'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.

Roberto Pannunzi is also someone who made a lot of money during that same era.

Riina was recorded saying in 2013 that Di Matteo needs to be killed and blown up , like Falcone in the old days in Palermo. Shorty after that Riina received a letter that said: "Shut that damn mouth," letter was seized by prison authorities. In letter it also said "Remember that your family is free. We'll take care of the rest."

What was the motivation for Riina to do that? Even if he became boss of bosses again he would still be in prison at that time. He never learned from his mistakes.

Major police operation against the Stidda in Sicily and northern Italy ! They arrested 110 members and associates of a crime family led by the boss Bruno Di Giacomo, on charges of mafia association, drug trafficking, extortions, money laundering, frauds and other crimes. An organization that could count on 500 armed men, the so-called 'lions' in the wiretaps, a military potential able to unleash a mafia war at any time; assets worth 35 millions euros were seized.

It is a minority but there are still hard liners who believe in a frontal attack on the State.

Did the old school Palermo bosses really believe that the corleonesi were not men of honor or were they just aggravated because they were decimated and outsmarted? It is hard to say if they would be singing the same tune about the Corleonesi if they had won instead of lost.

And on top of everything why was Michele Greco scared of Riina if he had ruthless killers in his family just like the Corleonesi? Pino Greco is the leading example. I understand that the Corleonesi were very mysterious and most people in the mafia did not even know who their members were. In contrast, the mafiosi from Palermo were well known and easy to take out for Riina.

Dozens arrested in nationwide mafia operation
Some 35 million euros seized as 'Stidda' group targeted

(ANSA) - Rome, September 26 - Around 70 people were arrested and some 35 million euros in assets were seized on Thursday in a big nationwide anti-mafia operation by Italy's State police and finance police. The operated targeted a so-called Stidda mafia group based near Brescia.
It featured the arrest of bosses and 'foot soldiers' of the Di Giacomo mafia clan.

70 members arrested in brescia and other 40 in gela, the revenue agency director and several other businessmen linked to the clans arrested, it seems they had brescia in their hands

Hashish, marijuana and Cosa Nostra
Blitz in Borgo Vecchio, 18 arrests

PALERMO - "Love, a lot of chocolate is there yet at home?", Asked her husband to his wife. In reality they were not just spouses, but key figures in the organization of dealers with a base of operations in the Borgo Vecchio district, in Palermo. He is the head of the pusher network, she the "accountant" who kept a record of the "goods" in the warehouse and of the "stocks".

There are 23 pre-trial detention orders issued by the investigating judge and executed by the police officers of the “Palermo Centro” police station , coordinated by the mobile team . Eighteen people ended up in prison or under house arrest. The investigation is from the District Anti-Mafia Directorate. Hundreds of drug dealing episodes monitored by investigators in the heart of the popular district a few steps away from the nightclubs of the Via Libertà area.

Business was booming . The organization was structured on three levels: collectors with hashish and marijuana wholesalers, packers and pusher suppliers, pushers.

At the top of the hierarchy there were two married couples, who answered for their work to the mafia family. The rules were clear and strict, and whoever was wrong was punished.

There are three alarm situations that come out of the operation called "Push away" : the mass of drug users, the ease with which we buy supplies on the street, the involvement of minors for the transport of drugs (they were the children of couples who ran the organization).

Saturday 28 September 2019 - 07.12

I read that Palermo is still home to the most powerful mafia families. Why wouldn’t it be Trapani because of Denaro?

INQUIRY
Stidda and Cosa Nostra eternal rivals
"Ready for a new war"
by Riccardo Lo Verso

The recent interceptions reveal the risk of skipping the "Peace of Riesi"

PALERMO - The splinters "are keeping their heads open", said Ciro Di Palma , a drug trafficker from Campania. They went around with a high forehead, a typical attitude of someone who knows he is strong. The reason was simple: "... because tenon and deaf". The Stidda Gelese has huge sums of money to invest in illicit trade.

The power of money has allowed the gelesi splinters - compared to those of Camorra who challenged the leaders of Secondigliano - to fill the void left over the years by the Cosa Nostra families - Emmanuello and Rinzivillo above all - crippled by the arrests.

The head of the stiddari had become Bruno Di Giacomo , arrested in recent days in the blitz of the mobile team of Gela led by Marzia Giustolisi. Di Palma was the man who supplied his drugs. He also worked with the bosses of Cosa Nostra, but Di Giacomo paid better. Massimiliano Tomaselli, who was in charge of the Neapolitan drug canals , knew well that "war can break out here at any moment".

Cosa Nostra and Stidda fought each other since the 1980s. It was a carnage. Finally, in 1991, they signed the peace of Riesi. The stiddari were officially recognized. Sottotraccia addresses the danger of new conflicts. Thus emerges clearly from the words of Vincenzo Di Giacomo, brother of Bruno. Tale Pasquale, whom the investigators identify as Pasquale Trubia, "the man of Cosa Nostra", said around that as soon as the "lions" came out of the prison, the ground given over to the stiddari would have recovered by force .

Vincenzo Di Giacomo's reply was angry: "If we leave we eat the country ... we are five hundred ... Uncle Vincenzo does not need to wait for the lions ... there are lions outside ... the guns we have around us for shoot".

Saturday 28 September 2019 - 18:57

Drugs, coca and hashish from Argentina and Morocco: smash two gangs in Palermo

https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2...sh-two-gangs-in-palermo-.BJf4S5Px_H.html

How do the Italians deal with this new wave of immigrants invading their criminal territory?

Sicily’s ‘king of wind’ guilty of bankrolling top mafia fugitive
Windfarm entrepreneur given nine years for funding mafioso Matteo Messina Denaro

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ling-top-mafia-fugitive?CMP=share_btn_tw

Berlusconi to testify Nov 11 in State-mafia trial
Can reserve right to remain silent

(ANSA) - Palermo, October 3 - Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi was on Thursday called to testify November 11 in a case involving his jailed former aide Marcello Dell'Utri, but will have the right to remain silent, sources said.
Dell'Utri is a defendant in a trial into alleged negotiations between the State and Cosa Nostra in the early 1990s to stop a Mafia bombing campaign.
The former three-time premier and media mogul will be an "assisted witness", meaning he may remain silent but if he chooses to talk must tell the truth.
Berlusconi is being investigated by Florence prosecutors in relation to a series of Mafia bombings in 1993, sources said last month.
The news emerged after Berlusconi's lawyers presented documentation to a court after the media magnate was called to testify in the State-mafia talks trial.
Two previous probes into Berlusconi and the bombings were shelved.
The ex-premier's lawyers, Franco Coppi and Nicolo' Ghedini, said in a statement that the fact Berlusconi was named as being under investigation was a formality, adding they were confident this probe would be closed too.
From May to August 1993, five car bomb attacks in Rome, Florence and Milan killed ten people and injured dozens. In addition to the Uffizi, the targets were two venerable Roman churches - San Giovanni in Laterano and San Giorgio in Velabro - and a modern art gallery in Milan.
A powerful bomb also exploded near the home of a television talk show host, Maurizio Costanzo, a vocal Mafia opponent.
Costanzo escaped unharmed.
The previous year, 1992, Cosa Nostra bombs killed anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

immigrants are not seen as competitors, they are involved in petty crimes only, they are very useful for them because a police distraction, they deal drugs on the streets taking all the risks and they don't care if arrested being not members, and also the mafia groups manage most of camp refugee centers in the south

Borsellino massacre, there is a new suspect: the doctor Cinà.
He was the doctor of Totò Riina, the man of the "papello"

https://palermo.repubblica.it/crona...oto_riina_l_uomo_del_papello_-237584289/

Mafia, Messina Denaro's brother-in-law accused of a fictitious header
04 October 2019
mafia, marsala, Gaspare Como, Matteo Messina Denaro, Trapani, Chronicle

A trial was begun in front of the Court of Marsala, which for fictitious heading of assets in competition with Gaspare Como, 51, a clothing merchant, brother-in-law of the mafia boss fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro. With Gaspare Como, again for fictitious heading, two other castelvetranesi are imputed: Giuseppe and Anna Maria Orlando, brother and sister, respectively 51 and 40 years old.

According to the indictment, Como allegedly attributed to the "Lega Costruzioni srl", formally administered by Anna Maria Orlando and in fact run by Giuseppe Orlando, the ownership of his villa in the seaside village of Triscina, which would have been "secretly" purchased by his brother-in-law of MessinaDenaro for 160 thousand euros in cash. The Orlando family then sold the villa's availability in Como with a "fictitious lease agreement".

All this, for the investigators, in order to avoid any confiscation by the State. The trial is a rib of the investigation "Annozero" that always before the Court of Marsala sees Gaspare Como accused, with others, by mafia association. According to the DDA, in fact, Matteo Messina Denaro attributed the role of "regent" of the mafia family to Como. (HANDLE)

https://trapani.gds.it/articoli/cro...ia-0a472298-2b18-40cd-86b6-2f187b368435/

10/07/2019 08:36:00
Mafia, Giovanni Brusca asks to serve his sentence under house arrest
According to the national anti-mafia prosecutor, after twenty-three years of imprisonment Giovanni Brusca can finish serving his sentence under house arrest. And on the basis of this opinion, for the first time the killer of Capaci, the man who ordered to seize and then kill and dissolve in acid the son of the repentant Santo Di Matteo, who in his turn became a collaborator of justice after the capture in the 1996, tries to overturn yet another refusal by the surveillance court. He turned to the Court of Cassation, and the first penal section will meet today to decide on the appeal presented by the lawyer Antonella Cassandro, who with his colleague Manfredo Fiormonti assists the former mafia boss.

https://www.tp24.it/2019/10/07/anti...scontare-pena-arresti-domiciliari/140254

Who is the boss of the corleonesi today? Would it be Riina’s son?

I think its Salvatore Lo Bue. His father was with Michele Navarra back in the 1950's

Yes Rosario Salvatore Lo Bue is the boss of the Corleone mandamento still one of the largest families. According to police wiretaps, Lo Bue told Riina's sons to stay away because he was named the boss of the family and member of the Provincial Commission.

The new guard doesn’t have the same strategy as Riina once did. Or so it seems.

The corleonesi were once the most powerful. How far back did they fall after Riina and Provenzano were captured?

The new dome of the mafia: who are the 64 bosses at trial in Palermo
09 October 2019
mafia, Calogero Lo Piccolo, Leandro Greco, Settimo Mineo, Palermo, Cronaca

The preliminary hearing will begin on November 4 in Palermo, in the presence of Rosario Di Gioia, of 64 defendants, including bosses and soldiers, accused in various capacities of having taken part in the project to rebuild the new "dome" of our thing, attempt thwarted by the carabinieri and the Dda, with the "Cupola 2.0" operation of last December. The news is an article by Sandra Figliuolo in the Giornale di Sicilia .

Here are the 64 who will have to appear at the hearing on November 4th: Settimo Mineo, Filippo Bisconti, Francesco Colletti (the latter two decided to collaborate immediately after his arrest), Stefano Albanese, Giusto Amodeo, Filippo Annatelli, Gioacchino Badagliacca, Giuseppe Bonanno, Giovanni Cancemi, Francesco Caponetto, Giuseppe Costa, Maurizio Crinò , Filippo Cusimano, Rubens D'Agostino, Gregorio Di Giovanni, Filippo Di Pisa, Andrea Ferrante, Antonino Francesco Fumuso, Vincenzo Ganci, Michele Grasso, Simone La Barbera, Marco La Rosa, Gaetano Leto, Michele Madonia, Giusto Francesco Mangiapane, Matteo Maniscalco , Luigi Marino, Pietro Merendino, Fabio Messicati Vitale, Giovanni Salvatore Migliore, Rosolino Mirabella, Salvatore Mirino, Massimo Mulè, Domenico Nocilla, Nicolò Orlando, Salvatore Pispicia, Stefano Polizzi, Gaspare Rizzuto, Salvatore Sciarabba, Salvatore Sorrentino, Giusto and Vincenzo Sucato,Salvatore Troia, Leandro Greco, Calogero Lo Piccolo, Giovanni Sirchia, Carmelo Cacocciola, Erasmo Lo Bello, the builder Pietro Lo Sicco, Giuseppe Serio, Antonio Matteo Maranto, Giacomo Alaimo, Salvatore Ferrante, Giusto Giordano, Salvatore Giuseppe Ingenio, Francesco Gambino, Giovanna Comito, Andrea Mirino, Umberto Maiorana and two other pentiti, Domenico Mammi and Sergio Macaluso.

https://palermo.gds.it/articoli/cro...-9969-26d496083ae4/#.XZ4gDBZ-Hnw.twitter