Italy dissolved the government of Corleone, the 'Godfather' home town, for mafia infiltration

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's government on Wednesday dissolved the municipal administration of Corleone, the Sicilian town known around the world as both a real and fictional stronghold of the mafia.

Corleone, which means "heart of the lion" in dialect, and three other local governments in southern Italy were disbanded by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government in a sign the country still grapples with organized crime in the 21st century.

Corleone was the hometown of Mario Puzo's fictional "Godfather", and also the real birthplace of Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina, two mafia chieftains who took control of Sicily's Cosa Nostra in the 1980s after a bloody mob war that some historians estimate left 1,000 people dead.

Riina and Provenzano, dubbed "The Beasts" for their brutal violence, were eventually tracked down and jailed for life. Provenzano died at age 83 last month, while the 85-year-old Riina remains in a high-security prison.

From 1991 through June of this year, 212 city governments had been dissolved in Italy for mafia infiltration. This is the first time Corleone's administration has been dissolved.

Cities are then managed by a government-appointed commissioner until new elections are held. The administrations of Arzano near Naples, and two Calabrian towns, Bovalino and Tropea, also were disbanded this week.

The criminal power of Sicily's Cosa Nostra has declined markedly over the past two decades as a result of a sweeping crackdown after the assassination of two prominent anti-mafia jurists in 1992, which shocked Italy. But Calabria's 'Ndrangheta mafia has grown in influence by making itself Europe's single-biggest importer of South American cocaine, investigators say.

Source: http://uk.businessinsider.com/italy-dissolves-godfather-town-corleones-government-over-mafia-2016-8

The decision was made after police discovered that a politician had allowed the mafiosi to use a sports center as a meeting place.

Out of topic question: Have you been able to access the other forum? I am getting SQL error.

Me too Strax, I don't expect it will be running again before the weekend.

Not that I am particulary interested in the italian mafia, but whatabout the current status of the Corleonesi?

I visited Corleone some fifteen years ago and the town struck me as a very sleepy little place. It was hard to imagine that this place produced the very clan who took out the whole top leadership of the sicilian mafia (the Parlermo families).

I thought their existence was pretty much extinct.

Well most of villages/little places in South Italy look like "very sleepy little place",you can say same thing for Calabria and Calabria produced most powerful criminal organization in the world('Ndrangheta).

Take a look at Siculiana,little place in Sicily with population around 4500,produced [BadWord]-Caruana,who were and still are very powerful clan not only in Sicily but in Canada too,their members are major drug traffickers.



Current boss of Corleone is Rosario Lo Bue,they have around 70 made members if i remember good.

Lo Bue is the boss, but Toto and his brother Gaetano Riina still have a major influence.

How do these guys make most of their money these days?

Extortion, construction, embezzlement of government funds? I know they're not as big in heroin as in the 80's..

Here
http://www.wikimafia.it/wp-content/uploa...a-confronto.pdf

Its said that the family had 74 made men but some are in jail and Salvatore Lo Bue are listed as boss after Provenzano arrest in 2006.

Billy they made money in the same was that you wrote and the heroin times are Gone now the cocaine is best for made ton of €€€.

sicily is also among the biggest producer of marijuana in europe they make a big amount of money from it

A carabiniere Silvio Miriarchi was woundend and killed by a marijuana plantation owner in marsala.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_...6d4251bc2b.html
Miriarchi was investigation on the weed plamtation in Marsala and the Near town.

the mafia attempts to murder the president of nebrodi park because nebrodi mountains are full of weed plantations

Gaetano Riina will be out in a few years he had replaced his brother and is also the point of reference for the Mazara del Vallo family, the Trapani city where Riina lived.
The Grizzaffi brothers, nephews of Salvatore Riina, also have a lot of support among dissidents who don't agree with Lo Bue.

When i visited Sicily three years ago, the Messina area, many people told me that the Albanians were massively taking over the weed business in Sicily and the southern part of Italy

There is no way this is true,they might be using Albanians but no one will ever take over in Sicily,Calabria or anywhere in South Italy expect Italians.

Not quite this clear cut. While it is maybe true for Sicily, Calabria and probably Campania, Sacra Corona Unita are definitely suffering the impact of Albanian smuggling gangs working in Apulia.

I gotta agree with johhnyboy here...

Remember the thing with the Rizzutos and the Spanish guy Fernandez? Remember the big thread on the Rizzutos, part of the discussion was whether or not JuanRamon Fernandez was made. I made the point that he was probably tolerated because he promised solid drug connects that the Sicilians needed. He was supposed to setup a weed and pill importation I believe. When that fell through, he tried to get land to grow on I believe. When he he proved himself incapable of doing what he said, compounded by not meeting with Rizzuto, he was whacked.

The only thing keeping him alive, I think was that they needed his connects. So I can see the Albanians moving in. There was an article posted awhile back about Sicilians " subcontracting" their retail drug work to African immigrants. So there does appear to be a weakening there. The slush fund from the pizzo, the street tax seems to be getting smaller.... That shit is like their labor union pension fund lol

As an aside I was in Apulia last week and on the way back to the airport stopped in Bari for a couple of hours. My family are from Palermo so i love the grittier cities in Italy & the bar we ended up sitting outside around midday was pretty edgy.

It was opposite a fairly run down housing block on edge of the historic centre. Some clearly drug-addled prostitute was standing nearby in an archway surrounded by a few guys who seemed to be going repeatedly in an out of a nearby grocers. After a while a guy with face tattoos cycled up and gave the woman a bag or something and she scuttled off. This presumed drug dealer hung around outside the bar for a bit before 3 massive men (height as well as muscles) showed up and started causing a bit of a scene. The were shouting in the face of the face-tattooed guy, although it seemed to be somehow slightly motivational rather than just out and out threatening (i couldn't make out the slang). Meanwhile a group of kids (no older than 13) were going in an out of the bar, continually bringing a battered old shoe box in and out the shop (drugs / money?).

Just then some older very average looking guy (5'10, 60ish, average build) came wandering down out of the housing block and the whole atmosphere changed. He just sat down on a chair opposite the bar but there was obviously some juice about him as all the massive, loudly attention-seeking thugs who'd been swaggering around the street bellowing at each other moments all immediately settled down or wandered off. And i mean stopped mid-sentence when i say settled down. The older guy just sat there happily chatting to a couple of little kids who'd been playing nearby, and he had absolutely no air of menace about him whatsoever. But he obviously must have had some juice to get that kind of reaction.

Anyway, there's no really point to this story other than i found the scene fairly interesting and thought I'd share it!

The mobsters in south italy left to the albanians or the blacks only the dirty job or few payed works,that it. If they would try to take something will be killed and replaced with more quite men.

Yes,i posted that article,its about Sicilian Mafia using immigrants to deal drugs on street corners etc. instead of using their own members and they don't give them guns.

@johnnyboysala: agree with you on Sacra Corona Unita,totally forgot about it,people from the Balkans love that Bar-Bari route.

there are not albanian gangs in sicily, maybe some in puglia, it's the opposite albanian weed in the latest year declined and the self-produced in sicily is growing very much

it is not correct, there are some nigerians drug dealers working for the mafia but even almost all the pusher are italian in southern italy

Strax check out the old mobbed up forum.