marijuana is an innocent drug and a pretty good pain killer.

Freddy Gallina extradited

https://gazzettadelsud.it/video/mon...sa-d16227b5-e7f2-4507-9b6e-709879743ca5/

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/20...7f09fac-e23a-4d78-8314-c87f0750f4bf.html

The mafia and the business of luxury watches sold to VIPs and footballers: 12 arrests between Palermo and Milan

The investments of Cosa Nostra in the black market for luxury watches to be sold to celebrities and footballers who are unaware of everything . The Special Currency Police Unit of the Finance Police has carried out a precautionary custody order against 15 people and a preventive seizure , issued by the investigating judge of Palermo, at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate. One of the suspects ended up in prison, 11 under house arrest and 3 were notified of the ban on expatriation and the obligation to report to the judicial police.

The investigation, to which the new justice collaborator Gaetano Fontana contributed, is the continuation of an operation last May that hit the Fontana mafia clan and which led to 90 arrests for mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking, transfer fraudulent assets, money laundering, reuse of illicit capital, illegal gaming and betting.

The investigation concluded today has ascertained serious indications against some members of the Fontana family , historically hegemonic in the Palermo neighborhoods of Acquasanta and Arenella of the Resuttana mafia district and partly moved to Milan.

According to the investigators, the suspects, for various reasons, would have reinvested huge financial resources (coming from the crimes committed in the Palermo area) in the business of the "black" trade of luxury watches , destined for wealthy customers, carrying out financial transactions also with foreign countries , thanks to a dense network of business relationships with compliant operators in the sector ("buying gold" shops in London, Milan, Rome and Palermo).

Among the customers there are also some footballers such as Marco Borriello and Andrea Rispoli, and the VIP agent Lele Mora . None of the customers are investigated.

The suspects are charged, for various reasons, with the crimes of aiding and abetting, money laundering, self-laundering, with the aggravating circumstance of the transnational crime and of having favored "Cosa Nostra". The seizure of the assets and the business complex of a jewelry store in Milan and a gold purchase in Palermo and financial contributions for 2.6 million euros were carried out.

Operations are underway in Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany and Friuli Venezia Giulia, with the support of the PEF Units of Milan, Turin, Palermo, Pordenone and Grosseto.

Mafia in Catania, extortion of companies and artists: raid with 22 arrests
March 16, 2021
mafia, Catania, Chronicle
Military personnel of the Catania financial police are carrying out a precautionary custody order against 22 people as part of an anti-mafia investigation by the Dda of the Etna prosecutor against the Cappello-Carateddi clan in which entrepreneurs and artists are victims .

The crimes hypothesized, for various reasons, are mafia association, corruption, forgery in public deed, fraudulent transfer of values, fraudulent bankruptcy, money laundering, self-laundering, electoral corruption, extortion and obstruction of justice. For the latter two charges, the aggravating circumstance of having favored the mafia is also disputed.

A total of 34 people are investigated. As part of the operation called Sipario, which involves 70 soldiers of the yellow flames, based on investigations by the economic and financial police (Pef) nucleus of the financial police of Catania, shareholdings and assets of three companies in the Etna capital were seized operating in the bar and restaurant sector, for a total estimated value of approximately 5 million euros.

Matteo Messina Denaro and his women: loves and mysteries

Women are a constant alongside the Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro. It is well known that since his youth he has always been attracted to feminine charm.

From the investigations of recent years it emerges that the police forces that chase him have sought, above all, a woman who would help the fugitive to write the messages on his own, and then send them to the network of associates.

With the latest anti-mafia operation "Xydi", which at the beginning of February led to 23 prisoners , including affiliates belonging to Cosa Nostra and the "Stidda", in the Canicattì and Agrigento area, the investigators listened to some interceptions that put in the center another woman who would act as an intermediary to put the godfathers of the various families in contact with the fugitive from Castelvetrano . This is the latest mystery that revolves around Messina Denaro. For the investigators, the woman referred to by the mafia members Giancarlo Buggea and Antonio Chiazza while they are intercepted, may be the mother of Luca Bellomo, Maria Insalaco, who died in Canicattì on 12 April 2019. Bellomo is the nephew of Messina Denaro, for having married his niece, Lorenza Guttadauro .

The mystery about the woman who would have written the boss's pizzini was born after a consultancy arranged years ago by the prosecutor on some pizzini of the fugitive. Graphologists, in fact, spoke of a "feminine writing" .

Messina Denaro, as we said, has always been a womanizer and is different from the old bosses who took a wife when they were young. Don Ciccio Messina Denaro's son participates as a young man in the festivities of the high society of Palermo with high-ranking women and even a little advanced in age. But it is in Castelvetrano, in particular on the beach of Marinella di Selinunte, where the Paradise Beach hotel is located , that Andrea "Asi" Haslehner meets one of her greatest loves . A beautiful Austrian girl, who works at the reception of that hotel in the summer, and for whom she loses her head so much that Nicola Consales, the young deputy manager of the hotel, who is in love with Asi, is killed .

Before starting the fugitive in June 1993, Messina Denaro has an affair with a woman from Mazara, Sonia M. He will write to her that he will have to leave and that he will not be able to explain that choice.

After the period of inaction, Messina Denaro has a relationship that can be defined as “stable” with Franca Alagna , the woman who on December 17, 1995 gave birth to the boss's daughter, Lorenza . Despite having become a father, habits do not change, and in 1996, Matteo Messina Denaro has an affair with a woman from Palermo, Maria Mesi, sister of the secretary of Michele Aiello , the king of Sicilian healthcare and clinics and figurehead of Bernardo Provenzano . The girl is three years younger and she loves it. She sends him letters, gives him perfumes and the latest generation of video games. They meet in an apartment on the outskirts of Palermo and in a small villa in Bagheria.

And finally, according to one of the latest sightings, Messina Denaro was in 2003 in Valencia, Venezuela. Some testimonies tell it in the company of a woman, beautiful, foreign and silent.

The Palermo court of appeal sentenced five people, including the Bagheria boss Paolo Liga, nephew of the mafia boss Giuseppe Scaduto, accused in various ways of mafia association and aggravated extortion.

The trial stems from an investigation by the carabinieri who ascertained that Liga, who had taken the place of his uncle at the helm of the clan, kept relations with the fugitive godfather Matteo Messina Denaro. Liga, known as 'the American' for his contacts with overseas clans, was sentenced to 9 years and 8 months.

Paolo was hiding in Castellammare del Golfo so he probably has ties the Bonannos.

An accident during an excursion cost the life of Gaspare Allegra, 37, from Castelvetrano, nephew of the fugitive boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

The man died slipping into a gully yesterday afternoon in the Bocchetta di Prada area, between the towns of Mandello del Lario and Esino Lario (in the province of Lecco). The accident happened in front of his brother Francesco.

Allegra lived in Albairate, in the province of Milan. The intervention of the speleological rescue staff was of no avail. His father Rosario, husband of one of the boss's sisters, died of a brain aneurysm, while he was being held at 41 bis in the Terni prison.


The Greek police arrested the 63-year-old Mafia fugitive Mario Giulio Calderone near Larissa, Greece, at the top of the barcellonesi mafia family and included since 2016 in the list of dangerous fugitives drawn up by the Ministry of the Interior.

Calderone had been a fugitive for over ten years after a definitive conviction for mafia association for his belonging to a criminal clan historically linked to Cosa Nostra in Palermo and Catania and among the bloodiest and best organized militarily in the mafia scene of the Peloritan province.

Mafia in Borgo Vecchio: 12 arrests in Palermo: "The clans in the quarrels between organized supporters and in neighborhood parties"
March 25, 2021

The Palermo mafia also resolved the disputes between the organized groups of the Palermo football supporters . This is one of the details that emerges from the Resilienza 2 investigation , completed this morning by the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit and by the Information Unit of the Carabinieri of Palermo on the mafia district of Porta Nuova and, in particular, on the mafia family of Borgo Vecchio.

An operation with 14 suspects (one in prison, 11 under house arrest and 2 reporting obligations to the judicial police), held in various ways responsible for external competition in mafia association, drug trafficking, theft, receiving stolen goods and extortion, exploitation of prostitution.

Today's operation is the ideal continuation of the round-up of 12 October last year which had made it possible to identify the new regent of the Borgo Vecchio mafia family: Angelo Monti who, according to the accusation, had reorganized the mafia assets in the neighborhood , entrusting top positions to men close to him starting with his brother Girolamo . He was joined by: Giuseppe Gambino, Salvatore Guarino and Jari Massimiliano Ingarao .

Giuseppe D'Angelo , 27, who yesterday escaped capture during the "Resilience 2" operation with which 12 other suspects ended up in prison and under house arrest was arrested by the carabinieri of the provincial command of Palermo .

The young man, residing in Aquino, is accused of detention and drug dealing in the square of the neighborhood in the center of Palermo . According to what emerges D'Angelo, nicknamed "Balzaretti", allegedly participated in the purchase of kilos of hashish paid for about 18 thousand euros.

The young man is now under house arrest. Another suspect is still missing: Salvo Lavardera, who ended up in the Borgo Vecchio investigation, lives in Belgium, in Liège. A European arrest warrant has been issued for him.

Zona Espansione Nord, also known as ZEN or San Filippo Neri, is an economically deprived neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Palermo, Sicily. It is located in the municipality of VII and has about 16,000 inhabitants. In a feud in Zen between the Maranzano family and the Colombo's Giuseppe Colombo and Antonino Colombo , father and son , were injured in an ambush by a five men 'commando'. Police arrested Letterio Maranzano , 35 years , and Pietro Maranzano , 22. Of the two, the eldest, Letterio , is not new to the police, close to the Zen mafia families and already burdened by precedents, among others, for criminal association of a mafia type.

Any news on most wanted fugitive Giovanni Motisi? Is he still regent of the Pagliarelli mafia district? Like Matteo he is an enigma, but what is his current role in Cosa Nostra?

Motisi has been wanted since 1998 for murder, since 2001 for mafia association, since 2002 for massacre. Since 1999 his photo has also traveled beyond Italy because he is sought after in the international field. He has a life sentence to serve for the murder of Commissioner Beppe Montana, killed in 1985. U pacchiuni, which translated means "the fat man" was considered close above all to Bernardo Provenzano. He was last seen in 1999 at his daughter's birthday party. Then he disappeared, in fact there are those who suspect that Motisi may be dead. Other hypotheses give Motisi hidden in France.

I honestly don't think he is alive , you need to be really powerful to be able to hide that long , Provenzano was able to do so and Denaro still manages to do , but i have no idea how powerful Motisi is/was

This is also an interesting one. I'm curious if football hooligans in Palermo these days are also somewhat of a recruitment farm for the Mafia if they need people to do some dirty work.

In for instance the UK and the Netherlands football hooliganism has traditionally been a gateway into local organized crime. Outlaw motorcycle clubs in Germany, Scandinavia and even Belgium have also recruited among former football hooligans.

Here is the negotiation of Giuseppe Graviano . A new idea of ​​negotiation between him, which from the death of Totò Riina to all intents and purposes he represents the top management of the mafia and other state apparatus.
Giuseppe Graviano , together with the super fugitive from Trapani Matteo Messina Denaro , with figures such as Salvatore Biondino and the Madonia of Palermo, Leoluca Bagarella , or the fugitive from Pagliarelli Giovanni Motisi , according to the rules of Cosa Nostra, are the reference figures who command the mafia Sicilian. Surely also the group of the "escaped", returned to Palermo, has an important role, but it is clear that the secrets on pacts and post-massacre agreements are in the hands of this group of people.

But you're right Strax in this modern world with all the technology it seems impossible to remain a latitante for 23 years. MMD left many tracks like pizzini and travels Motisi almost nothing.

Exactly , MMD left many traces , is italian police even hunting for Motisi ? Any traces ?

Pentito Angelo Casano claims that Montisi is alive and hiding somewhere in Agrigento.


@TheKillingJoke: It's not like that just in UK & Netherlands , here in Eastern Europe its pretty much same , football hooliganism is start for 90% of organized crime figures.

Aren’t the Ultras with Lazio the Alt Right 🍌 🐵 in Italy?

I know that in for instance Poland - a country where the hooligan scene is huge - it's also an organized crime gateway.
Is it the same in Serbia and Montenegro?

I've heard Casamonica, Spada, Di Silvio...family members are Lazio fans. And they're from an Abruzzese gypsy background. So I'm not sure how "ethnically pure" the Lazio Ultras like their fans to be haha. Those gypsy families in Rome seem to be cut from a different cloth than Romani/Sinti gypsies from other countries though. They're pretty much integrated, very right-wing and very "Forza Italia!".

Group that literally runs organized crime in Serbia started from football hooligans , some of them got arrested and are suspected of 10+ murders , they would kidnap you and then take you to remote house , torture , cut your head off and so on. There are even videos of them doing it . Some members of that group are really close to presidents son. Most of the group is still free and in total control of organized crime here.

TKJ, most prominent ultrà in this case is Johnny Giordano. Historical leader of the Rosanero Brigades, while another well-known face of the north curve, Sesto Terrazzini is also under investigation. Giordano has been linked to Giuseppe Bellino, a man of honor of the Pagliarelli district of Palermo, very close to the group headed by Gianni Nicchi, godson of the mafia boss Nino Rotolo.

Damn, those Mexican cartel tactics have spread to Europe as well, although luckily on a smaller scale. In Dublin they've chopped someone up on camera, in the Netherlands there are supposedly pictures making rounds of a drug trafficker's dismembered remains, etc... Even local drug gangs are doing it; in the Rinkeby suburb of Stockholm there's a war going on between two Somali drug gangs and they as well are supposedly videotaping torture and hits as well.

I remember that some time ago you said that most of the underworld violence in Serbia and Montenegro is due to a conflict between two Kotor-based clans and most of the other clans in Belgrade and Montenegro have aligned themselves behind either one of the two Kotor clans.

Mafia, confiscation of 1.5 million assets from Corleone boss Calogero Lo Bue
03 April 2021
corleone, mafia, Calogero Giuseppe Lo Bue, Palermo, Chronicle
Confiscation of assets worth one and a half million euros from Calogero Giuseppe Lo Bue , 75 years old, brother of Rosario Salvatore Lo Bue, considered the head of the mafia district of Corleone. Calogero Lo Bue was sentenced in 2007 to 8 years in prison for having been part of the Corleone mafia family and the chain of supporters for the inaction of the Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano.

Acting Boss Calvaruso arrested in Palermo, he was trying to establish some business with Singapore

video of the operation (code name Operation brevis) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOWlPKX5Moc

And news in the Giornale di Sicilia (there are many other news anyway) https://palermo.gds.it/articoli/cro...ss-306922cc-1952-409b-966f-c38390fccfb5/

Interesting for years he managed business from Brazil.

don't they all ?

Yep many Italians in Brazil.

True but also a lot of them stay in Sicily/Calabria and go in hiding , because once you leave your territory , you can lose power/influence very fast.

Well it depends - many mafia members go into hiding abroad and “work” from abroad - like Canada or Australia or Argentina to name some of the recent cases