Thing with Catania is that Cosa Nostra had to deal with the Cursoti who were also very powerful but not part of Cosa Nostra.
The Cursoti clan is a criminal organization, originating from the city of Catania , which takes its name from the Antico Corso area , the place of origin of most of its affiliates. It became known in the 70s-80s for having had logistical and operational bases in Northern Italy ( Milan and Turin , especially), dismantled with the repentance of Salvatore Parisi (operating in Turin ) and Angelo Epaminonda known as the Theban (operating in Milan ) [1] .
Structure
The Cursoti clan is divided into two factions, historically at war with each other:
the first, called the Milanese Cursoti because it has a large group of subjects already operating in Milan , once coagulated around the bosses Luigi "Jimmy" Miano and Angelo Epaminonda known as the Theban . At this moment it is linked by alliance to the Cappello , Sciuto-Tigna and Piacenti clans known as Ceusi. The clan is currently led by brothers Francesco and Carmelo Di Stefano, appointed regents directly by Nuccio Miano following the death of his brother Jimmy, who died in 2005 [2] ;
the second, called the Cursoti of Catania , was led by Giuseppe Garozzo known as Pippo 'u maritatu, firmly linked to the clan historically headed by Santo Mazzei known as ' u Carcagnusu [3] .
History
In the 1970s in Catania the major exponents of organized crime, who also operated in Northern Italy , decided to "consortium" to counter the excessive power of the Cosa Nostra family headed by Giuseppe Calderone and Benedetto Santapaola who, together with their brother Nino (known as Ninu 'u Pazzu ), ordered a series of murders: some criminals who had had the "guilt" of robbing and extorting some entrepreneurs who had the "protection" of the Catania Cosa Nostra [4] were eliminated. Santapaola's opponents were Santo Mazzei ( U Carcagnusu ), Giuseppe Garozzo( U Maritatu ), Antonio Miano (Nuccio) and Luigi Miano (Jimmy). The summits took place in the Antico Corso district , hence their name Cursoti. The gang also had criminal cells in Milan and Turin . Corrado Manfredi was chosen as head of the clan. The investigators of the time described Manfredi as a "character not of very high criminal depth but capable of giving shape to the criminal group" [5] .
In the 70s and 80s the Cursoti were the protagonists of the crime news of many Northern Italian newspapers : Catania , Turin and Milan were bloodied by numerous murders and the Cursoti fire groups were called the "Indians", led by Angelo Epaminonda , who in 1979 were responsible for the famous massacre in Via Moncucco in Milan , at the "La witch" restaurant, in which eight people were killed [6] [7] . On 10 November 1979 , at the San Gregorio di Catania motorway toll booth, a Cursoti commando massacred the three carabinieri Giovanni Bellissima , Salvatore Marrara and Salvatore Bologna , who were escorting the prisoner Angelo Pavone (known as " Angel Face "), affiliated to the Mazzei clan, kidnapped and then found killed eleven days later [ 8] [9] . On 15 January 1982 the target was Manfredi: he was shot dead at the Canova hotel in Milan by Epaminonda 's "Indians" because he was becoming too close to their bitter enemy Santapaola [10] [11]. The murder created tensions among the bosses who aspired to become the new mafia boss. At that point the "criminal consortium" crumbled and three criminal groups still operating today were born: the "Carcagnusi" headed by Santo Mazzei, the "Cursoti Catanesi" with the leadership of Giuseppe Garozzo and the "Milanesi" with the bosses Antonio "Nuccio" Miano and his brother Luigi “Jimmy” Miano.
In 1984 , Epaminonda was captured thanks to the indications of his former wingman Salvatore Parisi (hitman of the Turin Cursoti who became a collaborator of justice) [12] and he also began to collaborate with the judge Francesco Di Maggio [13] [14] : the revelations of Epaminonda produced the maxi-blitz of 19 February 1985 with more than 179 arrest warrants [15] , which was followed by a maxi-trial (the first held in Milan ) which ended with heavy sentences [16] . In the same year, Parisi's declarations led to four hundred arrest warrants executed between Sicily and Piedmontand Lombardy , which induced many of those arrested (including the brothers Roberto and Francesco Miano, leaders of the Turin wing of the Cursoti nicknamed journalistically " clan of Catania ") to collaborate with justice [17] [18] : on the basis of the revelations of these "repentants", the Turin judiciary set up a maxi-trial with 198 defendants which lasted nineteen months, in which many were sentenced to life imprisonment [19] [20] [21] . Francesco Miano's collaboration with the justice system also made it possible to identify those responsible for the murder of the prosecutor Bruno Caccia ,[23] .
In 1991 a violent feud broke out, which pitted on one side the Catania Cursoti, led by Giuseppe Garozzo and Santo Mazzei and supported by the Laudani clan (and therefore by the Santapaola and Malpassoti families ), and on the other the Milanese, headed by Jimmy Miano and supported by the Cappello clan : the war caused over five hundred murders in about five years [1] [24] [25] [26] . In 1992 Mazzei became a full member of Cosa Nostra thanks to the interest of Totò Riina and Leoluca Bagarella, who gave him logistical support to assassinate Alfio Trovato, Jimmy Miano's right-hand man in Milan [27] . In October of the same year, on the orders of Riina and Bagarella, Mazzei placed an artillery piece in the Boboli Gardens in Florence , which did not explode but which he represented for the Court of Assizes of Florence - which in June 1998 judged Cosa 's ghota ours – “ prelude in a minor key to the massacre campaign of '93 ” [28] .
On 17 October 1993 , the investigation by the GICO of the Guardia di Finanza , coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Florence , led to the arrest of Jimmy Miano and other members of the Milanese Cursoti gang, who had their operational base at the car park in via Oreste Salomone in Milan , where they managed massive arms and drug trafficking together with exponents of the Stidda of Gela [29] through the corruption of members of the police force [30] [31] [32]. The GICO investigation caused a sensation because one of the "repentants" who contributed to the investigation, Salvatore Maimone, accused three policemen and some magistrates from the " Mani Pulite " pool (Alberto Nobili, Armando Spataro and Antonio Di Pietro ) of having "covered up " the activities of the fleet in exchange for money and gifts, accusations which later proved to be unfounded [33] [34] .
