quick question... I haven't seen much discussed on this group in northern italy... I had never heard of it until the veneto post. i was wondering if someone knew about them, and where they stand in the Italian/Sicilian hierarchy of organized crime.

From what I've read, they're number 4 in Italy.
They're powerful, although not quite as powerful as Ndrangheta and the others, the Sacra Corona Unita is a relatively 'young' gang. They were founded in Apulia by a Neapolitan who wanted to expand his operations, but since then they're composed of born and raised Apulians. They are active in Italy, but they've also spread throughout Europe and North America.
They have some very strong allies : apart from the other Italian criminal organizations, they're also allied with the 'Russian', Albanian, Colombian, Triad and Yakuza crime organizations as well as working with Moroccan immigrant gangs in Italy.

Killing, thanks for the info!

in the movie Fine Pena:Mai il Paradiso Perduto (Life Sentence,the Lost Heaven) is the true story of Tonio Perrone.
(Claudio Santamaria)The film set in the Salento describes it as a paradise on earth, before the arrival of the Sacra Corona Unita in the early 80s.
Tonio is a young boss that in a few years will scale the heights of mala of Salento. A life made of his excesses, fast cars and drugs. His girlfriend and later wife, Daniela (Valentina Cervi) is the only comfort to the excesses of its existence. Become bossby managing activities of gambling and drug dealing and other small criminals, Tonio is arrested and, once inside, know the great leaders of an organization called the "Sacra Corona Unita". His old comrades disappear or die, Tonio and becomes the undisputed boss of a criminal organization dismantled, later by the police. Again in prison, he was sentenced to 49 years in 1992. Start following the book written by himself titled "Fine pena mai", where talks about his life, as well as remorse for not having kept the promise made years earlier with his wife Daniela and son Alessio, to never leave them alone.

Just for the record: like the other organized crime groups in Italy they are from the South, although they also operate in the North, especially Milan.

http://onthenord.com/2011/04/27/la-sacra-corona-unita-sbarca-in-veneto/

The Sacra Corona Unita lands in Veneto

Posted on April 27th 2011
There is not only the 'Ndrangheta, the North. No, we also have the Sacra Corona Unita. According to what leaked by some investigative channels, The Apulian mafia would take advantage of the economic crisis to invest in the brick, in building companies and factories. The brick is a recurring item, but the methods of the United Sacred Crown are different: The method of penetration in the economy but it would be totally different from that used by the Sicilian Mafia, Camorra and Calabria n'drangheta bell. Nothing pizzo and violence, but business. The method to clean up the dirty money? Buy houses and apartments, using unexpected dummy, at auctions or bankruptcies of construction companies. The river of money - it was learned - would also be used to buy manufacturing activities. No coincidence that Marca would find in the home base of operations and a professional accountant from Bari, considered one of the cashiers of the mafia in Puglia. This would be an accounting officer, with no criminal record, but very close to the exponents of the Apulian criminal clans.
It does not end here, because the issue is also geographical, and it goes beyond national borders: The man, in addition to directing the affairs of the Northeast and in the province of Treviso, was also responsible for logistical coordination. He would liaise between the clan leaders were in Puglia and fugitives who have fled abroad. From what filtered from sources close to investigators, the fugitives of the Sacra Corona Unita would have chosen the republics of former Yugoslavia for his life, gold fugitives . One joint that lets you keep balances geographic relationships among members of the clan remained in Apulia and those forced to take refuge in Kosovo than in Montenegro, in countries which have already been able to weave relationships with local criminal organizations.



Raffaele Cutolo

http://www.understandingitaly.com/profile-content/sacracorona.html

The Sacra Corona Unita Unita operates in Puglia, southern Italy, and is especially active in the areas of Brindisi, Lecce and Taranto.
The organisation was founded in the late 1970s by Raffaele Cutolo, a Camorra boss who wanted to expand his operations into Puglia. When Cutolo was arrested, the Sacra Corona Unita continued on its own under new leadership. Having initially concentrated on extortion from the considerable olive oil and wine producing industries of Puglia, their operations developed to include drug trafficking and gun running. The Sacra Corona Unita has extensive alliances with other international criminal organisations such as the Russian and Albanian mafias, Colombian drug cartels, Chinese Triads, and Japanese Yakuza.
The organisation has three distinct levels, and members can graduate from one to another by performing 'Riti Battesimali' (Baptism Rites), a religious term probably harking back to the Camorra associations.
The 'Società Minore', which is the lowest level, is made of of low level criminals wanting to move up in the world. After a trial period lasting forty days, they can swear an oath of allegiance to the Sacra Corona Unita and, provided they are not already wanted by the police, they can become a 'Manovalanza' (Worker).
The 'Società Maggiore', the second level, is itself spilt into two parts: The first is 'Lo Squarro' which is earned once a member has killed three people on behalf of the Sacra Corona Unita. If he tries to leave the organisation afterwards, he will be killed.
The second is 'La Santa'. Once he attains this position he is given a gun. This is to shoot himself if he fails the organisation. In addition, he gets a cyanide pill; some cotton, which represents Monte Bianco which is considered sacred; a lemon to treat the wounds of his comrades; a needle to puncture the index finger of his right hand; handkerchiefs, which represent purity of spirit and a spartenza which is a gift of some sort, usually cigarettes.
The third and final level of the organisation is the 'Società Segreta', which is effectively the leadership of the Sacra Corona Unita.
The Sacra Corona Unita is made up of approximately 2,000 members spread over 50 clans. Their main activities now are smuggling cigarettes, drugs, arms, and people. They also collect money from other criminal groups for landing rights on the southeastern coast of Italy.

Puglia is a natural gateway for smuggling to and from post-Communist countries such as Croatia, Serbia, and Albania. Inevitably, the organisation is also involved in money laundering, extortion, and political corruption. However, a series of successful police operations have reduced the capacity of the organisation which had its heyday in the 1990s.

Is Cutolo really related to Wild Bill? saw it on wiki but cant trust everything they say.

i red some where about sacra corona unita that they have some big members from other secret societies like the illuminati and stuff

I doubt that Raffaele Cutolo is related to Wild Bill Cutolo, but I know that Don Raffaele said he was the godson of Vito Genovese.