Mafia in Malta: from drugs and gaming to farms and shoes in six months
A six-month report by Italy’s anti-mafia investigators shows a virtual cornucopia of criminal activity by mafia clans in Malta, and that the climate is ripe for further development

https://theshiftnews.com/2022/10/02...gaming-to-farms-and-shoes-in-six-months/

Rivers of cocaine and marijuana in Giardini and Taormina, shot at affiliates of the Catania mafia: 16 arrests

https://news.italy24.press/trends/80486.html

Cosa Nostra unitary and resilient. Matteo Messina Denaro remains a point of reference

The business and dynamics of Cosa Nostra “cannot ignore the role of Matteo Messina Denaro. The Castelvetranese boss, despite being in hiding, remains the reference figure for all issues of greatest interest, for the resolution of any disputes and for the appointment of the leaders of the mafia groups, including those not in Trapani ". The centrality of him is reaffirmed by the Anti-Mafia Investigation Department in the usual six-monthly report, that of the second half of 2021, presented to parliament.

https://www.tp24.it/2022/10/03/anti...enaro-rimane-punto-di-riferimento/182271

The genesis of the alliance between ‘Ndrangheta and Corleonesi. “The emissaries of Badalamenti killed by assassins in Calabria”

https://news.italy24.press/local/97639.html

Catania, 110 kilos of cocaine seized: worth over 12 million euros

https://sicilylab.com/catania-110-kilos-of-cocaine-seized-worth-over-12-million-euros/

The map of the mafia in Palermo and its business: betting, lace and drugs on the Colombia-USA-Italy axis
This is what emerges by sifting through the Dia's "Palermo" report sent to Parliament. The reference is to the second half of 2021


The analysis activity on the dynamics of Cosa Nostra Palermitana confirms how the mafia of the capital is a tendentially unified organization engaged in a continuous effort aimed at reorganizing itself and oriented towards the search for greater interaction between the various clans in consideration of the absence of a link structure of command at the top ". This is how Dia's "Palermo" report sent to Parliament on the second half of 2021 begins.

This difficulty in reconstituting leadership inevitably leads to a situation of uncertainty for the Cosa Nostra. "In this perspective and considering the constant inoperability of the provincial commission of Palermo, the direction and the elaboration of the lines of action - the report reads - are practiced mostly by elderly men of honor detained or recently returned to freedom. that "from the investigations it emerged that the men of honor have strengthened the" social function "in order to maintain control of the territory of reference and broaden the basis of consensus".

The Palermo mafia continues to operate in all criminal areas of interest: from drug trafficking to the imposition of "protection money", as well as from investments in economic activities of wealth illegally accumulated for the purpose of money laundering to infiltration into public administrations to condition their activity in the award of public contracts. This activity allows the clans to dispose of substantial capital and at the same time have an incisive interference in the territory

With regard to the "architecture" of the mafia in the capital, it should be noted that in recent years in Palermo the "territorial competence" of districts and families has been less rigid than in the past, varying on the basis of balances of power and consequent "inter-district agreements" ". Very often there is therefore a "loan of unskilled workers" between the various districts of Palermo.

The cornerstones on which the mafia action hinges are always the same. From the imposition of protection money, which remains “necessary”
especially for the sustenance of the families of the prisoners, to the drug trafficking often shared with other criminal organizations, both local and of foreign ethnicity. The Mafia's interest in the management of illegal gaming is not negligible, a sector that in recent decades has had a notable development thanks to the expansion of the gaming offer by the State since the end of the 90s of the last century. In this "turnover" inevitably, "new opportunities" are created for
organized crime always ready to infiltrate the lawful gaming chain. In particular, the investigative activity confirmed "the existence of a strong interpenetration between the activity of Cosa Nostra and the management and distribution on the territory
of the gaming and betting rooms in which, every day, a large amount of money moves, often stolen to any form of legal and fiscal control, not easy to quantify, which significantly replenishes the “coffers” of the mafia association to the point of becoming its most conspicuous source of income in recent years.

Furthermore, a strategic planning of drug trafficking emerged in synergy with Calabrian drug traffickers and at the same time on the Colombia-USA-Italy axis. In fact, the strong link between Cosa Nostra and North American crime should not be underestimated. Investigative activities have documented a historical and ever-present centrality of relations with the New York mafia. These aspects have also come to light thanks to the results of the “Crystal Tower” carabinieri operation which led to the arrest of some members of the Torretta family (district of Passo di Rigano-Boccadifalco). In particular, "ancient and solid connections have emerged between the members of the Torretta family and the members of the Inzerillo family who (at least until the advent of the Corleonesi headed by Riina) had commanded the district of Passo di Rigano,
huge drug trafficking. "The documents also reveal interference exercised by the mafia family of Torretta in the construction sector and discontent within the clan about the" division "of some public works.

The illegal landfill business in Messina, 10 arrests

MESSINA - The rumor had spread quickly. The entrepreneurs knew they could turn to the non-profit social cooperative 'Sofia.it' to illegally dispose of mountains of waste. Ten people ended up under house arrest. The Messina judge for preliminary investigations applied the temporary ban on operating a business to 15 other suspects . Company vehicles and complexes were subjected to preventive seizure for a value of over two million euros.

The Mancuso business

The 'Sofia.it', which belongs to the Mancuso family, managed a landfill of 38,000 square meters, in the Corrao district of Gravitelli, a district a few kilometers from the city center. The investigation is coordinated by the Messina anti-mafia district management, still led for a few hours by the prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia, who will take office in Palermo tomorrow. The companies involved, as emerges from the investigations of the Economic and Financial Police Unit from the provincial command of Messina, are allegedly linked to "subjects contiguous to noble mafia clans active in the southern area of ??the city".

The links with Cosa Nostra

At the head of the traffic there would be the reference figure of the Romeo-Santapaola clan for the execution of earthmoving works in the province of Messina. It was the satellite images that immortalized the trucks as they unloaded the "earthwork" coming from different construction sites: tiles, bricks, plastics of any kind, containers, bags and sheets, polystyrene, cardboard, plasterboard, pipes, various crushed stone, scarification, wheels of cars, wooden platforms, parts of furniture for a total of 2,978 cubic meters: 5,333,400 kilos for a corresponding illicit gain of about 220,000 euros.

An ecological bomb in Messina

The helicopters of the air-naval group of Palermo took off to resume the landfill from above.
It is located upstream of the Portalegni stream, on the hills of Messina. An ecological bomb also for the hydrogeological risk. The mountain of waste acts as a stopper for the drainage of rainwater. Thus the floods become disastrous. Building contractors and road hauliers turned to Sofia.it. The costs for waste disposal were cut down. To give a semblance of irregularity, the suspects would also have prepared the documentation at the table.

The arrested

The following ends up under house arrest: Daniele Mancuso, 56 (electronic bracelet and prohibition of contacts with people other than family members); Giuseppe Mancuso, 35 years old (prohibition of contact with non-cohabiting people); Antonio Maita, 60 years old; Andrea Mancuso, 22 years old; Fabio Mangano, 43 years old; Giuseppe Mangano, 51 years old; Antonino Marino, 63 years old; Letterio Mondo, 60 years old; Giuseppe Puliafito, 37 years old; Antonino Romeo, 65 years old.

50 mn seized from Mafia lifer
Man ran two big Sicilian transport companies from prison cell

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 20 - Italian police on Thursday seized some 50 million euros from a Mafia lifer who was continuing to run Sicilian transport companies from his prison cell in Siracusa.
Among the assets seized from Nardo clan member Filadelfo Emanuele Ruggeri were two lots of land, 244 trailers, six luxury cars and several bank accounts.
Police said Ruggeri ran two large transport companies in the province of Siracusa via relatives. (ANSA).

They are not the bosses of Acquasanta. The brothers Angelo, Giovanni and Gaetano Fontana, were acquitted and must be immediately released from prison. To date they are still detained at 41 bis. Sister Rita and mother Angela Teresi also acquitted.

Instead, the hypothesis holds that the Ferrante, who are related to the Fontana family, managed the power.

https://livesicilia.it/palermo-mafia-fontana-ferrante/

Misilmeri, protection money for entrepreneurs and interests on the transport of the sick: six arrests

https://news.italy-24.com/local/157...e-transport-of-the-sick-six-arrests.html

Fugitive Italian rapper Niko Pandetta arrested after lyrics boasted he couldn’t be caught
Tom Kington, Rome
Thursday October 20 2022, 5.00pm, The Times

The career of an Italian rapper and singer who glorified gangster life and claimed, “Officer, you won’t get us” in a massive hit earlier this year has been put on hold by his arrest after going on the run.

Niko Pandetta, 31, sang about his defiance of the law in his track Pistole nella Fendi, which translates as Guns in the Fendi. It became a summer anthem in Italy, with a video that clocked up 38 million views on YouTube.

The nephew of a jailed Sicilian mafia boss, Turi Cappello, Pandetta has courted controversy by claiming his uncle was an inspiration who suggested lyrics from his high-security prison.

Play stupid games,win stupid prizes. Apparently he had 12,000€ on him at time of arrest.

Catania, 30 arrests among Randazzo based clan, mayor and other politicians investigated

Over 200 carabinieri of the provincial command of Catania are carrying out a precautionary custody order, issued by the Gip of the Etna Tribunal, in the provinces of Catania, Cagliari and Rimini. More than 30 suspects accused of “mafia-type association”, “extortion”, “association aimed at drug trafficking”, “illegal possession of weapons and ammunition” and “complicity in violation of home aggravated by violence against things means of fire ”, crimes aggravated by the mafia method.

The operation, coordinated by the Etna Anti-Mafia District Directorate and carried out at the first light of dawn today by the carabinieri of Catania, allowed to disarticulate the Sangani group, operating in the Randazzo area, as a territorial articulation of the Laudani clan, called “mussi i ficurinia “. In addition to a thriving trafficking of cocaine, hashish and marijuana, the investigation has allowed us to document how the suspects have, over the years, exercised an asphyxiating and capillary control of the territory to the detriment of economic activities in the area, whose owners were intimidated. with threats and damages to submit to the payment of the protection money. During the investigations, as evidence of the dangerousness of the association, a real arsenal consisting of pistols, rifles and numerous ammunition was found, buried in a village in the countryside. Furthermore, with reference to the administrative elections of Randazzo of the year 2018, interference by members of the mafia association emerged on the municipal administration and, in particular, on three current and past representatives of that municipality.

The Palermitans would be in contact with Matteo Messina Denaro via Leo Sutera, the historic mafia boss of Sambuca di Sicilia.
His arrest a few years ago created clashes and discontent in the Palermo prosecutor’s office. Some magistrates believed that following Sutera could lead to Matteo Messina Denaro. Sutera received the pizzini from the fugitive from Trapani, read them in the open countryside and finally destroyed them. According to other magistrates, however, the Sutera track would not have brought other results and so they decided to arrest him.
Sutera’s name is linked to the last season in which it is certain that the bosses of three provinces – Palermo, Trapani and Agrigento – acted for common interests. The confirmation came from the reconstruction of some summits. Matteo Messina Denaro, inspirer of the dialogue season, would have participated in the last.

Angelo Castronovo, 65, with criminal records, was shot dead in Palma di Montechiaro (Agrigento). In 1991 escaped an ambush during the war between Cosa Nostra and Stidda

Was he Cosa Nostra or Stidda?

he was an arms trafficker linked with Cosa Nostra

Mafia dei Nebrodi, 91 sentences to 600 years in prison, 10 acquitted
by Editorial staff | 01/11/2022
Ninety-one convicted and 10 acquitted. Thus ended the trial on the so-called Nebrodi Mafia celebrated before the court of Patti. A maxi trial that led to sentences of about six centuries in prison and the seizure of assets for about 4 million euros. It took the college president 35 minutes to read the device.

Among the highest penalties those inflicted on the bosses of the Batanesi clan Aurelio Salvatore Faranda, sentenced to 30 years, and Sebastiano Conti Mica, to 23. The defendants were also sentenced to heavy compensation in favor of the civil parties.

The accusations
The defendants were accused in various ways of mafia association, fraud against the EU, forgery, extortion, fraudulent transfer of values. To instruct the indictment against the mafia "families" of the Nebrodi, the Batanesi and the Bontempo Scavo was the Dda of Messina which in 20 months rebuilt the organization charts of the clans before the court of Patti, revealing the complicity of figureheads and unsuspected professionals.

The cocaine wholesalers linked to the Laudani clan. Drugs are the names of the typical products of gastronomy

Eight people ended up in prison , five under house arrest and another six under investigation for association aimed at drug trafficking and drug dealing . From the investigations of the "Tiffany" operation it emerged that the nerve center would have been near a well- known bar in Aci Bonaccorsi , in the Catanese area. There the movement of a considerable quantity of drugs was identified which then allowed the investigators to rebuild the network of drug dealers and the management system of the shop. Cocaine and marijuana that would then end up in different areas of the Etna area: fromAci Sant'Antonio and Aci Bonaccorsi to San Giovanni La Punta and from Viagrande to Pedara .

An intense activity of buying and selling cocaine, which would have been sold by the wholesale criminal association at a cost of 38 euros per gram . The people involved, many close to the Laudani mafia clan of Catania - such as Giuseppe Bonanno , Daniele Mangiagli and Francesco Vittorio considered the main components of the association.
The quality of the cocaine would have been indicated with code words such as " Africa " ??or " Stella " or by using the name of typical gastronomy products sold in bars .

Uncovering the Italian mafia in Africa

https://innovation.journalismgrants.org/news/2015/uncovering-the-italian-mafia-in-africa

Gela, ambushed to the owner of a pizzeria: saved by the screams of his daughter. "It's serious"

Three hooded men in action. The man was attacked on his way home. The assassins wanted to kill him: the victim is in serious condition at the Villa Sofia hospital in Palermo

He was saved by the screams of his daughter who was looking out from the balcony and witnessed the beating of her father. Screaming, the girl put the three hooded men on the run who savagely beat Daniele Borchio, the 55-year-old owner of a pizzeria in the historic center of Gela who was returning to his home in via San Salvo, in the popular district of Macchitella. An attack organized in detail with the aim of killing the victim, now hospitalized in very serious conditions at the Villa Sofia hospital in Palermo with a head injury. Prognosis is reserved.

The merchant, originally from Caltagirone had been living in Gela for some years. He had recently been investigated for illegal fuel trafficking and in three months he should have appeared before the judge for the preliminary hearing. The commando was waiting for him in front of the house: the man was first taken to the front door of his home , then, while trying to escape, he was chased, reached and beaten again. The daughter who saw the beating from the balcony, screaming, called her mother, who was in her house, and her neighbors. The three attackers got scared and ran away.

Palermo, Lupara Bianca of '90: the limbo of the presumed dead
An unsolved crime and the request of family members
THE CASE
by Riccardo Lo Verso

PALERMO - Thirty-two years of silence. The declaration of presumed death, which the family members of Giovanni Paolo Garofalo ask the Court, will not mark the end of the limbo of pain, but - as the lawyer Giuseppe Di Stefano explains - “serves to close some bureaucratic tasks”.

The bureaucracy, with which we must also deal with a case of white shotgun. It was 1990 when Francesco Paolo Garofalo, considered a cigarette smuggler and drug trafficker, disappeared into thin air. His body was never found again.

About ten years ago, the Public Prosecutor of Palermo hypothesized that the perpetrator of the crime was Francesco Paolo Alfano, head of the Noce district and life prisoner. One that he already commanded in the eighties. Garofalo would have dared to spread the rumor that the boss had acted as a stake for a group of thieves who had stolen an apartment. An offense that Alfano would have washed with blood.

The accusation was based on some old statements of collaborators of justice. The necessary evidence was not found and Alfano was acquitted. The Garofalo crime has remained unsolved, and it will probably be like this forever.

In the meantime, the family members have asked the Court to pronounce the presumed death. If no one comes forward, reading this article too, death will be confirmed.

Operation "Quicksand", 21 arrests in the Lineri clan

Anti- mafia operation by the Catania police, coordinated by the DDA, disrupts the Lineri clan of the Santapaola-Ercolano mafia association. Hundreds of agents, assisted by special departments, have carried out a precautionary custody order against dozens of members of a Cosa Nostra group specializing in extortions requests to entrepreneurs and traders. About twenty companies have been freed from 'pizzo' after years of 'extortion'. The operation was triggered this morning by delegation of the Etna prosecutor by the Catania State Police. In prison 21 suspected of being part of the Cosa Nostra of the Santapaola - Ercolano clan . Among the charges, mafia-type association, extortion, attempted robbery, receiving stolen goods, fictitious registration of assets.

Lupara on Easter day, life imprisonment for the boss Seminara

Sentence to life imprisonment on appeal for Salvatore Seminara, an elderly pastor of Mirabella Imbaccari already definitively convicted because he was considered a dangerous mafia boss, so powerful that he was appointed the provincial head of the Cosa Nostra in Enna, in the mid-2000s. For Seminara, known as "Zio Turiddu", the Court of Appeal of Catania has now confirmed the sentence imposed in the first instance since it was considered among the instigators of the double murder on Easter 2015, in which the 66 year old farmer Salvatore Cutrona and the 27 year old worker Francesco Turrisi were killed.

Cutrona, a native of Aidone, in the past had been very close to Seminara, but in the months before being killed he would have been considered less and less reliable. For this he had to be removed from his role as head of the Raddusa family. And for this they would have decided to kill him. Salvatore Di Benedetto from Palagonia, also considered a boss, was sentenced together with Seminara for the crime.

Messina: anti-mafia operation "Provinciale", heavy sentences for the boss

Heavy sentences for the three clans of the southern area registered in the "Provinciale" operation by the anti-mafia District and by the carabinieri, police and financial police. Judge Claudia Misale decided them at the end of the long preliminary hearing which in recent months has recorded numerous episodes for the 28 defendants who have chosen the abbreviated trial. The harshest sentences inflicted on the three "capi", the bosses Giovanni Lo Duca, Salvatore Sparacio and Giovanni De Luca, 20 years of imprisonment each.

Giovanni Lo Duca, released in 2017, is considered the boss of the neighborhood of Provinciale in southern Messina. When he came out of prison he put the neighborhood back in his hands by controlling drug trafficking, extortions, gambling, but he also had a great social support from the inhabitants of the neighborhood who came to him to ask for various favors like a true godfather.

We see more and more examples of this , in Palermo too , people often turn to mafia for help. Messina is very interesting, much more activity in latest years than in Palermo.

The hunt for the super-fledgling Matteo Messina Denaro never stops. November 8, 2022 the carabinieri of the provincial command of Trapani carried out twelve house searches in the villages of Campobello di Mazara, Partanna and Mazara del Vallo. The control activity was carried out as part of an investigative initiative with the use of military personnel coordinated by Colonel Andrea Pagliaro.

The last massive anti-mafia operation in the Trapani area dates back to last September . With the “Hesperia” blitz, provisions were carried out against 70 people issued by the Palermo Anti-Mafia District Directorate. Of these, 35 were arrested, accused in various capacities, of mafia-type association, extortion, disturbed freedom of enchantments, drug offenses, illegal carrying of weapons, gambling and more, all aggravated by the method and the mafia mode.

Matteo Messina Denaro, the super-boss of Cosa Nostra with a palace in Venice and also the Casino cards

https://news.italy24.press/news/192645.html

Italy 24 Press News
Mafia: Gdf blitz between Sicily and Lombardy, order for 24

(ANSA) – CATANIA, NOVEMBER 16 – An anti-mafia operation, with over 100 soldiers of the provincial command of the Financial Police of Catania, is underway between Sicily and Lombardy.

Financiers are carrying out an order of personal and real precautionary measures issued by the Gip, at the request of the DDA of the Catania prosecutor’s office, against 24 people. The suspects are accused, for various reasons, of crimes of mafia association, extortion aggravated by the mafia method, organized drug trafficking, fraudulent transfer of valuables and possession of weapons.

On the operation, called ‘Tuppetturu’, a name that in Sicilian indicates a small wooden top, a conference will be held at 10.30 in the Koiné room of the Catania economic-financial police unit of the Catania finance police (ANSA).