who said it? since 1993 Italy is very though on the mafia groups

It took relatively long for specific anti-mafia legislation to be created in response to
this phenomenon. Initially, excesses of mafia crime were considered isolated
incidents, and less serious mafia-related nuisances were dealt with through
administrative public order-based measures.
In the 1960s, the urgency of the need for more repressive measures intensified as
a result of the first Sicilian mafia war. This led to the establishment of a
parliamentary commission tasked with studying the Sicilian mafia. The
commission's report first led to legislation which explicitly declared existing public
order measures applicable to persons suspected of participating in a mafia
organisation. That legislation initiated the process of creating a legal definition for
participation in a mafia organisation. In 1982, the Rognoni-La Torre Act came into
force. This law provided, among other things, for the specific criminal offence of
participating in a mafia organisation and included a number of measures focused
on the seizure and confiscation of criminal assets. Based on this new criminal
provision, the first mega-trial against the Cosa Nostra was prepared. The outcome
of the trial led to an extremely violent backlash from the Cosa Nostra. Several
people were killed, including well-known anti-mafia magistrates. The authorities’
response to this crisis led to innovations in the fight against the mafia, such as the
creation of more specialised authorities and services, a stricter detention regime,
extended possibilities for interception, seizure and confiscation of criminal assets,
as well as specific regulations for suspects collaborating with the justice authorities.
In 2011, the Anti-Mafia Code came into force. This code contains mostly an
overview of preventive measures.

Actually, they got tough on the Mafia long before that. On several occasions throughout the Mafia's history they have been nearly defeated to the point of extinction. But back to the point, I have had people tell me that they get away with so much because Italy isn't as tough on the Mafia as America. That is a common misperception. I've been saying for a long time now that the Mafia in Italy is more powerful today than LCN ever was, even in the face of harsh laws.

Hollander, the guys you mentioned in your last post with Antonino Tranchida, are they all part of Cosa Nostra? Or do they just sell drugs for them and give them a cut? How does the Mafia of Trapani work? Like do they have an initiation ceremony and a made man-type system? I guess I'm just trying to figure out the dynamics over there, it's not as clearly defined in the media as it is in the US it seems.

i think LCN in the 1940s/1960s period was stronger than mafia groups from Italy

Tranchida is a drug dealer who work for/with the mafia but he was not a member... in Trapani there is a traditional Cosa Nostra with ranks, ceremonies etc.

Perhaps you're right m2w, I don't really know. I just look at the asset seizures over there and it's breathtaking the amount of wealth many of the clans are able to accumulate and how deeply embedded they are. They still walk hand-in-hand with politicians over there and exchange hugs and kisses.

Oh that was m2w who posted it lol

Historic bosses die and the "balance" changes with Berlusconi

The substantial change in the existing balances compared to those that had been guaranteed with the 1974 agreement between Berlusconi with the intermediation of Dell'Utri (and Cinà) and "cosa nostra" which was headed by the mafia bosses Bontate and Teresi. After the death of these men, there was the advent of the massacre regency characterized by a higher criminal figure than Salvatore Riina

https://www.editorialedomani.it/com...lusconi-e-cosa-nostra-con-riina-ee2k7mn0

Who was that 'higher criminal figure' ? Licio Gelli ?

I'm surprised at how organized and tightly controlled the drug rings are over there.

From Operation Malerba against the Santapaola-Ercolano clan: "Cosa Nostra continues to control the territory and impose on individual criminal groups the rules, price, and quantity of drugs to be sold, creating a real system of market control."

How big is the Santapaola-Ercolano clan? They seem to have a bunch of different branch clans.

its the biggest and strongest in eastern Sicily

Four arrests made in 2008 Adrano murder case

https://sicilylab.com/four-arrests-made-in-2008-adrano-murder-case/

Wow, just as I mentioned the Santapaolas, arrests are made in one of their centers of power. I think the Laudani clan are their main rivals if I'm not mistaken. Man, be nice to have a Jerry Capeci or Scott Bernstein in Italy lol.

the Laudani's are allied with the Santapaola's, they are a sort of Santapaola's branch

Laudani's are extended arm of Santapaola's. Literally their right hand. Cappello's are biggest 'family' in Catania after Santapaola's but they are independent, not part of 'Cosa Nostra'.

Oh I was mistaken, it was the Cappello clan I was thinking of, not the Laudanis.

They are rivals but not like they used to be before, they are co-existing together now , before Cosa Nostra was hunting down everyone not affiliated with them. Cappello's are very powerful but are independent, while u have Santapaola,Mazzei and Laudani all part of Cosa Nostra.

Thanks Strax.

Most of Stidda is absorbed into Cosa Nostra nowadays, for example Santapaola absorbed whole Pulvirenti clan in late 90's and made all of them , around 50 people into Cosa Nostra.

The ones who didn't get absorbed were killed, for example on March 14 1992 the Stidda killed Antonino Titone, after that Riina sent Matteo Messina Denaro, Giovanni Brusca & Leoluca Bagarella to handle situation, they exterminated Stidda in Marsala in few months.

Isn't the Stidda still powerful in some Sicilian provinces? Like Agrigento and Ragusa?

Stidda started in Agrigento, it was started by people who rebelled against Corleonesi. After fall of Riina and when Provenzano took over , Cosa Nostra started absorbing little by little all of Stidda clans, they absorbed it almost entirely today.

Francesco Marino Mannoia who is one of most reliable informants from Sicilian mafia , said some Stidda members were expelled due to disobedience or even marrying a relative of a police officer. A lot of his relatives were killed after he became informant , even his mother and sister and still after all of that he said his most famous quote: "Many believe that you enter Cosa Nostra for money. This is only part of the truth. Do you know why I entered Cosa Nostra? Because before in Palermo I was Mr. Nobody. Afterward, wherever I went, heads lowered. And this for me was worth any price."

Assets worth three million euros confiscated from Corleone bosses
The hands of the State on the assets of Rosario Salvatore Lo Bue, his son Leoluca and Calogero Lo Bue, deceased, all considered in various capacities exponents of the Cosa Nostra mandate

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

The ROS carabinieri, with the soldiers of the provincial command of Palermo, executed two separate confiscation decrees of the Prevention Measures section of the Palermo court on the proposal of the DDA, in the context of proceedings against Rosario Salvatore Lo Bue, the son Leoluca and Calogero Lo Bue ( in the photo ), deceased, considered in various capacities to be exponents of the Cosa Nostra mandate of Corleone, of which the former was the regent.

The provisions, which became irrevocable following the latest rulings of the Supreme Court, sanctioned the definitive confiscation of banking relationships, homes, land, insurance policies, complexes of company assets and a warehouse, for an estimated value of over 3 million euros. The asset investigations were carried out by the ROS through the cross-referencing of information coming from the revenue agency, from traditional databases and from those used to carry out investigations of crimes in the agri-food sector.

It was ascertained that Rosario Salvatore Lo Bue and his son Leoluca, through frontmen, operated mainly in the agri-food, organic and livestock breeding sectors, also benefiting from the related community contributions. The disparity between the incomes declared by Calogero Lo Bue and the value of the assets registered in his name or in any case attributable to him would have been ascertained, from which it was possible to deduce that the same, in the years in which he was alive, made use of means and availability illicit financial transactions deriving from his membership in Cosa Nostra.

The investigative activities, carried out in support of the investigations conducted by the investigative unit of the Carabinieri group of Monreale and the Corleone company, constitute the completion of the law enforcement activity, also with reference to asset profiles, carried out by the Carabinieri against the Corleone mafia mandate , which emerged weakened by the results of the Patria, All Stars and Grande Passo investigations and by the seizures of assets carried out over time against other exponents of the same district, including those attributable to the deceased mafia boss Salvatore Riina .

The confiscation also includes Calogero Lo Bue's family home in Corleone, indicated in the judicial documents relating to the capture of Bernardo Provenzano as a "post stop" for the forwarding of correspondence destined for the latter at the time.

the boss Giuseppe Laudani was released from the prison of Naples a few months ago and put under house arrests

Anti-mafia operation in Catania, the Pillera-Puntina clan hit

Anti-mafia operation by the Catania Police against the Pillera-Puntina clan.

Dozens of agents are carrying out a precautionary custody order as part of an investigation, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, into the "criminal interests of subjects linked, including by blood ties, to Giacomo Maurizio Ieni".

The crimes hypothesized by the investigating judge, for various reasons, are possession and carrying of common firearms, extortion aggravated by the mafia method, usury, fraudulent transfer of values, association aimed at trafficking in narcotic substances, with the aggravating circumstance of being the armed association, as well as detention for the purpose of drug dealing.

During the Flying Squad's investigations, between 2021 and 2022, in response to the investigative findings, several arrests were made in flagrante delicto for extortion and drug dealing. Recipients of the precautionary measure also belong to other Catania mafia groups. Details on the operation, called 'Double Breasted', will be announced during a press conference to be held at 10.30 in the Police Headquarters offices.

Cosa Nostra: assets worth 6 million euros seized in Palermo
AMTwo thousand 02 December 2023

The financiers of the provincial command of Palermo have executed a decree of seizure of assets for 6 million euros issued by the investigating judge Claudio Bencivinni , at the request of the Palermo prosecutor's office, against 8 people accused of belonging to the mafia family of the Villaggio Santa Rosalia , which falls within the Pagliarelli mandate, and under investigation for drug trafficking and fraudulent transfer of values ??aggravated by mafia purposes. The measures were issued against Giovanni Cancemi , 53 years old, Andrea Ferrante , 48 years old, Rosaria Leale , 33 years old, Francesco Maniscalco , 35 years old, Silvestre Maniscalco , 44 ??years old, Rosario Manno , 57 years old, Leonardo Marino , 34 years old, Salvatore Sorrentino , 58 years old. The investigations are conducted by the economic-financial police unit of Palermo - Gico as part of the operation called "Family Village", during which 33 precautionary measures were carried out on 27 June and 25 were sent to prison. Twenty of the people who ended up in the 'Family Village' investigation by the Palermo Financial Police received citizenship income directly or through their family unit, a benefit which has been suspended.

Sicily region

Mafia: investigation into woman linked to Messina Denaro closed
Charge changed from aiding and abetting a mafia association
PALERMO , 04 December 2023, 3.37pm

ANSA editorial team

The Palermo prosecutor's office has closed the investigation against Laura Bonafede, the teacher from Campobello di Mazara, romantically linked to the boss Matteo Messina Denaro, arrested after the capture of the mafia boss.

The original accusation of aiding and abetting made to the suspect was changed to mafia association.
Laura Bonafede, daughter of the historic godfather of Campobello Leonardo, faithful ally of the Messina Denaro, is cousin of Andrea Bonafede, the surveyor who lent his identity to the boss during the last phase of his hiding.
According to the Palermo Prosecutor's Office - the investigation was coordinated by the prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia, by the deputy Paolo Guido and by the prosecutors Piero Padova and Gianluca de Leo - Laura Bonafede would have been a fundamental piece of the mechanism that for 30 years protected the fugitive of Messina Denaro.

The two, together with the woman's daughter, Martina Gentile, investigated for aiding and abetting and failure to comply with the sentence, would have lived together and would have always seen each other.
"We were a family", wrote the mafia boss in a note addressed to Blu, one of the code names used for the teacher. She took care of the boss's livelihood and safety, she did his shopping during the pandemic in fear that she would get sick and wouldn't be able to leave the house, she shared with him encrypted languages, very secret pizzini, deals and information on the gang.
According to the investigating judge who ordered her arrest, the woman had a sort of adoration for her godfather, a feeling that emerges from the love letters found in the fugitive's hideouts. "Such adoration - wrote the judge - has no possible rational explanation and finds meaning only in total adherence to the spirit, ideals and behavior of one of the most ferocious mafiosi known in Italian territory". Wife of a Cosa Nostra killer, Salvatore Gentile, serving a life sentence for two murders commissioned by Messina Denaro, continued to see the mafia boss until a few days before his arrest.

Her father died in 2020.

https://www.tp24.it/2020/11/22/anti...ss-mafioso-leonardo-bonafede-nbsp/157015

The daughter of Matteo Messina Denaro's lover arrested
The girl whom the fugitive godfather considered like a daughter is under house arrest
Published on: 05/12/2023 – 10:45

The ROS carabinieri arrested Martina Gentile, daughter of the teacher Laura Bonafede, on charges of aiding and abetting and failing to comply with the sentence, the woman who for years was romantically linked to the boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
With regard to the girl, whom the fugitive godfather considered like a daughter, the Prosecutor's Office had already requested her precautionary custody in prison, but the investigating judge did not consider that there were sufficient clues. In light of the new investigative material collected by the Carabinieri, the judge has now ordered the suspect to be placed under house arrest.

The investigations
In the records of the investigation that led to the arrest of Martina Gentile, one of the abettors of Matteo Messina Denaro's fugitive, there are a series of images taken by the police months before the boss's capture on January 16th. In the frames of a video from 17 December 2022, now re-analysed by the carabinieri, the boss's car is seen passing at 10.59 in front of the house of Gentile and her mother Laura Bonafede - both were followed and intercepted by the police engaged in the search for the godfather, – and slow down in front of the door. Scenes immortalized which, however, did not make the investigators suspicious. The analysis of the images carried out by the carabinieri and the pizzini in which Gentile's mother Laura Bonafede, romantically linked to Messina Denaro, recounts the joy she felt in seeing the boss pass by in the car even just for an instant, confirms that while driving the Alfa video cameras there was the wanted godfather.
The exchange of Messina Denaro pizzini between Martina Gentile, arrested today for aiding and abetting the mafia boss, and Lorena Lanceri, one of the boss's women, who ended up in handcuffs in recent months, would have taken place in the architectural studio of the former urban planning councilor of Campobello di Mazara, Stefano Tramonte, where the two women worked. This is one of the details that emerged in the ROS investigation that led to Gentile's arrest. The architect, who resigned in recent months, is under investigation.

a man was shot dead in a ambush in the town of Favara (Agrigento), the victim Francesco Simone, 69, had several criminal records. Police is investigating if local mafia is involved