Most of these guys won't even serve their full sentences before they're out on house arrest, and their sentences aren't even stiff to begin with. Like I always say, not all Mafiosi get the Toto Riina treatment. In fact most don't.

They say Zio Binnu was a pragmatist.

Cocaine, hashish and marijuana from Gela to Palermo: 9 arrests
Carabinieri operation in four Sicilian cities
by Editorial staff

PALERMO - A vast anti-drug operation conducted by the carabinieri between Gela, Niscemi, Comiso and Palermo led to the arrest of nine people accused of dealing in cocaine, hashish and marijuana.

The precautionary custody measures were signed by the investigating judge of Gela at the request of the prosecutor.

About 50 soldiers from the Gela Territorial Department were employed in the operation, with the support of personnel from the Sicilian Hunters Helicopter Squadron and a helicopter from the 9th Palermo Carabinieri Helicopter Unit.

Provenzano took over Cosa Nostra after the carnage of the all-out war with the Italian state, taking the mafia underground and infiltrating business, law enforcement and politics at the highest levels.

"The assets seized from my family are just the tip of the iceberg, now I'll tell you what all the others are." Gaetano Fontana, the former boss of Acquasanta in Palermo , resumes just as he had left: a river in flood.

It is not clear if you are telling the whole truth, the fact is that after having said that Cosa Nostra is over and invited his brother Giovanni to collaborate as he is doing, yesterday he made a series of revelations. He provided addresses and names for about twenty properties , including houses, warehouses, garages and land, attributable to his family and which had never been identified. And now on these properties, and on the relative figureheads, new investigations should be triggered.

Thus began the second part of his deposition at the trial for mafia, extortion and money laundering which is celebrated in the bunker court of Palermo in abbreviated form against about eighty defendants believed to be close to the Acquasanta clan.

He is considered to be at the top of the clan, but for almost a year now he claims to have broken with his past by providing a series of indications to the investigators, but also underlining that he has severed relations with the organization for years.

The prosecutor considers him a declarant, whose reliability is still to be verified and, at least to date, it cannot be predicted if and when he will be included in the protection program reserved for collaborators of justice. He is doing everything to be credited as such and yesterday there was the news of the list of the Fontana's secret assets.

Gaetano and Giovanni Fontana. Gaetano Fontana's jewelry was seized in Milan last March.

Stinking rat

ITALY Operation "Gordio" Mafia, maxi blitz against the Partinico district: 81 arrests The investigation started in 2017. The suspects are accused in various ways of mafia association, external competition in mafia association, association aimed at drug trafficking, crimes relating to weapons, drugs, extortion and corruption. A collaborator of justice was also arrested - See more at: http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/ar...654180f-8579-462d-b226-f7726e9bb351.html

"A collaborator of justice was also arrested."

The Italian Mafia don't give a fuck, if you're a rat and have something to offer come on back we need people. Reminds me of the military when they desperately need people to fight rich men's wars.

Giusy Vitale even had a book deal when she was in the wpp. I have the book but didn't read it.

Today Giusy Vitale, sister of the leaders of the mafia district of Partinico, returns to prison. Passed to the leadership of the clan after the imprisonment of her brothers Leonardo and Vito. Then she became a collaborator of justice, for the prosecutors she would be at the center of a large drug trafficking. Her sister Antonina and her nephew Michele Casarrubia were also arrested with her .
The five associations of drug traffickers of Partinico that managed the shopping centers of western Sicily obtained cocaine and hashish from the Camorra in Naples, from the ndrangheta in Milan and from the Casamonica in Rome.

Giusy Vitale

In a series of raids in Sicily, police arrested 11 members of the Torretta clan, who are accused of working closely with New York’s Gambino family.

“The connection is very much alive — the New York mafia still takes pride in its cultural roots in Sicily while ties to the US are a strong point for the Sicilians,” General Arturo Guarino, the Palermo Carabinieri commander, said.

I've been saying this, the future of the American Mafia are ties to the old country. If they only had the option of relying on American-bred mobsters, they'd surely go extinct.

Gambino members traveled to Sicily in these last few years.

Among those involved, an important role would be Raffaele Di Maggio , son of the historic Torretto mafia exponent Giuseppe, known as "Piddu i Raffaele", who died in January 2019, at the top of the Torrettese mafia family actively assisted by Ignazio Antonino Mannino and by Calogero Badalamenti.

t is the repentant Antonino Pipitone who accuses Lorenzo Di Maggio, known as "Lorenzino" of having been the postman of the messages for Messina Denaro of Castelvetrano. "Most of the pizzini both from the province and from the districts of Palermo that had to reach the superlatitant always came to him", claimed the justice collaborator.

Bonanno members have traveled to Sicily too. It would help all 5 Families if they established ties to Italy.

Among the names highlighted by the investigators there is also that of Calogero Christian Zito, monitored in numerous movements between Sicily and the US and currently a fugitive.

Mafia: Leoluca Bagarella attacks an agent in prison in Sassari
July 20, 2021

The boss of Cosa Nostra, Leoluca Bagarella, 79, once again attacked a policeman from the prison in Sassari , where he is being held under the 41bis regime. A cold fist while the prison police officer is escorting him into the corridor of the Bancali prison.

The strong images of an exclusive video - which dates back to a few months ago - were published by L'Espresso. The two walk side by side and talk: the agent is holding what looks like a metal detector, at a certain point they stop and Bagarella , who appears in perfect physical shape, punches the agent in the face . To his rescue comes a colleague who blocks the Corleonese boss who tries to lash out again against the policeman who was hit.

Already in January of last year, the Bagarella had bitten an agent of the Gom of the penitentiary police always in the Sassari prison. An attack occurred while the prisoner was accompanied to the videoconference room, from where he would have had to attend the hearing of the trial in progress before the Court of Assizes of Palermo on the State-Mafia negotiation from a distance. Now the images are being examined by the Public Prosecutor of Sassari.

https://video.espresso.repubblica.i...n-agente-della-penitenziaria/15878/15978

This guy is 79 years old and still going at it , they never change.

Didn’t Bagarella kinda of offer a warning ⛔️ to the State, as well? Who knows with the new ‘Maxi Trail’ what the mafiosi could be planning.

Thanks for posting that, very neat to see what Leoluca looks like currently.

Palermo Mafia sweep nets 16
Ends two-year probe into Brancaccio-Ciaculli 'mandamento'

(ANSA) - PALERMO, JUL 20 - A Palermo Mafia sweep on Tuesday netted 16 people who were arrested on charges of mafia association and other organised crime offences including aggravated extortion.
The operation was the culmination of a two-year probe into the Brancaccio-Ciaculli 'mandamento' or Cosa Nostra branch.
The probe uncovered the organisational structures of the Mafia families in the Palermo districts of Roccella and Brancaccio.
It identified the leaders of the clans, police said.
Some 50 episodes of extortion by Cosa Nostra loan sharks were reconstructed. (ANSA).

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/20...8cb9bde-2509-49f9-9830-dd0c0e0f810f.html

Quite important this one - it's the continuation of Cupola 2.0 in 2018 on the relationships between the Grecos and Gambinos after Cali's death

https://www.agi.it/cronaca/news/2021-07-20/mafia-pizzo-coca-usa-arresti-palermo-13321023/

Not just Grecos and Gambinos , but also Inzerillo's , Bontade's and other big names from Sicilian mafia. Gambinos traveling to Sicily,shows that they are still working closely.

Mafia: second blitz in two days in Palermo, 8 arrests
New blow to the district of Tommaso Natale

PALERMO
July 21, 2021

The Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Palermo carried out a precautionary order in prison (one under house arrest) issued by the investigating judge Lorenzo Jannelli against eight suspects believed to be members of the mafia district of Tommaso Natale, accused in various ways of mafia-type criminal association , aggravated extortion and damage followed by fire. The anti-mafia operation 'Bivio 2', the second in two days in Palermo, was coordinated by a pool of DDA magistrates led by the deputy prosecutor Salvatore De Luca.

The investigation revolves around the figure of the boss Giulio Caporrimo, already arrested in the past. The surveys show the continuous demand for protection money from companies operating in the area. Investigators found 11 extortions and two unsuccessful attempts, while only in two cases did the victims spontaneously report the pressure they suffered. The carabinieri have reconstructed various intimidations, often with arson attacks, carried out by the men of Giulio Caporrimo to undermine the competitors and grab some contracts. This is the case of the arson against a commercial establishment in Sferracavallo. An attack that would have been devised by Caporrimo, his son Francesco and Francesco Ventimiglia to get the management of the place. L' The attack was intended to overcome the resistance of the owner. With another fire, a construction site was struck for the construction of the sewerage system, also in Sferracavallo. To devise the intimidation would have been Antonino Vitamia and Vincenzo Taormina to obtain some subcontracted works. Even the van of a construction company was damaged by the fire while the bugs of the carabinieri recorded everything "live". Another intimidation hit a construction company that was carrying out renovations on a building, with the aim of obtaining the order for plant engineering work. Several episodes have also been ascertained to the detriment of traders in the area. The clan made profits also thanks to the so-called "return horses",

Over the years, the investigative nucleus of the carabinieri had already dealt hard blows to the district of Tommaso Natale with the operations Oscar (2011), Apocalisse (2014), Talea (2017), Cupola, 2.0 (2018/2019), Teneo (2020), and Crossroads (2021). The current blitz that revolves around the figure of Giulio Caporrimo is linked to this last operation last January. The latter, returned to freedom in May 2019, by the will of the boss Calogero Lo Piccolo found a new boss, Francesco Palumeri, at the top of the district. Caporrimo first moved to Florence to distance himself from the new structure that he did not share and then, after forcing his rival to take a step back, he returned to Palermo as regent by regrouping the district. With this new investigation, the carabinieri would have shed light on a series of serious crimes committed by the arrested, starting with Giulio Caporrimo himself and his son Francesco who had invested in online betting, one of the sectors most at risk for mafia infiltration. One of the arrested, Giuseppe Vassallo, from Palermo who moved to Florence, thanks to the agreements with Giulio Caporrimo and Antonino Vitamia, marketed his sites for online betting right in the territory of the Tommaso Natale district, recognizing part of the profits to the mafia family

The Palermo Court of Appeal sentenced to 6 years the former Senator of Fi and Undersecretary of the Interior Antonio D'Ali 'accused of complicity with the mafia association in the appeal process held after the Court of Cassation had annulled with postponement the sentence of the Court of Appeal of Palermo which, in September 2016, sent the former politician acquitted for the disputes subsequent to 1994 and declared the crimes alleged to him in the period prior to that date prescribed.

D'Alì was accused of having "contributed to the support and strengthening of Cosa Nostra, making his economic resources available to the bosses, and, subsequently, his institutional role as senator of the Republic and undersecretary of state". For the prosecutors, who had asked for a sentence of 7 years and 4 months, the former Senator from Trapani allegedly had relations with the gangs and with leading exponents of the organization such as the superlatitant Matteo Messina Denaro, Vincenzo Virga and Francesco Pace, since early 1990s, and would have sought electoral support from "families".

The 16 arrests ordered by the Palermo DDA against bosses, wingmen and "colonels" of Cosa Nostra, who ended up in handcuffs on 20 July as part of an investigation into the Mafia district of Ciaculli-Brancaccio, have been validated.

The suspects remain in prison - except Ignazio Ingrassia who is under house arrest for health reasons - because the judge has applied all of them to pre-trial detention. Historical "families" of the city such as Corso dei Mille, Roccella, Brancaccio and Ciaculli ended up under the magnifying glass of the investigators.

At the top of the district there would be Giuseppe Greco, nephew of Michele Greco known as "the pope". After the arrest of his cousin Leandro Greco, the mafia district was run by Giuseppe who took care of maintaining relations with the other mafia families. At his sidewas Ignazio Ingrassia known as "the boiacane", an elderly mafioso with important ties to the American mafia.

Buried in concrete: how the mafia made a killing from the destruction of Italy’s south
The south of the country bears the scars of how bosses enriched their clans with illegal, brutalist buildings and gaudy, now decaying, villas

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ing-from-the-destruction-of-italys-south

Mafiosi villas reflect the personality of the residents and the character of the clan they represent. This villa, owned by one of the most hardened killers in Cosa Nostra, Giuseppe Greco, nicknamed ‘Scarpuzzedda’ (‘little shoe’). Built perched on a beautiful cliff on the coast of Mongerbino, near Palermo, it is almost 40 metres tall. The villa, now confiscated but totally abandoned, has a cement stairway directly on to the water.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/g...ete-mafia-architecture-in-pictures#img-6

"CRYSTAL TOWER"
Ties between the Torretta clan and the mafia in the US, one of the arrested returns free
05 August 2021
mafia, turret, Palermo, Chronicle
A frame from one of the interceptions of the "Crystal Tower" operation

Filippo Gambino, 55 years old from Torretta, was released from prison. His arrest was overturned by the review court following the petition presented by his lawyer, Pietro Sapienza. Gambino, who ended up in prison at dawn on July 14th as part of the " Crystal Tower " anti-mafia operation , returns free.

The judge, in fact, in revoking the arrest did not give any other precautionary measure. The reasons will be announced within the next 45 days.

"We pointed out from the beginning that there was no serious evidence of guilt - says Pietro Sapienza, Gambino's lawyer -. In our opinion, there are no elements that prove the involvement of my client. The arrest was based on a series of indirect interceptions, that is to say from third-party interviews. There are two or three direct interceptions that have also been interpreted ».

Filippo Gambino ended up in the investigation together with 10 other suspects in various capacities, of mafia-type association, drug possession, personal aiding and abetting and attempted extortion with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method and to have ties with the New York mafia.