra (Brusca, Madonia, Giuffrè)

Editorial board
17 august 2019 10:24

Musso at the court of Milan - Photo Ansa

He was run over by a car. And there was nothing for him to do. Marcello Musso, prosecutor of the Milan court, also known for having sentenced Totò Riina to court, died yesterday afternoon in a tragic accident that occurred on the road connecting Agliano and Costigliole d'Asti, in Piedmont. Musso, 67, was riding his bike when - around 4 pm - he was hit right in the middle of a car, a Fiat Stilo whose driver immediately stopped. It seems that the prosecutor turned at an intersection and that the impact occurred at that point, just a stone's throw from the house of the magistrate's mother, who was there on vacation.

To help the 67-year-old a medical team also arrived on board a 118 helicopter, but for the magistrate there was nothing to do. The driver was immediately given the alcohol test, as required by law: according to what was learned from MilanoToday , it turned out to be negative.

Who was Marcello Musso
Originally from Asti and "peasant in the soul", as he himself liked to call himself, Musso had started working in Sicily, fighting the Corleonese: a battle that then continued in the North, in Milan, from where he had managed to convict to the life sentence Totò Riina, the chief of chiefs.

On 15 September 2006, Marcello Musso heard Giovanni Brusca as witness. From there the investigations of the investigators started on a series of mafia murders that took place in Milan between 1987 and 1992. Period in which the leaders of Cosa Nostra decided, according to the investigation, to eliminate some Mafia exponents who were creating "problems" in the Lombard capital. Brusca, reconstructing the facts that led to the murder of Alfio Trovato, killed in May '92 in Via Palmanova (with Riina another affiliate was also accused), he reiterated that the principal was what he himself called the "chief of chiefs" and number one".

Marcello Musso has long questioned the gotha ​​of Cosa Nostra (not only Brusca, also Madonia, Giuffrè) to find evidence for the claims of a repentant from Gela who decided to collaborate. And it is thanks to Musso that he was certified as Milan was a capital of the Sicilian mafia. To the point that Totò Riina boasted about it with his loyalists stating "Milan is in our hands". Thus a patient investigation by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Lombard capital gave the names to principals and executors of a dozen murders that bloodied the city in the 1980s. Faide and settling of accounts for stories of drugs, money, kidnappings that flowed into the enormous power that the Corleonese mafia exercised in the suburbs and in the economic and political heart of the city.

“

Potrebbe interessarti: https://www.palermotoday.it/cronaca/morto-pm-marcello-musso-riina.html
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i think musso dismantled also cocaine refineries led by cosa nostra in milan in the early '90, at that time sicilian mafia controlled the cocaine in north italy thanks to links with medellin and cali cartels

The president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, was investigated with his father, the late Franco Macri, and the rest of the family, by the famous Italian judge who investigated in depth the Cosa Nostra (Sicilian criminal secret society), Giovanni Falcone. The magistrate arrived in Argentina to conduct research on the powerful business family in 1992 and died shortly after, killed by the mafia.

https://realpolitik.com.ar/nota/378...-la-familia-macri-con-la-mafia-italiana/

P2 was active in Argentina too

some of the most powerful bosses according a 2018 article







http://app.ilfattoquotidiano.it/ed-art14029219-20180723/pugpig_index.html

When The Apparent Suicide Of ‘God’s Banker,’ Roberto Calvi, Was Ruled A Murder

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sofial...o-calvi-was-ruled-a-murder/#3b87e66e1cd4

The General Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, his wife Emanuela Setti Carraro and agent Domenico Russo will be remembered next Monday in Palermo on the 37th anniversary of their murder by the mafia.

PALERMO
From the dome to the kid's head
New Mafia, the army of 64

mafia arrests, mafia carabinieri blitz, mafia dome, mafia suspects list, new palermo dome investigation, boss palermo meetings, palermo mafia, new mafia palermo, Chronicle
Settimo Mineo's arrest

The Palermo Public Prosecutor has notified the notice of the conclusion of the investigation


PALERMO - The suspects are 64. What will soon arrive in front of the judge for the preliminary hearing will be the trial of the new Palermo mafia.

The notice of the conclusion of the investigation was born from the blitz of the carabinieri last December, called "Cupola 2.0", which stopped the new provincial commission of Cosa Nostra. Following the bosses the carabinieri traced the map of the mafia .

The mafia bosses gathered in May 2018 in a Boccadifalco building. Presiding over the Mafia assembly was Settimo Mineo, boss of Pagliarelli. At his side were Gregorio Di Giovanni of Porta Nuova, Francesco Colletti of Villabate, Leandro Greco of Ciaculli (he is the grandson of Michele Greco, the 'pope' of the old mafia), Giovanni Sirchia of Passo di Rigano, Calogero Lo Piccolo of Saint Lawrence. Filippo Bisconti di Belmonte Mezzagno was also part of the dome which, like Colletti, has chosen to collaborate with justice.

From the plots of the post-Riina commission to the choice of who should decorate the simulacrum in the days of the Good Friday procession, up to the kid's head placed in the house of a merchant who didn't want to pay the lace. The investigation by the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Salvatore De Luca, and by substitutes Bruno Brucoli, Francesca Mazzocco and Dario Scaletta, is a cauldron that contains the strategies of the new mafia and the daily management of the territory. The silences of the traders ended up in it, but also the spontaneous rebellion of the building contractor Giuseppe Piraino who filmed the man who asked him for the lace .

In the new map of the Mafia to Pagliarelli , apart from that of Mineo, the figures of Salvatore Sorrentino (head of the mafia family of the Villaggio Santa Rosalia) and Filippo Annatelli (head of the Corso Calatafimi family) would stand out.

At Porta Nuova Gaetano Leto would have made his way to the Cap or, while in the other market, Ballarò, the strong man would be Massimo Mulè (the Public Prosecutor's Office continues to challenge him as the leader despite the accusation that it fell to Riesame and Mulè was released). Gaspare Rizzuto would hold the Porta Nuova family, while Salvatore Pispicia, a cousin of Gregorio Di Giovanni, would have the job of spokesman for the chief.

To the orders of Calogero Lo Piccolo would have responded Giuseppe Serio, Erasmo Lo Bello and Carmelo Cacocciola. The accused Sergio Macaluso and Domenico Mammi from Resuttana have accused themselves of being part of the new mafia.

Alongside Bisconti, Belmonte Mezzagno would have been Salvatore Sciarabba (who would have been in charge of the district) and Giovanni Salvatore Migliore, while Colletti in Villabate could count on the loyalty of Filippo Cusimano (his trusted driver), Francesco Caponetto (Villabate family) ), Vincenzo Sucato (Misilmeri family), Francesco Antonino Fumuso (Villabate), Stefano Polizzi (Bolognetta).

The army of men of honor would complete with names Salvatore Troia (Villabate). Notice of conclusion of the investigation also for Antonio Giovanni Maranto of San Mauro Castelverde.

Of extortion they answer Giusto Amodeo and Giusto Francesco Mangiapane of Misilmeri, Simone La Barbera of Mezzojuso, Pietro Lo Sicco of Capaci, Giusto Alaimo of Villabate, Giusto Giordano of Misilmeri. Salvatore Ferrante responds to threats: it was he, along with Troia, who placed a kid's head in the home of an entrepreneur from Trabia. Salvatore Ingenio and Francesco Gambino answered abetting because they would have denied having received extortion requests. Giovanna Comito and Umberto Maiorana are under investigation for fictitious heading of assets: they would have put themselves at the disposal of Salvatore Mirino, so that, through the intervention of Andrea Mirino, they would shield the property of a bakery in Via Carmelo Onorato.

Now all the suspects can present defensive memories or ask to be questioned. Then the prosecutor will ask for the trial to be adjourned and the decision will pass into the hands of the judge for the preliminary hearing who will decide whether or not to send them to trial.

https://livesicilia.it/2019/09/02/d...to-nuova-mafia-lesercito-dei-64_1082434/

Geeky New Mafia Hacks Bodies—and Networks, Too

https://www.thedailybeast.com/geeky-new-mafia-hacks-bodiesand-networks-too

New dome of the mafia, another mysterious boss at the summit in Palermo
08 September 2019
dome 2.0, mafia, Francesco Colletti, Palermo, Chronicle
The collaborator of Justice Francesco Colletti
Another mysterious boss appears at the summit on May 29th last year to rebuild the Cosa Nostra Provincial Commission . The collaborator of justice and former chief of the Villabate Francesco Colletti, who regretted himself a few days after his arrest in December with the operation of the Carabinieri Cupola 2.0, unveiled the name, although at the moment it was not disclosed.

From the statements not classified by the prosecutors of the DDA, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Salvatore De Luca, as Sandra Figliuolo writes in the Giornale di Sicilia on newsstands , some clues emerge to identify him: according to Colletti he would have been the chief of staff of Passo di Rigano , the house in which happened the meeting (perhaps in Baida) would have been "his or someone close to him", is a boss who has been "for so long in prison".

https://palermo.gds.it/articoli/cro...mo-a33cf642-3c93-4d91-82a6-1f0dd5c68025/

Mafia crooners under fire for celebrating raids and murder

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...r-celebrating-raids-and-murder-ffpt72d53

During the Sicilian mafia’s peak who were the top bosses besides Riina and did they answer to him? I think someone like Michele Greco or Pippo Calo could have been making just as much money in partnership with Riina in the heroin trade.

You couldn't do a thing without Riina approval,everyone answered to Riina. Michele Greco was Riinas puppet.

Was it because people feared Riina’s brutality and henchmen or because he had so many connections and so much money? He had a monopoly on the heroin trade at one time so it is safe to say that Riina and Leggio both had millions of dollars. Hundreds of millions. Most of it taken by the government surely.

You either listened to Riina or you end up dissolved in acid. He appointed his puppets in all families,if he felt like he is not able to control you fully , you are dead.

But again everyone are blaming only Riina for murders of politicians/judges/state officials,he was just doing what he was told,just did the dirty work.Its same when 2012 Matteo Messina Denaro was ordered to kill Nino Di Matteo, police managed to arrest them and stop them, at the end they are just doing the dirty work.

because of his brutality, riina was probably the only true boss of bosses in mafia history, in the sense that he really commanded other bosses of the commission that they should have the same power although coordinated by a chairman

How could people like Riina and Denaro ever be considered big and powerful bosses when they are really just doing the dirty work for more powerful people in their own country like you said? I think it would be hard for the Freemasons to take on the whole Sicilian mafia if they ever were at odds.

Why is it that nobody could match him in brutality? I think it is because he was not heard of or seen while the Palermo bosses were more tangible to the public.

it's not like the freemasons go to the mafiosi and order them to do it, they just discuss and the mafia kills only if there is a convergence of interests and the freemasons return the favour... anyway it seems there is a super-cupola formed by both freemasons, secret services and mafia/ndrangheta/camorra/sacra corona bosses that rules the whole italy

There are a few witnesses that confirmed that , well back in 2012 and the whole Di Matteo situation, Matteo Messina Denaro just said to Palermo bosses "It must be done" and it had to be done with bomb in Rome or Palermo. According to informant order came from same people who ordered deaths of Falcone and Borsellino.

@Revis_Island: They need each other , freemasons/secret services need mafia to do dirty work for them , while mafia needs them for various other stuff.

where did you read it? i didn't know cosa nostra wanted to kill di matteo in 2012, anyway it would be very stupid to do it because the ones behind the previous slaughters (politicians/ freemasons/ secret services or whoever) did not eliminate 41 bis and other things riina wanted... and why the hell ask cosa nostra if ndrangheta is supposed to be the most powerful nowadays?
politicians/freemasons need the mafia also because it controls tons of votes, especially in the south

That is the same thing i wonder,why would they ask Sicilian mafia for that instead of 'Ndrangheta.

Vito Galatolo a pentito said order came directly from Matteo Messina Denaro , plan failed because police found out about it and arrested Palermo bosses, explosive were never found.

http://www.antimafiaduemila.com/dos...cconta-l-attentato-a-nino-di-matteo.html

That makes more sense to me. Equal power but they both use each other for their respective strong suits.

It appears that that is the case with the super cupola. Everything I’ve read points to the Ndrangheta being the top brass in Italy right now.

Did Leggio still hold power within the Corleonesi even with Riina as the boss or was he an afterthought.

Well i would say freemasonry/secret services are much more powerful than mafia groups.Even back in 1980's when Sicilian Mafia was insanely powerful the P2 had more power , they had members that were CEO of banks, even president of Vatican bank was member, depends on how u define power.But that is type of people who almost never go to prison and no one really knows who they are.

I would say it evens out because the mafia would get their hands dirty and I am sure they could also blackmail Freemasons with information that they had on them if needed. Both the mafia and Freemasons were among the richest people in Italy but I think both used each other to further their agendas. The mafia was using P2 member Roberto Calvi to launder their illegal revenue.

Is it safe to say that Riina was the king of heroin? And if so, how did he compare to some of the cocaine kingpins of his time? Nobody compares to Escobar and his power when his organization was at its height but what about someone like Freeway Rick Ross who was making a tremendous amount of money from cocaine in America at the time? There were many drug kingpins in America who were dealing with hundreds and maybe thousands of kilos a week.

riina was not a narcoboss, he was a power syndicate boss, he probably never saw any drugs in his life, he killed the heroin kings (badalamenti, bontade, inzerillo etc.), he ordered to kill leonardo caruana and he wanted to kill alfonso caruana, he destroied the sicilian clans that dominated the drug trade or forced them to pay part of earnings to him or the commission

I was not aware of that. How did he feel about his colleague Luciano Leggio who tried to control the heroin market then? And where was his main source of income if not drugs? $125 million worth of assets were reportedly seized from his estate.

Badalamenti was a big pusher but I read somewhere that him and his son could not post a multi million dollar bail. That surprises me. It is a lot of money but I would be likely to believe that a big drug mover like badalamenti would be able to post his bail without a problem. Unless he was trying to keep a low profile and really portray himself as a man who had no such money as the FBI had reported.

Drugs and mafia, 40 arrests in Catania

Maxi operation of the State police in Catania. Forty restrictive measures ordered by the district prosecutor against two criminal groups accused of criminal association for the purpose of trafficking and dealing in drugs, aggravated by the mafia method. The two organizations operated in the capital of Etna and are attributable to the Cappello-Bonaccorsi and Cursoti Milanese clans.

https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2...a--40-arrests-in-catania-.BkmHt9xwS.html

Riina was into heroin trafficking, once he killed everyone that previously controlled it , he took over with his own refinery and his own people.After Bontade was killed ,one of his best man Francesco Marino Mannoia started working for Corleonesi.

With all the money that the Palermo families had, how come they couldn’t acquire the needed resources to win the war against Riina and the Corleonesi? I’m not exactly positive that Badalementi was in the best place because he was forced to leave and he and his son reportedly could not pay the million dollar bail money required to get them out of jail. But Bontade was a Freemason and he has tremendous wealth. Maybe even the richest man in the mafia at the time.

It had nothing to do with money and resources , Riina outsmarted and outplayed all of them , it took them some time to realize what is happening and who is pulling the strings.One of the first to realize what Riina was doing was Giuseppe Di Cristina but he was killed shortly after. You should watch series called "Il capo dei capi" about Riina's life and all that events , its very well done.

The Corleonesi were very sneaky their enemies didn't know what hit them. They didn't even know how many members the Corleonesi had Riina also used the rules against them or just changed them lol..

I will watch it. Is it in English? Buscetta said that the tension between the Palermo and corleone factions under Leggio. He used to undermine the Palermo bosses in meetings and he wanted to take the drug market away from them.

Riina was illiterate but it sounded like he was smart to a point if he was able to pull off a coup right from underneath some of the most powerful organized crime families in the world at the time. We mentioned Badalamenti and Bontade, who else were some big earners during this time? Denaro is a billionaire but at this time he was not the boss.

Riina and Bagarella were brutal but the brains was Bernardo Provenzano. Messina Denaro is a Provenzano guy.

How much did mafiosi like Provenzano and Denaro model themselves after the entrepreneurial model that American LCN set? We have said many times on here that the Italian Americans were once the ones enjoying the riches while the Italians were seen as farmers who did not make money nor had political connections. That soon flipped and the Italians began dealing with money that was unheard of in the states unless you were a billionaire businessman. I know I have asked this before but what stopped the Americans from graduating to the level of some of the top Italian bosses in the area of wealth and connections? Was it informants and tougher laws against crime/prisons? After Carlo Gambino I think there was a clear lack of leadership in taking the movement that Americans like him, Luciano, Costello, and Lucchese tried to push forward. I think American mafiosi like those that I mentioned wanted to turn their families into massive organizations rooted in the country like JP Morgan Chase.

inzerillo, totò minore, the salvo brothers, were all big earners too

I have never heard of Minore. Were the Salvo brothers actually members of the mafia? I thought they were politicians and businessmen who just had a lot of connections to the underworld. I read online that Bontade had around 10 billion lire in cash. Not positive how accurate that is. That’s around $5 million.

I think a lot, after Riina's war against the State and the hardliners in jail Provenzano and later Denaro proposed a new, less violent strategy. Coexistence with state institutions similar to how LCN operates. Salvatore Lo Piccolo did the same in Palermo.

totò minore was the boss of trapani, the salvo were also members of the mafia (salemi family) and they managed the collection of taxes throughout sicily
anyway at that time several mafiosi became quickly very rich

Thats when they started working with drugs big time , old bosses who were against drugs were getting eliminated , drugs brought them A LOT of money but also a lot more greed,violence,murders and so on.

I read that the Salvo brothers were not involved in the day to day operations of the mafia but that sounds like a cover. Prior to Riina was Bontade the boss that everyone looked to? Also, I think the 5 billion lire in cash was more than likely just a small fraction of what was traced back to him. Law enforcement could not trace much money back to him at all.

Drugs prevented them from going legitimate. I don’t think anyone can be a legitimate businessman once they are labeled a drug trafficker. That is why many mafiosi who were heavily involved would never admit they were involved with drugs. Zaza has said he was never a drug trafficker. Law enforcement says different.

It appears that way. The mafia in Sicily is not nearly as violent as they were under Riina. I think they were all on Riina’s side until he started to kill magistrates. Is there any truth tothe theory that provenzano sold Riina out?

the salvo brothers were both made members of cosa nostra (salemi family)
most of money of bontade, inzerillo and badalamenti was not seized, leonardo badalamenti has an empire in brazil, the inzerillo's in the states, bontade's in italy
the son of stefano bontade (francesco paolo) was released from prison in 2015

They have returned to the old Cosa Nostra, when guys like Luciano, Bonanno, Galante had a strong influence that's why they picked Settimo Mineo who has strong links to the USA.

Haven’t seen much about Bontade’s son. Is the Bontade empire still active or was everything taken from him after Rinna?

They have returned to the old Cosa Nostra, when guys like Luciano, Bonanno, Galante had a strong influence that's why they picked Settimo Mineo who has strong links to the USA.[/quote]

Did Gambino have as much influence in Italy as Luciano and Bonanno? Luciano was close with Sicilians and Neapolitans during his time in Italy.

Sicilians dare to believe: the mafia’s cruel reign is over

As the Cosa Nostra is finally brought to its knees, our reporter recalls his childhood in Palermo when the mob families felt free to murder at will

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/22/mafia-godfathers-sicily-palermo-italy

'Ndrangheta stragista trial, the turncoat Calabrò modified the declarations made when he began to collaborate and declared that he killed on his own the carabinieri Fava and Garofalo in 1994 and nobody ordered it. According to his previous version the murder was planned by both Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta bosses and it was part of an elaborate and far-reaching strategy to destabilize the nation.
The 'Ndrangheta stragista, Gotha and Trattativa Stato-Mafia trials, among whose defendants there are important politicians, freemasons and secret service agents, under the total national media's silence, are both coming to the final stage, and in the latest months four turncoats (Leonardo Messina, Gioacchino Pennino, Marino Pulito and Vincenzo Grimaldi) who had to testimony disappeared and cannot be found.

Credits to Carmelo for original post.

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profil...atthews-to-hit-the-big-screen-from-narco

Frank Matthews was one of the few drug dealers during this time who cut out the Italians and did not need the mafia. He made hundreds of millions. How was he even able to bypass the Sicilians who controlled much of the heroin market?

I’ve this question related to American mafiosi but not related to Sicilians. Does anybody think there were any Sicilians who were making more money than Frank Matthews during his reign? I always hear on here that the top money makers in Italy put the top money makers in America to shame. Does that statement still hold true if we compare Frank Matthews to top Italian members during his time?

There is no way anyone could know that , not like these guys keep books or pay taxes lol

All we can do is speculate, Sicilians back then were into construction,drugs,money laundering,waste disposal(i think) ,public contracts fraud ,pizzo from everyone and list goes on. While he did only drugs and he didn't control that much of it , like Escobar did.

Yes it is just speculation. It is said that Matthews ran off with around $20 million and this was in the early 1970s. He did control the drug markets in many states at the time. I’m sure there were Sicilians and Camorra drug traffickers who made more during the same period. Cigarette smuggling was a huge money making scheme for them as well as the other rackets you mentioned. I am thinking some of the people named in here before such as Bontade, Badalementi, Inzerillo and the Salvo brothers made more during the same era.