The new Cosa Nostra after Messina Denaro: new pacts with the 'Ndrangheta to return as a protagonist in the world of narcos The drug dealing squares delegated for years to Central African groups are returning to the bosses
GIUSEPPE LEGATO
01 August 2023 at 01:00 3 minute read
How is the Cosa Nostra orphaned by its king? The prosecutor of Palermo Maurizio Delucia pauses to then open the book of the new Sicilian mafia, the one that already before – and even more so after – the arrest of the last mass murderer Matteo Messina Denaro, had ended up being subordinate to the neighboring (geographically ) Calabrian 'Ndrangheta. And who is now dealing with a re-start strategy with all the most dangerous protagonists of the season of attack on the state - or in any case of the so-called military wing - in prison or in the cemetery. "Before becoming militarily strong again, an impoverished organization must become economically rich again," said the head of the Palermo prosecutors in front of the parliamentary anti-mafia commission. Here's the point is this. From 1992 onwards the leaders ended up in prison, a continuous action «as it had never been in the past». And this made sense (and weight) in the tortuous path of the real fight against crime because it "ended up undermining the sense of impunity on the one hand and creating a vulnerability in mafia thinking declined on the perception of the convenience for the younger generations to join – said the prosecutor of Palermo in a recent hearing before the parliamentary anti-mafia commission – to criminal structures of this type». There is therefore a mafia that wants and must relaunch itself on trajectories of discontinuity at least with the recent past. And this made sense (and weight) in the tortuous path of the real fight against crime because it "ended up undermining the sense of impunity on the one hand and creating a vulnerability in mafia thought declined on the perception of the convenience for the younger generations to join – said the prosecutor of Palermo in a recent hearing before the parliamentary anti-mafia commission – to criminal structures of this type». There is therefore a mafia that wants and must relaunch itself on trajectories of discontinuity at least with the recent past. And this made sense (and weight) in the tortuous path of the real fight against crime because it "ended up undermining the sense of impunity on the one hand and creating a vulnerability in mafia thinking declined on the perception of the convenience for the younger generations to join – said the prosecutor of Palermo in a recent hearing before the parliamentary anti-mafia commission – to criminal structures of this type». There is therefore a mafia that wants and must relaunch itself on trajectories of discontinuity at least with the recent past.
In the first days of last June the merchant vessel Plutus, flying the flag of Palau, had set sail from the port of Santo Domingo. First stop in the intermediate ports of Trinidad and Tobago. On 7 July you docked for a few hours in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, Spain) to then pass through the Strait of Gibraltar and head towards Sicily. Close to the Italian coasts, more than one investigator notes that the cargo ship makes several changes of course with respect to the route reported to the maritime authorities. Strange. And then someone turned off the tracking system. It is in those situations that the fishing boat "Ferdinando di Aragona", departing from the Calabrian coast, approaches the ship. The order arrives peremptorily from the Palermo DDA and Gico's financiers intervene. About fifteen people are transhipping 5, 3 tons of pure cocaine from one boat to another. Arrests and maxi-seizure, the second largest in Italy after the 5.5 tons of white gold intercepted in 1995 in Borgaro Torinese. As then, even today there is also the 'Ndrangheta behind such an impressive load. In this segment "we have very recent investigations - says Delucia - which prove how Cosa Nostra is re-establishing and reopening relations with the Calabrian gangs and which certify how the importation is agreed with them". Again: "Even if the 'ndrine have in fact a monopoly on cocaine trafficking, it is equally evident that a brand such as Cosa Nostra does not abandon itself". A deal for everyone. Nostalgia for the glories (and methods) of the past also emerges in a renewed control of drug dealing squares until recently delegated to criminal organizations of North African origin. Territory control does not go out of fashion. The recent arrests in the Zen/2 district prove it. Between via Agesia in Syracuse and via Fausto Coppi, a 24-hour super market. The carabinieri of the Compagnia di San Lorenzo arrested 17 people, many Italians in an investigation conducted between October 2021 and February 2022. Lavish earnings (300,000 euros per month) and requests from all over the province
The old adage "sometimes they come back" does not apply only to business channels, but also to some families who emigrated to America during Salvatore Riina's bloody management of the Cosa Nostra. They fled to escape a slaughter or a death sentence issued as an edict by the most violent of the Corleonesi to annihilate the internal resistance to his ascent within the "Commission". And this is how now, far from the echo of the guns of that season, old faces reappear trying to recover the old power. However, the logarithm to reach it is always the same: money. And there is nothing better than drug trafficking to smooth out handicaps compared to those who have always stayed to do business in Sicily. Delucia says: «In Agrigento we are recording a return of the “Stidda” phenomenon born between the 1980s and 1990s which for a certain period had seemed to most to have been eradicated. However, we are aware of old (and new) subjects who come together to create an organization that in some way is in dialogue with the Palermo Cosa Nostra». But the Fascellas of Santa Maria del Gesù have also returned. And in recent months, the boss of Partanna Mondello Michele Micalizzi, 73, the son-in-law of the boss Rosario Riccobono, and Salvatore Marsalone, 69, have also ended up in handcuffs. , in the seventies one of the most trusted drug traffickers for the "prince" Stefano Bontade.
A fight that is fought with returns to (and from) the past, but also with the best modern technology in terms of communications. The Sicilian bosses buy encrypted mobile phones from the narcos of the 'Ndrangheta. Complicated software to "pick". Not always though. The Gico of the Guardia di Finanza managed to identify some encrypted telephone users located close to the A 20 Palermo-Messina motorway shortly before the 5-ton maxi-seizure. They were Dutch numbers connected to the fast.m2m server which allows you to exchange information through a network called: "Machine to Machine (M2M)". On this point, the prosecutor of Palermo was clear: «The wiretapping mechanism puts us behind the technological methods that the mafias use. We have - says Delucia - by now a series of important communications between mafiosi who transit on encrypted platforms and we are late. Some European police forces have managed to enter it, we still haven't ». And among the difficulties that dot the road of this struggle there is also «a decrease in pentiti both in terms of quality and quantity. This - says the head of the judicial office of Palermo - also depends on the current state of Cosa Nostra from the numerous arrests of the past.
