Because of the high demand for all kinds of illegal drugs the vast drug trafficking in Europa has only become bigger and bigger.

The investigating judge of the court of Caltanissetta, at the request of the prosecutor, closed the investigation against Antonino Cinà, the doctor of Totò Riina, who was accused of having also played a role in the massacre of via D'Amelio.

The judge considered the accusations made against the boss of San Lorenzo, in Palermo, already convicted in the first instance for the state-mafia negotiation and who is serving a life sentence for some murders, totally inconsistent.

His involvement was also born from the statements of Massimo Ciancimino, who was considered completely unreliable.

Italy’s high court says a doctor who was secretly flown to France to operate on Bernardo Provenzano was killed to keep him quiet

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mafia...ted-cosa-nostra-boss-bernardo-provenzano

Spatuzza's story: "Synergy between 'Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra for the massacres"
February 22, 2021

"Both the Calabrians and the Neapolitans were involved hands, feet and head in the massacres." To say it was the collaborator of justice Gaspare Spatuzza, the former boss of the Brancaccio district of Palermo, heard in the Rinascita Scott trial underway in the bunker room of Lamezia Terme against the 'Ndrangheta clans of the Vibonese. A very important deposition given the criminal caliber of the character. Spatuzza is the man who stole the Fiat 126 which on 19 July 1992 was used as a car bomb in the Via d'Amelio massacre in which judge Paolo Borsellino was killed. Co-opted by Salvatore Grigoli, he was among the material perpetrators of the murder of Don Pino Puglisi, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a final sentence. He was also convicted of another 40 murders including those of Giuseppe and Salvatore Di Peri, Marcello Drago, Domingo Buscetta (nephew of the repentant historian of Cosa Nostra, Tommaso). On 23 November 1993 he kidnapped little Giuseppe Di Matteo,

Spatuzza spoke of "massacre synergy between the Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta" referring to the three attacks in Calabria between December and January 1993/1994, against three carabinieri patrols, one of which cost the lives of two soldiers. "Even in Naples there was a massacre project because explosives had been sent".

"We were in Rome and we were waiting for the definitive input from Giuseppe Graviano to act and Graviano on that occasion said that we had to hurry up to carry out the attack because the Calabrians had moved" said Spatuzza among other things, referring to the failed attack against the carabinieri in public order service at the Olympic stadium in Rome. The attack failed due to a fault in the remote control that was supposed to trigger a car bomb ready to explode when the carabinieri bus passed. The collaborator, answering the questions of the public prosecutor of the Catanzaro DDA Annamaria Frustaci, also reported on an episode that took place in the Tolmezzo prison: Spatuzza reports to Filippo Graviano about the complaints of the Calabrians and Neapolitans regarding the harsh prison, born following the season of the massacres that was attributed to the Sicilians and the Graviano in particular. To which, said the collaborator, Graviano replies "it is good for these gentlemen to talk to their fathers to understand what happened".

Spatuzza also retraced the relationship between the Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta recalling that in the 1980s the two Notargiacomo brothers were hosted in the Euromare tourist village owned by the Graviano family. Of the two brothers, Spatuzza recalls that «one was wounded in a war within the Calabrian families. The Notargiacomos were friends of Antonio Marchese, brother-in-law of Leoluca Bagarella ». The collaborator also reported on the links between the Calabrian clans Molè-Piromalli with the Graviano family and with «Mariano Agate, head of the mafia family of Mazara del Vallo, to whom Giuseppe Graviano had given 500 million of the old lire to fix a trial. The Graviano brothers - he added - had moved for the Graviano family. Mariano Agate acted as an intermediary, who held the Calabrians very much in consideration ».

Mafia, the children of the "escaped" and the bosses released from prison are back: the alarm of the Dia

The escaped are back. The mafia is experiencing moments of "great operational caution and is trying to close ranks also by re-admitting to its ranks the new generations of the 'escaped' from the mafia war of the 1980s as well as benefiting from the release of elderly affiliates who have served long prison sentences ".

This was revealed in the latest half-yearly report by Dia. For such a structured organization, unlike others, notes Dia, "the reintegration of affiliates who have been imprisoned with 'honor', that is, without repenting, usually takes place without trauma or conflict even in the awareness that the return to the territory of these subjects increases the prestige of the mafia organization ".

The surveys highlight the propensity of the clans "to recover relations with their historical offshoots abroad more effectively. Recent, in particular, is evidence of a significant revitalization of contacts with overseas families , which have emerged with reference to the dynamics of both Palermo and Agrigento ".

The cornerstones around which the criminal mafia activities revolve are always the same: extortion and usury, drug trafficking and management of drug dealing, control of legal and illegal gambling, pollution of the economy of the territories, especially in the construction sectors. , earthmoving, procurement of inert materials, waste disposal, energy production, transport and agriculture.
Often this is accomplished through the infiltration or conditioning of local authorities, also making use of the complicity of corrupt politicians and officials.

Dia: '' Catania, a crucial hub for drug trafficking ''

"The structure of the criminal organizations in the Sicilian territory is heterogeneous, highlighting in the western part of the island 'families' that are more rigidly structured and anchored to the reference territory, while in the central-eastern part there are more fluid and flexible associations". This is what emerges from the Dia's six-monthly report, presented to Parliament, regarding the analysis of the mafia phenomenon and its evolutionary profiles in Sicily in 2020.
According to what emerges from the Report of the Dia, the Catania mafia landscape is firmly anchored to historical and consolidated criminal organizations. "It continues to maintain an undisputed hegemony in the entire eastern part of the island, including the Peloritana area - Nebroidea, as well as in certain areas of the Ennese". Furthermore, Cosa Nostra Catania still maintains a pyramid structure even today. Anchored in a vertical position are the Cosa Nostra Etna families of the Santapaola-Ercolano , the Mazzei , the La Rocca and the Ramacca families . At the intermediate level, however, "there is the presence of highly organized associations, such as that of the Cappello-Bonaccorsi and the Laudani, while the organization is based on the affiliates of the Pillera and Sciuto clans , Cursoti , Piacenti and Nicotra , partly incorporated into the better organized mafia families ”.
Dia also pays particular attention to the drug trafficking of Cosa Nostra in Catania. A criminal sector that has always been of greater interest and profitability for mafia organizations. The investigative activities conducted in the semester, in fact, "confirm that drug trafficking and dealing continues to be one of the main criminal activities, as well as the collaboration between Catania factions, clans from Campania and Calabrian 'ndrine, as well as a consolidated exchange of relations with Malta ".

Thanks Hollander, anyone still saying that the Sicilian Mafia isn't still a force to be reckoned with needs to slap themselves.

I never heard anyone say that , they are not powerful as they were in the 1980's but they are still one of top organized crime groups in the world for sure

Oh I've seen bunches of people say that, especially on YouTube. I don't know how exactly their power compares to the 1980s, but just about every economic corner you turn in Sicily they're there. Construction, waste management, finance, banking, trucking, produce market, oil and gas, wind energy, politics, literally everything. And of course drugs, loansharking, extortion, gambling, shit like that. Even those anti-racket people are oftentimes in cahoots, pretending to be taking a stand against organized crime.

Yep, the Sicilians have also expanded to many countries in the world albeit not as wide spread as 'Ndrangheta. But they have a presence in the US, Canada, Africa, South-America, in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland.

Hey Hollander! Do you know of any links to the latest DIA report?

IDK CG, I only found articles with some info not the whole report send to Parliament.

The new Sicily-New York axis
The key word for deciphering what is happening is "alliances". What worries the investigators most is the "renewed" pact with the American "cousins". With a view to "overcoming" the divisions between past winners and losers. Dia recalls that four of the five Mafia families in New York (Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese and Colombo) are originally from Palermo and its province, the fifth, that of the Bonanno, has roots in Castellammare del Golfo, Trapani. In recent months, there has been a lot of business ambassadors coming and going, it is not yet clear which ones. The investigations of the Palermo prosecutor's office intercepted two agrigentini mafia while talking about the visit of an emissary of the Gambino family: he was looking for a large company in crisis, to be filled with "money that comes from Singapore" and then to fail with a crash. A large recycling operation, exploiting the crisis in a striking way.

Wow, imagine how intriguing that would be, all 5 Families going back to their roots, becoming more Sicilian than American.

Have you seen this article? It's about the Sinaloa cartel trying to establish an " office" in Catania...


INVESTIGATIONS · INSIDE THE SINALOA CARTEL’S MOVE TOWARD EUROPE
Inside the Sinaloa Cartel’s Move Toward Europe
A figurine of Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, at a souvenir stand in Sinaloa, Mexico. El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and was long considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. Credit: Forbidden Stories
by Cecilia Anesi and Giulio Rubino (IrpiMedia)
15 December 2020

Police agencies have long known that Mexican drug cartels help supply Europe’s nearly US$10 billion annual cocaine habit, but acknowledge they have little idea about the workings of these highly organized and well-financed operations.

But now, a recent Italian police investigation, code-named Operation Halcon, has provided the most in-depth look yet into how Mexico’s leading drug traffickers, the Sinaloa Cartel, do business in Europe. IrpiMedia, OCCRP’s Italian partner, obtained access to police files and surveillance reports that show the cartel’s methods in unprecedented detail.

About This Report
This article was produced in collaboration with “The Cartel Project,” an investigation coordinated by Paris-based Forbidden Stories. It involves 60 journalists from 25 organizations in 18 countries and involves various aspects of Mexican cartel violence, including the murders of journalists in Veracruz state. Forbidden Stories is a nonprofit group dedicated to continuing the work of journalists silenced by homicide.

Operation Halcon started in early 2019, at a time when Europe was being flooded with cocaine from Latin America. The Sinaloa Cartel, a global leader in cocaine sales with operations in at least 50 countries, was looking for new routes into Italy as a way to expand its European presence. Mexican cartels already sold synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine on the continent, but Colombian, Albanian, and Italian organized crime have historically dominated Europe’s cocaine trade.

Most drugs arrive in Europe by ship, usually to large ports with good connections to other major cities. Sinaloa wanted to establish another route: Bulk shipment by private planes flying into small airports in Southern Italy, with the drugs then trans-shipped to other parts of the country.

Catania, a mid-size city on Sicily’s eastern coast, was chosen for a test. The area, which was rapidly becoming a tourist destination, offered an international airport and a special draw: an airport official willing to help.

The Informant
The cartel’s plan didn’t stay secret for long. The Organized Crime Investigation Group (GICO), the anti-mafia unit of Italy’s financial police in Catania, learned from an informant in January 2019 that Sinaloa was planning to fly in cocaine from Colombia.

The tip seemed odd. Catania isn’t known as a hub for international drug trafficking, and direct drug flights using private planes are generally unknown in Italy. Catania–Fontanarossa Airport had only limited international service, while the local port sees relatively little commercial traffic.


Credit: Notiziecatania/Pixabay
Catania from above, with Mt. Etna in the background.
But the local head of the GICO, Captain Pablo Leccese, took the report seriously. In less than three months, the unit identified the cartel’s players in southern Italy: Guatemalans Daniel “Tito” Esteban Ortega Ubeda and Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez. The airport insider was identified only by his nickname, Don Señor.

investigations/Felix-Villagran.jpg
Credit: Guardia di Finanza
Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez.
Ortega and Villagran were working with another Guatemalan, Luis Fernando Morales Hernandez, alias “El Suegro,” or “The Father-in-Law,” who would make arrangements for the shipment in Colombia.

The police informant added more names to the file. The cell operating in Catania was under the direction of a shadowy Sinaloa leader known as “El Flaco,” or “Skinny,” whom police identified as second-in-command of the entire cartel after drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia.

El Flaco was soon to meet Don Señor to work out the logistics for handling the cocaine flight and the distribution of its cargo to buyers from various organized crime groups who would come for it.

The Italian police would be waiting for them.


Credit: Aurélien Sesmat
On June 1, 2019, El Flaco landed in Catania with a female companion. After the couple checked in at the luxury seaside Romano Palace Hotel, the police learned his real name for the first time: José Angel Rivera Zazueta.

The following day El Flaco, Don Señor, and their associates met in a hotel restaurant to go over the plan. A private plane would fly from Mexico to Cartagena, Colombia, where it would be loaded with cocaine. After refueling in Cape Verde, it would land in Catania, where Don Señor would shift the drugs to a vehicle, avoid customs, and head to northern Italy — likely to Verona.

Two elements of the plan were a surprise to the financial police: The contraband was to be flown by a pilot usually entrusted with similar tasks by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the legendary former Sinaloa leader. And the size of the “test” was staggering.

“We know this Sinaloa cell had already imported cocaine to Europe and that they already had 1.5 tons of cocaine ready to be sent after a couple of hundred kilos of trial,” Leccese told IrpiMedia.

On arrival in Italy, the drugs would be sold to the Calabrian mafia, the ’Ndrangheta, which is widely considered to be Europe’s most powerful cocaine distributor. Mafia involvement made sense. Sinaloa is known to forge partnerships with existing organizations, rather than trying to steamroll its way into new markets.

Cops bugged a restaurant where the narco traffickers would meet, and settled in to listen. What they heard was a revelation. Italian law enforcement seldom gets an inside look at Mexican cartels, but now El Flaco was laying it all out for his associates, unaware that his tutorials were reaching the ears of the police.

Catania police heard boasts of 35 small planes each week leaving Venezuela to Chetumal, a resort town on the border of Mexico and Belize. Each allegedly carried 500 to 800 kilograms of cocaine — more than half of the world’s total annual cocaine production — and all with the blessing of the Venezuelan military.

The flights likely came from San Felipe, in northwest Venezuelan state of Zulia, where there are so many traffickers that locals call their town “Sinaloa,” according to the InSightCrime website.

The restaurant talk also turned to more personal news. The traffickers spoke about Villagran’s family, which was said to handle two to three tons of cocaine per month. They spoke of “El Sordo” (The Deaf), who is now part of Mexico’s Guardia Nacional, and of “El Calvo” (The Bald), a key cartel operative in Canada.

Tales were told about El Flaco’s two girlfriends, one a relative of the late drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and about his father, who supposedly owned thousands of currency exchange shops, as well as his alleged contacts in the CIA.

Although the Italian investigators couldn’t confirm much of the restaurant talk, they were fascinated.

Credit: Amrai Coen
A Sinaloa Cartel member testing a weapon after repairing it in a small town in Sinaloa, Mexico.
A Little “Help” From the Police
In mid-June, the informant told police that El Flaco had a 300-kilogram test shipment ready in Colombia and would send it to Catania as soon as the cartel could line up a facilitator in Cartagena.

On June 18, Don Señor met the cartel members in Rome. As police listened in, El Flaco offered to follow the test run with another 1,500 kilograms via private jet from Cartagena, through Mexico, to Catania.

But the cartel encountered unforeseen problems. It had trouble finding someone in Cartagena to facilitate the shipment. The whole operation was accumulating delays.

So the police decided to “help” them.

Working with the Antidrug Central Directorate, a police body that coordinates antidrug operations in Italy, and the Italian antidrug attache in Bogotá, Captain Leccese brought in two Latino informants based in Italy, code-named Rodriguez and El Cholo, along with a Colombian Dirección de Antinarcóticos undercover officer, known as Lucas, to pose as drug dealers.

In late August, Villagran and Morales took El Cholo and Lucas to meet suppliers in the mountains in southern Colombia’s Cauca region. After passing through a checkpoint, where they were likely photographed, they reached a place in the jungle where traffickers confiscated their cellphones. From there, they walked through the jungle to a cocaine refinery.


Credit: Guardia di Finanza
Cocaine prepared by Colombian suppliers.
El Abuelo, “The Grandfather,” a former member of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, showed them around, displaying drugs being cooked and shipments ready to go out.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez was halfway around the world, meeting El Flaco in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Police in Catania had learned that El Flaco lived mainly in Asia, where he managed an important part of the cartel’s synthetic drug business.

The undercover operation soon encountered logistical problems of its own. The Colombian cocaine cooks delayed shipment to the cartel until October. Still more time was lost when a national strike closed Colombia’s airports.

Once again, the Italian and Colombian police stepped in to help. The informant, El Cholo, offered to provide a “better alternative” using his contacts at the Bogotá airport to place the drugs on an airline flight.

The Delivery
Finally, on January 9, 2020, around 400 kilograms of cocaine arrived in Catania aboard a passenger flight. Don Señor moved it to a safe house at the edge of the city.

Don Señor, Ortega, Rodriguez, and El Cholo were on their way to inspect the cargo when El Flaco called from Cancun for an update. Again, police listened in as Ortega checked the shipment and produced El Flaco’s written instructions about how the drug should be distributed.

“So the compensation is 32,” he said, referring to the number of cocaine bricks Don Señor would get for his labor. That much cocaine would be worth nearly $1 million in Europe.

“The compensation is better than a payment,” Rodriguez said with a laugh.

Cartels like to compensate collaborators outside their organization by giving them product, rather than money. Cash payments would mean the smugglers would have to divulge business information, such as profits, to outsiders.

“My uncle told me he needs 20 in Genoa,” Ortega continued. “And we need three in Verona if possible.”

Again, the traffickers’ work didn’t go smoothly. An emissary of a Chinese criminal organization based near Milan but with ties to Mexico, already angry at the delayed delivery, demanded a kilogram to test. If his organization liked the quality, he would want 50 kilograms upfront.

The Mexicans stalled. “Charlie,” an Italian working for a mysterious figure referred to only as “Tocayo,” was their priority for this load because he wanted to make a far bigger purchase.

The plan, Ortega told El Flaco in a call, was to take three kilograms to Charlie in Verona, followed by deliveries of 20 kilograms at a time, for a total sale of up to 300 kilograms.

On January 16, Ortega and Villagran flew to Verona to meet “El Arquitecto,” an important cartel figure who was coming from Mexico to oversee the sale, and met Don Señor, who had brought his order. Again, Italian police managed to listen in.

investigations/Felix-and-Tito-Verona.jpg
Daniel “Tito” Esteban Ortega Ubeda and Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez in Verona, where they traveled from southern Italy for a cocaine deal.
An indictment later filed in Catania describes El Arqui as El Flaco’s representative, sent to guarantee the quality of the Sinaloa cocaine. Villagran told his associates that El Arqui wanted to test the product before delivering it.

But the traffickers couldn’t catch a break. El Arqui and Charlie were delayed by snow. On January 22, they reached Milan and went straight to meet the buyer, Charlie’s boss. Later, they delivered 35,000 euros for the initial three kilograms to Ortega and Villagran near Verona.

Italy’s Financial Police, who were watching both groups all along, arrested Ortega and Villagran in Verona. They were charged with international drug trafficking and distribution and taken into custody, but have not yet been put on trial.

The ’Ndrangheta
The police also set up a roadblock as an excuse to stop the Milan contingent’s Mercedes E350 and identify — but not arrest — El Arqui and Charlie.

El Arqui proved to be Jalisco-born Salvador Ascensio Chavez. Charlie is Mauro Da Fiume, an Italian from San Remo. Both are experienced drug traffickers.

Records obtained by The Cartel Project show that El Arqui, identified by Canada’s iNFOnews as a Mexican architect married to a Canadian, served a three-year prison term in Canada after being convicted for importing 2.2 kilograms of cocaine in 2001. His record was erased after he was granted a pardon.

In 2010, El Arqui was caught smuggling 97 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a fruit-grinding machine imported from Argentina, and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in 2014. In 2017 he was granted release and deported to Mexico.

In a Canadian parole board document, authorities summarize El Arqui’s admission of guilt and his promise to go straight: “You admitted associating with cartels and/or organized crime in Mexico,” the Canadians wrote. “You told the Board that you have a large positive community support in your country and are planning to design and build homes.”

The document doesn’t mention plans to supervise Sinaloa cocaine sales in Europe.


A map put together by Italian authorities investigating Mauro Da Fiume, an experienced Italian drug trafficker.
Da Fiume owned a restaurant and two import-export companies in Barcelona. His involvement in the deal suggests the drugs were destined for one or more ’Ndrangheta clans.

Spanish police arrested da Fiume on February 4 on behalf of Catania authorities for being part of a “criminal association aimed at drug trafficking and possession” which planned to move “huge amounts of cocaine” through “a criminal organization operating in Italy, Colombia, Mexico and Spain.”

A list maintained by the police agency puts Da Fiume among “people linked to the ‘Ndrangheta,” and identified him as having ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.

Mauro Da Fiume was allegedly associated with a long-running operation trafficking cocaine between Italy, France, Spain and Morocco. That operation, exposed in 2015 by the Genoa anti-mafia bureau’s “Operation Trait d’Union,” dealt with the Piromalli-Molè clan’s infiltration of Genoa and the movement of drugs through the French Riviera.

Da Fiume was not arrested in Operation Trait d’Union, but was identified as the right-hand man of clan boss Antonio Magnoli.

Ascensio Chavez, El Flaco, and Morales remain at large. They will soon be tried in absentia in Catania for international drug trafficking.


https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/inside-the-sinaloa-cartels-move-toward-europe

Back in the 1980's they had really powerful connections to masonic lodges and high profile politicians, they were very close to P2 , members of P2 included president of Vatican Bank that laundered money for mafia, connections like that made them insanely powerful during 1980's

This whole series is great and speaks to the topic..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYL2prmTxw&list=PLMr9zEjxXS27KiTBVt0NOwfze-PKTmQSJ

I don't care about comparing power from decade to decade, I prefer to keep it current and focus on what they're doing now.

Well even today Sicilian mafia and 'Ndrangheta are very well connected to masonic lodges,politicians and secret services. They are "real brains" of the mafia, nothing will ever change if you don't arrest them and they almost never server any prison time. Street guys are easily replaceable

@CabriniGreen, yes they are also operating from Portugal and in 2019 leaders of the Sinaloa cartel have visited the Netherlands, in the summer, with a tourist visa. Dutch police use information from Encrochat to gain insight into exactly what they came here to do. Many of the Mexicans arrested in the Netherlands come from the Sinaloa area.

Can you see Cosa Nostra and the Sinaloa cartel forging an alliance? I don't think it's a GTA rivalry with these groups, I think it's more about alliances.

Sinaloa Cartel is very close to Italian mafia groups for years , especially 'Ndrangheta.

No rivalry there, totally different continents , different territories and so on . Just money to be made

I believe that connection is via Bagarella in Reggio, San Luca.

Also, I believe that Sal Riina had a similar relationship with both Medellin and Cali.

Cosa Nostra 'maxi trial' begins into EU funding scam
'Nebrodi Mafia' on trial with top professionals in Messina area

(ANSA) - MESSINA, MAR 2 - A 'maxi trial' opened in Messina Tuesday into how Cosa Nostra clans scammed millions of euros of EU farming funds in the Nebrodi area of Sicily.
The 'Nebrodi Mafia' trial sees 97 people in the dock including Cosa Nostra bosses, 'respectable' professionals, and soldiers of the clans.
Messina prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia broke up the Nebrodi Mafia and found they had fraudulently obtained huge sums in EU funding.
The trial has targeted historic clans in Tortorici, a town in the centre of the Nebrodi, the Batanesis and the Bontempo Scavos.
They allegedly got "rivers of EU funding," de Lucia said, with the help of a notary public and officials at the local commercial agricultural centres.
The two clans buried their differences and, instead of fighting each other, teamed up to parcel up cast plots of land in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy to qualify for the EU funding, the prosecutor said.
"This scam deprived honest operators of huge public resources and gravely polluted the legal economy," he said. (ANSA).

Mafia online business betting, blitz in Catania: 23 precautionary measures, 336 suspects
03 March 2021
mafia, Catania, Chronicle
Illegal online bets are confirmed as one of the mafia's new businesses. A maxi operation by the GdF is underway against the infiltration of Cosa Nostra in this sector.

The military, with the support of the Scico di Roma, carried out a precautionary custody order against 23 suspects in Sicily, Emilia Romagna, Puglia, Germany, Poland and Malta.

The crimes hypothesized by the DDA are illegal gambling and betting, tax evasion, aggravated fraud and self-laundering with the aggravating circumstance of having favored the Santapaola-Ercolano mafia association. A total of 336 people are investigated in the 'Doppio Gioco' operation . The investigating judge ordered the seizure of assets and companies for 80 million euros.

THE INVESTIGATIONS
In detail, the financiers discovered an illegal collection and management of online sports betting carried out through an internet gaming platform not authorized to operate in Italy, attributing the ownership to a Maltese company to hide the link with our country and connections. with Sicilian organized crime. The personal restrictive measures concern 23 people: 12 recipients of pre-trial detention in prison, two of the house arrest and nine of the prohibition of the exercise of commercial activity.

From the investigation, coordinated by the Catania DDA which investigated 339 people, it emerged that the criminal organization had also organized an illegal collection of "over the counter" bets throughout the country, through a network of agencies connected for data transmission. , to the gaming platform.

The investigations made it possible to ascertain that only a minimal part of the bets took place online, while most of the bets were made face-to-face and paid in cash. During the military investigations of the Pef unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Catania they seized almost 180 thousand euros hidden in the double bottom of a car.
The operation was filmed on video and audio by the financial police. The 'turnover' is estimated at over 80 million euros, a total sum for which equivalent assets have been seized which, according to the prosecution, are bought by laundering the proceeds of bets: financial resources for 62 million in Italy, Poland and Malta; buildings and land in Puglia and Emilia-Romagna; and a restaurant company in Germany.

04 March 2021
DRUGS IN THE HANDS OF THE WIVES OF THE BOSSES IN PRISON: 14 ARRESTS BETWEEN PALERMO, CARINI AND MISILMERI

From production to sale. 14 were arrested this morning by the carabinieri between Palermo, Carini and Misilmeri , accused of having set up a business that ranged from cultivation to the sale of marijuana.

The 14 suspects (seven in prison and seven under house arrest) are accused of criminal association aimed at drug trafficking, dealing and detention for the purpose of dealing, illegal possession of common firearms, possession of clandestine weapons and receiving stolen goods.

From there the beginning of the investigation, coordinated by the deputy Salvatore De Lucia, which also led to the seizure of three marijuana plantations, and which led to the emergence of a continuous and organized drug production and cultivation activity in Carini and Palermo.

It also turned out that things had changed since 2018 . With the arrest, over time, of some members of the gang, there was a change in the top-down structure: the leaders were replaced by their wives.

Mafia, the killer Freddy Gallina extradited from the US
Ferdinando Gallina, known as Freddy , born in 1977, hit by three custody orders in prison and held responsible for three murders aggravated by the mafia, belonging to Cosa Nostra, returns to Italy after a battle to obtain his extradition which lasted almost 5 years.

Gallina is a man of honor of the Carini mafia family and a mafia killer, considered the right arm for western Sicily, and in particular for the province of Palermo, of the boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo.

https://palermo.gds.it/articoli/cro...no-f58ba8fc-e0eb-41a6-ba04-1a19369ba47d/

The boss Gaetano Fontana , belonging to the Mafia clan of Acquasanta, one of the most powerful in Palermo, collaborates with justice because the only real industry of the Sicilian capital, the shipyards, is part of its territory.

Fontana is the son of the mafia boss Stefano , who died in 2013, and was arrested last May, as part of an operation by the Guardia di Finanza called 'Mani in pasta', which overwhelmed the family group represented by the Fontana and the Galatolo cousins, among which there are already some repentants, such as the brothers Vito and Giovanni Galatolo. Even an uncle of the brand new collaborator, Angelo Fontana, Stefano's brother, collaborates with justice, but years ago he became the protagonist of some bogus statements, which he made about the failed Addaura attack against judge Giovanni Falcone.


Anti-Mafia police blitz in the province of Catania, beheaded the Scalisi clan in Adrano, a territorial division of the Laudani clan.

Fifteen people are the recipients of a precautionary detention order. The hypothesized crimes, for various reasons, are mafia association, drug trafficking and dealing, possession of weapons and extortion aggravated by the mafia method.

During the police investigations, coordinated by the Catania District Prosecutor's Office, acts of intimidation and retaliation against the family members of a collaborator of justice were documented.

Cultivation and the sale of marijuana should be legalized!!

Well i would legalize all drugs, people who want to do drugs will do them, doesn't matter if they are legal or not. By legalizing them ,all organized crime would be crippled and people who want to do drugs will have high quality drugs.

Organized crime wouldn't be crippled, there's already articles out explaining how they'd still make money even if it was legal, just takes a little research. I find it hypocritical that you think the government has the right to profit from narcotics but not organized crime. As long as it's taxed and corporations and politicians get rich it's fine.