Is the Trapani faction still the most powerful faction within the Sicilian mafia? I kinda get the idea that several Palermo clans are still plenty strong due to their American operations. Also some of the Agrigento clans are quite international in scope with links in North as well as South America.
Ndrangheta got tons of clans that are widespread. There's a well known clan that allegedly operates in my area. They're basically ghosts though, extremely low-key.
if we talk of factions, the families of the sicilian mafia are not all made up of relatives as in the ndrangheta, a better comparison would be between a single locale (de stefano for example) and a mafia mandamento (brancaccio for example) be widespread is just an indicator and not even the most important, the best indicators of power are politics connections, infiltration of economy and rooted in the territory... their main strength comes from being extremely rooted in the territory from which to operate i think the most powerful factions of the sicilian mafia are san lorenzo, misilmeri, san giuseppe jato, porta nuova and brancaccio mandamenti (palermo), the whole province of trapani, the rinzivillo family from gela, the santapaola family from catania and some agrigento mandamenti
Cheers. From what I read I always got the impression that Catania is a bit of "the runt of the litter" in the Sicilian mafia in that the mafia doesn't seem to have an iron grip over the territory over there - but I could be wrong of course. What state are the Stidda in these days? In the 90's there was a Stidda clan active in the French-speaking region of my country. They infiltrated the local economy quite well and were allegedly involved in a few disappearances.
