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.
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. "
