I posted about this, figured I'd pick you guys brains too....

What's the deal with this grape racket?




LiveSicily


Written by Riccardo Lo Verso
on 03 February 2021 - 06:02

The mafia and the grape deal: millionaire earnings and laundered money
The intertwining of bosses from Agrigento, Palermo 'escaped', stiddari and Americans
PALERMO - There are areas of Sicily where the bosses share a few hundred euros collected with lace. In Agrigento and its surroundings, however, far from the spotlight, the mafiosi make millionaire deals by selling table grapes in Italy and around the world.

A business so profitable that it has disturbed the Gambino mafia family of New York, ready to launder mountains of dirty money.

The matchmaker of the mafia

The district chief of Canicattì Calogero Di Caro, one of those arrested yesterday in the blitz of the carabinieri del Ros , had indicated the name of a broker to whom all, or almost all, producers of grapes and other fruit and vegetables had to contact for the marketing of the goods . The mafia profits from the mediation imposed by the families of Ravanusa, Canicattì and Campobello di Licata. You risk little, you earn a lot. Nothing to do with protection money and drug trafficking.

A triumvirate dictates the law

The seventy-year-old Di Caro had entrusted the management to a triumvirate made up of Luigi Boncori, Giancarlo Buggea and Giuseppe Giuliana.
Now the prosecutors of Palermo will move on to the next investigative step to understand if the entrepreneurs suffer the imposition of the matchmaker, who collects a percentage between 1 and 3 percent, or are conniving because the mafia sponsors serve to beat the competition.

The stiddari

At the business table, as the carabinieri del Ros have reconstructed, sit historical families such as the Pace and have done everything to settle down again the stiddari led by Antonio Gallea, who have been living in prison for having had Rosario Livatino killed and for some years in semi-liberty. There is a truce between the Cosa Nostra and Stidda.

The business was discussed in the privileged place for the meetings, the office of lawyer Angela Porcelli, Buggea's partner . It emerged clearly that for each mediation, 500 thousand euros were collected. There is talk of tons of products sold around the world where the made in Sicily brand works a lot and people appreciate the goodness of our local products.

The Gambinos of New York

For years the exponents of the Gambino of New York who have sent emissaries to Sicily have sniffed the business. The Villabatese Simone Castello was also very interested, broadening his horizons after being the postman of Bernardo Provenzano during the inaction of the Corleonese godfather.

More than 60 years after the presence of Giuseppe Settecasi, the only representative of the entire Sicilian Cosa Nostra at the Apalachin meeting which in 1957 gathered all the mafia families of America, the Agrigento mafia still has solid contacts overseas.

The 'escaped'

Some people from Agrigento have left for America in recent years, while Buggea discussed it with Franco Inzerillo, boss of the Passo di Rigano district of Palermo, before the latter ended up in prison again. Inzerillo was one of the first during the mafia war to flee to America to escape the fury of Totò Riina's Corleonesi and among the first to return to Sicily.

A half-billion surety
The American emissaries of the Gambinos have come to Favara to propose to launder mountains of money by exporting grapes around the world, but also by activating a company that must clean up the money by simulating fictitious purchases. He said he had seen the documents of the Buggea company to obtain a surety of 500 million. There is also talk of insolvent companies where mountains of money flow and then make them fail once the recycling operation is completed.

And again he knew of "an impressive traffic for now in Kosovo". A traffic where he plays a decisive role "a golden boy, white hair, long hair ... who is Totuccio Inzerillo's cousin".

Dirty money from Singapore
Not only from Kosovo, the dirty money leaves Singapore and at the end of a long tour they land in Sicily. Buggea knows of movements to start business within the port of Catania, while illegal activities are already underway in other Sicilian cities overlooking the sea.

Which? The Agrigento mafia keep the secrets that the DDA of Palermo is trying to decrypt. No lace and drugs, there are bosses who make lots of money with fruit and vegetables. A circumstance that has already emerged by studying the moves of Frank Calì. "Franky boy", murdered in March 2019, had contacts with the mafia families of Palermo, Trapani and Agrigento. He first of all exploited kinship.

He was married to Rosaria Inzerillo, sister of Pietro, one of the refugees. On January 14, 1982, a New Jersey police officer received an anonymous phone call. A voice told him to go to the Hilton on Mount Laurel because there was a bomb inside a car. And instead in the trunk they found the frozen corpse of Pietro Inzerillo, brother-in-law of Frank Calì

The Inzerillos and the death of Frank boy
Over the years the Inzerillos have returned to the hamlet of Passo di Rigano, in Palermo, not without fibrillation. In 1997 Francesco Inzerillo, known as u truttaturi, son of Pietro, was expelled from the United States and forcibly returned to Italy. In 2014, cousin Tommaso also returned to Palermo. Both were arrested in the 2006 Gotha blitz. Francesco was released from prison in October 2011 and Tommaso in November 2013.
The escape season is now closed if it is true that Settimo Mineo, the elderly boss of Pagliarelli who presided over the new dome of Cosa Nostra which met last May, had met his Inzerillo cousins. Before being arrested, Mneo himself was planning a trip to America.

Written by Riccardo Lo Verso
on 03 February 2021 - 06:02

Also, WAS Settecassi at Appalachian? The Italians seem to think he was definitely there, which is actually kinda curious. No Palermo boss? Or Trapani? But Agrigento?

He did travel a lot to the US and Canada.
Mafia boss Carmelo Colletti, connected with the Corleonesi, ordered the murder Settecasi and his lieutenant Leonardo Caruana. He wanted the other Cuntreras and Caruanas out of the way as well. However, it was Colletti who was killed in 1983.

The Agrigento clans have a huge international presence tbh.
The Trapani mafia is extremely powerful in Sicily itself, but of we're talking in an international context, the Agrigento clans spread throughout Western Europe and the Americas as wildfire. Not too long ago there were a few mafia arrests in my area and it concerned two clans from Favara.

I'm pretty sure it was Provenzano that 'washed the hands' for lack of a better term, regarding the Inzerillo, etc. Basically, paving the way from them and whoever else to return to Sicily.

Outside of Denaro, is there any CN members that can be traced to the Corleonesi? Denaro, was under both Riina and Provenzano, I believe, which in 'time and space', is like a different world in Sicily. Denaro is still in his 50's, which compared to LeoLuca Bagarella who was with Leggio, is in his late 70's. At one point it's war with State and now it's listening to guys like Johnny Bravo, tells Sicilians in Sicily he is made, by a Sicilian.

Also Hamilton, Canada, had/has a large community of Agrigento Sicilians in it, one of the originals with Rocco Perri and Railway St, was Calogero Bordonaro, he was from Racalmuto.

I read an article that maybe one of the Iavarones were with the Gambinos/Inzerillo via LA, the Agrigento link is something I never thought of, probably not important either way? Rizzutos are Agrigento based Siclians, as well.

Same with Detroit, large Agrigento Sicilian community, and now it has been reported that Detroit has a crew operating in Ontario, business nevertheless.

sure is it grape racket only? i just ask, there is sure something else behind, sicily is right now a huge marijuana producer

Well, this isn't accurate, is it?

"And instead in the trunk they found the frozen corpse of Pietro Inzerillo, brother-in-law of Frank Calì."

I think they might be referring to the Pietro Inzerillo that was found in Jersey in 81 after John Gambino met with Riina to stop the massacre of the Inzerillos and allow them to live in the U.S. Nino Inzerillo went missing and was presumed murder a month or two before that. Cali's brother in law Pietro is still alive.

Also, I would imagine if you think about what the government picked up on wiretap during that 90s trial where they claimed there was talk about the "wine matter" which they said referred to heroin, there could be a variety of reasons why they decided to move into the grape racket.

Plus, before everything fell apart, Rizzuto, Gambino, Cuntrera and many more big name guys were all involved in business together in Venezuela via a buttload of industries from farming to clothing to everything in between. So, it would make sense that the families might come together again in a different location and via different businesses, grapes being one.

~Lisa B

Also...anytime I try to translate pizzi it always comes up as "lace" as above. I'm guessing via context it's extortion?? But sometimes in articles you'll see a list of crimes that will include both pizzi and extortion when translated. So what is the correct English translation, if anyone here knows? ~LisaB

My guess is that when the author differentiates "pizzo" from "extortion", it means that pizzo refers strictly to the weekly or monthly payment a business has to pay while extortion is more about a one time thing. We know that, sometimes, the mob will try to extort a pretty large sum from someone instead of asking him for a monthly payment.

Makes total sense. Thanks, Malavita. ~LisaB

Il pizzo would be a masculine word in Italian, so the plural form would be i pizzi, you tend add i to the end of masculine words and e to plural words that are feminine. If I remember correctly lol, there are of course exceptions.

Messina Denaro is the boss of bosses Agrigento, Trapani, Palermo, Catania he has people all over Sicily.

The shadow of Frank Cali is still over these cases, the guy was a major player and killed by some QAnon guy???