Mafia arrests may be linked to Scajola
Two police officers among arrests, probe mole suspected

(ANSA) - Naples, May 16 - An anti-mafia round-up of 18 people on Friday - regarding alleged infiltration of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia into the northwestern Tuscan coastal area of Versilia - may be linked to last week's arrest of former Italian interior minister Claudio Scajola, investigators said Friday.
Two police agents, working for the Italian premier's office and the Lower House, were placed under house arrest in Friday's anti-mafia sting, accused of breaching the confidentiality of investigations.
Information leaks indicate that investigators has focused on the hypothesis that a mole may have furnished Scajola with privileged information on criminal investigations.
Scajola was arrested last week on suspicions that he helped former MP and businessman Amedeo Matacena flee Italian justice after a definitive conviction for Mafia links. Prosecutors in the southern city of Reggio Calabria said that they had uncovered "a network of complicity" that Amedeo Matacena "enjoys at high levels and thanks to which he was able to avoid arrest".
They issued a total of eight arrest warrants last week, including one for Matacena himself, who remains a fugitive.
On Friday, the Flying Squads of Caserta and Florence swooped on suspects believed by DDA anti-mafia investigators in Naples to be linked to the powerful Casalesi clan of the Camorra mafia, and to have worked to infiltrate the economic fabric of the Versilia area on behalf of the organized crime syndicate over a period of three decades.
Scajola, before falling from grace after a string of scandals, was a powerful ally of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics...4b0f250422.html

17 'ndrangheta members arrested in the northern city of bologna and charged with drug trafficking

http://bologna.repubblica.it/cronaca/2014/05/14/news/ndrangheta_arresti_ros_di_bologna-86101098/

Italian billionaire arrested for Mafia connections

An Italian dairy billionaire - who once dubbed himself the 'Armani of Mozzarella' due to his power in the world of Italian cheese - has been arrested on mafia charges.

Dairy billionaire Giuseppe Mandara used the might of the Neapolitan mob to build his commercial empire, it is alleged.

The Mandara Group, the biggest producer of buffalo mozzarella in Italy, had been effectively controlled by the notorious Camorra mafia since 1983, investigators say.

The notorious La Torre Clan, which is based in the Caserta province near Naples, allegedly bailed the cheese king out when he was in financial trouble, investing 700 million of the old lira in his company.

The mozzarella mogul was arrested at dawn on Wednesday on suspicion of money laundering and mafia association, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

His mafia associates allegedly used their criminal earnings to pay off debts dating back to the 1970s and intimated land owners whose property he wanted to buy to build warehouses.

The dairy entrepreneur allegedly threw police off tack during the investigation into the disappearance of local politician Antonio Nugnes, who is presumed to have been murdered in 1990 with his remains dissolved in acid.

Mandara was held in 2012 accused of adulterating his prize product, mixing ordinary cow milk with the more expensive and creamier buffalo product.

He has previously been accused of mafia offences but the case was dropped for lack of evidence.

In Italy, Mozzarella DOC is a protected name that is supposed to guarantee the quality of buffalo mozzarella.

In the past the cheese has been the subject of public health scares after it emerged that carcinogenic chemicals were thought to be present in the soil – and the grass eaten by the buffalo – as a result of the illegal dumping of toxic waste by the mafia.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... Mafia.html

Major Drug Bust Arrest Evidence of Italian Mafia’s Presence in Colombia

A Spanish citizen belonging to Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia has been arrested and four tons of cocaine seized in Colombia, in the latest illustration of the Italian organized crime group’s presence in Latin America.

Hermenegildo Ventura Casan, who was arrested in the Atlantic port city of Cartagena on May 15, reportedly served as a link between the European criminal group and the Medellin-based Oficina de Envigado. According to a press release from the Colombian national police (pdf), he oversaw an international drug trafficking network that used Cartagena as the departure point for a route passing through Panama, Costa Rica, Spain and Italy.

According to the release, the drugs were smuggled in containers with recyclable and industrial raw materials, which were shipped with documentation from false export businesses.

Among Ventura’s alleged contacts within the Oficina were the extradited leader of the group, Diego Fernando Murillo, alias “Don Berna,” and other key leaders. The 52-year-old Spaniard is also believed to have maintained contacts within Colombia’s dominant criminal group, the Urabeños.

Ventura’s arrest comes after international police body Interpol issued a “red notice” (international arrest warrant) for the Spaniard, who is also being investigated by authorities in the United States. He is currently being held in capital Bogota, awaiting extradition to Spain. Fourteen other people were captured during the operation.

InSight Crime Analysis

Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta, which is thought to control 80 percent of the cocaine entering Italy, has shown signs of a resurgence in Latin America in recent years. As well as being active in Colombia, they reportedly receive cocaine supplies from Mexico’s Zetas and are known to have established a trafficking route between Guyana and the United States.

The arrest of Ventura comes only weeks after authorities in the Dominican Republic captured another ‘Ndrangheta mobster who was reportedly working on establishing a new drug trafficking route through the Caribbean.

According to international intelligence agencies consulted by InSight Crime, the Spanish city of Barcelona has now become a central negotiating point between Colombian and European mafias, which may explain Casan’s Spanish origins and reported integration into the Italian group, despite the importance of blood ties. The use of a non-Italian middleman could also be intended to lower the profile of the ‘Ndrangheta’s activities in the region.

http://todaycolombia.com/2014/05/major- ... -colombia/

An Italian national who has been living in Kenya illegally was quietly deported last week


An Italian national who has been living in Kenya illegally was quietly deported last week in a top-level security operation following allegations that he had links with the dreaded Mafia.

The Sunday Nation has established that Giovanni De Caro, 70, who security agencies associate with the Milan branch of the international criminal network, was deported on Tuesday after living in Malindi illegally for the last three months. This was his second deportation from Kenya.

On Saturday, Interior and Coordination Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku confirmed that he had signed the deportation order.

“He was deported this week. It is important that we protect ourselves, our children and our country from these kinds of people,” Mr Lenku said.

Malindi is a favourite of Italian investors and tourists, earning it the nickname “Little Italy”. The foreigners largely live by their own rules and impose Italian culture.

De Caro has been a fugitive in Kenya following alleged differences with the Mafia in Italy. He was first deported from Kenya in June 2012 after a Malindi court declared him persona non-grata (an unwelcome person) for his alleged involvement in fraud, forgery and organised crime.

He was also found to have been residing in Kenya illegally since his arrival in 1992. After deportation to Italy, De Caro was jailed for one-and-a- half years by Italian authorities for economic crimes.

Police said that upon completion of his jail term, De Caro flew back to Kenya on February 19 this year and landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. He remained at the JKIA lounge for two days from where he contacted his Kenyan lawyers.

But security sources say De Caro supposedly fell ill at the lounge and sought medical attention.

“His lawyer was able to obtain court orders allowing the subject entry to Kenya for medical attention; thus De Caro was allowed back in,” said a source.

However, De Caro is said to have later travelled to Malindi in unclear circumstances, and allegedly continued operating his hotel business.

De Caro was previously associated with Malindi’s Oasis Village, which has since changed name and ownership.

According to close associates who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Italian had tried to sneak back to Kenya through Mombasa International Airport last November but was re-routed back to Italy.

BANNED FROM HOLDING OFFICE

According to information from Italian court documents, De Caro had been banned from holding any public office in Italy after being found guilty of fraud.

It is said he was among a group that, in 1990, formed a pyramid scheme that defrauded thousands of people of their money before escaping to Kenya.

The scheme, known as Network Florentine, brought together 15 companies and had at least 3,000 members before collapsing in 1991, with the directors making away with shareholders’ money.

Sources within the Italian community in Malindi said that De Caro was feared in the coastal town, with some alleging he may have been a high-ranking Mafia operative in the region. He is even claimed to have intimidated other investors.

“He told me recently that he is back and that I should prepare for the worst, insisting that he would kill me,” said an Italian investor in the hospitality industry, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The alleged presence of the Mafia in the Malindi underworld has long been suspected, but with little evidence. Foreign fugitives are also thought to hide among genuine investors who have pumped billions of shillings into Malindi’s economy.

http://mobile.nation.co.ke/news/Kenya-d ... index.html

Monaco heiress, 77, and her chauffeur die of their wounds after being shot in Mafia-style hit

The head of one of Monaco's richest families has died from gunshot wounds following a suspected Mafia hit.
Hélène Pastor, a 77-year-old heiress who was close to the royals who run the Mediterranean principality, was hit by a hail of bullets on May 6.
She and her chauffeur were attacked outside L'Archet hospital in the French city of Nice, which is a short drive from Monaco.


Now Mrs Pastor has died in Nice's St Roch hospital, where medics had carried out a number of operations.
Her driver, 64-year-old Mohammed Darwish, also succumbed to wounds in the face, neck and stomach – dying on May 10.
Investigators suspect two of Italy's most notorious crime syndicates, the 'Ndrangheta and the Camorra, of carrying out the double assassination.


Both crime gangs are said to be building property portfolios on the French Riviera as they expand their field of operations.
Mrs Pastor's family own buildings worth billions in the area, and detectives believe the Mafia were trying to muscle in.
Mrs Pastor had been visiting her son, Gildo, who runs a car hire company, at the Nice hospital when a solo gunman struck.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...l#ixzz32LfYEJnX

(ANSA) - Naples, May 21 - Italian police on Wednesday arrested five people in connection with two murders in 2001 and 2009 in Camorra turf wars at Ercolano near Naples.
One of those arrested was a minor when the hits were carried out, judicial sources said.

Source: http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_...38c83be386.html

Libs take money of Mafia man

The suspected Mafia godfather of Melbourne helped bankroll a Liberal Party marginal federal seat campaign in the 2013 election, raising the prospect that the proceeds of crime have flowed into Liberal coffers.
The alleged crime figure's fundraising occurred despite Liberal politicians knowing of his suspected involvement in organised crime and in a previous political donation scandal investigated by federal police.
A Fairfax Media investigation can reveal the alleged Mafia boss helped host the "Bruce Campaign Fundraising Dinner", which a Liberal Party memo later described as a "very successful" event, at his Docklands reception centre on March 1 last year.

Federal Liberal MP Russell Broadbent, who has known about the donor's alleged crime ties for several years having been implicated in the 2009 donations scandal, was at the Docklands event with the suspected Mafia boss. The guest speaker at the event was Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy.
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Also at the fund-raiser was Liberal candidate for Bruce Emanuele Cicchiello, long-time Liberal operative and former Bass Coast mayor Neville Goodwin and state Liberal MP for Hastings Neale Burgess.
The alleged Mafia boss has been previously described by police in court as a person allegedly involved in "murder, gunshot wounding and arson". He has been named as a suspected hitman in two coronial inquests in the 1990s and identified in a recent police intelligence briefing as the leader of a ''well established'' Calabrian Mafia cell in Melbourne that remains a powerful presence at Victoria's wholesale fruit and vegetable market.

The Liberal donor has close associations with Melbourne's senior Italian organised crime identities, including an alleged drug trafficker who co-owns the Docklands function complex where the Liberal event was held, Waterfront Venues Melbourne.
This alleged drug trafficker was given a visa in 2005 after the suspected Mafia boss lobbied and donated to the Liberal Party as part of a campaign to have the Howard government overturn its decision to deport the man on character grounds. Allegations from a Liberal insider that the donations amounted to a bribery attempt were investigated by the federal police in 2009 in a probe that generated significant publicity.
The alleged Mafia boss and his associate who was granted a visa cannot be named due to a criminal court suppression order.
Liberal sources confirmed that hire of Waterfront Venues Melbourne was donated by the alleged Mafia boss for the $250-a-head dinner. Food and drink was also heavily subsidised. Expensive items were also auctioned off at the event, including a helicopter ride for two and a dinner.
No specific records of the fund-raiser have been lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission, with Liberal sources saying the individual donations made as part of the event were under the $12,100 disclosure threshold.
Despite being the subject of numerous organised crime probes, the alleged mob boss has never been charged with a criminal offence and denies any involvement in organised crime or political bribery. The federal police bribery probe was closed after gathering insufficient evidence.
The revelations come as the Independent Commission Against Corruption probes donations by colourful business identities to Liberal politicians in NSW.
Mr Broadbent declined to respond to repeated requests from Fairfax Media for comment. The Liberal MP previously lobbied the Howard government to give the suspected Mafia figure's associate a visa, despite authorities arguing he should be deported because he was a criminal.
The figure was issued a visa on humanitarian grounds in 2005. Mr Broadbent was one of four Liberal MPs who lobbied to overturn the man's deportation who were investigated by federal police in their 2009 probe.
In 2012, the crime figure and the suspected Mafia boss took over the Docklands venue where the Bruce campaign fund-raiser was later held. A third owner of Waterfront Venues Melbourne is a relative of late Mafia godfather Rosario Gangemi, who died in 2008 and was previously identified by police as a top Mafia leader allegedly involved in murder and racketeering at Melbourne's fruit and vegetable wholesale market.
Fairfax first sought to question Mr Broadbent in 2009 about why he had attended fund-raisers with the alleged Mafia figure and his associates. It is believed that Mr Broadbent's relationship with the alleged Mafia figure is more extensive than publicly known.
The pair are believed to have met on several occasions in the company of a small number of other donors, with Mr Broadbent having facilitated meetings between the man and senior state and federal Liberal Party figures, including Bruce Billson and Amanda Vanstone.
State Liberal MP and former lower house Speaker Ken Smith, and his former electorate staffer and ex-Bass Coast mayor Neville Goodwin have also previously been involved in fund-raising and charity events with the alleged Mafia boss dating back to the mid 1990s.
The alleged Mafia figure has helped raise thousands of dollars for the Liberals in Melbourne's outer south-east, where he is perceived to hold influence over voters of Calabrian heritage.
Asked about his association with the alleged Mafia boss, Mr Smith said: "He's never asked me for anything. I take people as I find them.''
The suspected Mafia boss has a business empire spanning Victoria, including stalls at the wholesale fruit and vegetable market, property developments, supermarkets and involvement in the nationwide La Porchetta pizza chain. He has also had dealings with NSW Liberal Party donors, including real estate agent Pat Sergi. Mr Sergi, named in a 1979 royal commission as a money launderer for the Mafia, was recently called as a witness at the NSW ICAC hearings into Liberal Party fund-raising.
A spokeswoman for Mr Guy said the minister "was invited to attend the [Docklands] function by the Liberal campaign for Bruce. The minister had no role in organising the event or its guest list."
Mr Goodwin confirmed he has known the owner of the venue for several years, while Mr Burgess said he attended the Docklands function as a guest of a prominent market gardener in his electorate who had taken a table at the event, and did not know who owned the venue.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/libs-take-money-of-mafia-man-20140522-38rrq.html#ixzz32ScDtEFn

Top Camorra mobster turns State witness
Antonio Iovine is one of 4 ex bosses of powerful camorra clan


22 May 2014
(ANSA) - Naples, May 22 - A top Camorra mobster, Antonio Iovine, has started to collaborate with anti-mafia prosecutors in the southern Campania region, Italian media reported Thursday.
Iovine, also known as 'o ninno', is considered one of the four former bosses of the powerful Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta, whose death threats have forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano into 24-hour police protection.
The others are Francesco Bidognetti, Francesco Schiavone (aka Sandokan) and Michele Zagaria.
Iovine, 50, is currently serving a life sentence for multiple murder and other crimes after being captured in autumn 2010 following 15 years on the run.
He was handed the definitive sentence in January 2010 following the 12-year so-called Spartacus maxi trial against the Casalesi clan, in which Bidognetti, Schiavone and Zagaria were also sentenced to life imprisonment.
"When last December I wrote that Antonio Iovine was considering turning State witness, I was called a visionary," wrote Saviano Thursday in a tweet.
"It has happened," he continued.
Naples Mayor and former magistrate Luigi de Magistris also hailed the development Thursday.
"It is positive that breaches are being made in Camorra clans and that there is collaboration with the judiciary," De Magistris said.
"The most damaging blows to mafia organisations have been made also thanks to the collaboration ofSstate witnesses," he said.
Close relatives of Iovine, including his wife Enrichetta and his son Oreste, have been transferred to a secret location outside the province of Caserta for protection.

^^^^ this is huge news..

His father must be rolling over POS, hes one of the financial guys I remember reading. Did he have any contact with MMD I doubt but hes gonna be knowledgeable about so much shit, should be exciting for us.

Italian crime families use Malta to launder dirty money
News magazine l’Espresso says Malta features in Camorra’s network of shop fronts for the laundering of their narcotics empire
Matthew Vella
May 22, 2014


Camorra in Malta? The investigative news magazine l’Espresso seems to think so. They are setting up shop on the island with fronts masquerading for money laundering operations, serving up bad food at the front of the house while their dirty cash gets ‘washed’ in the back.

‘How the Camorra became European’ – writes Giovanni Tizian – who goes far as describing the island’s entertainment mecca, Paceville, as “free territory” for the Neapolitan mobsters.

“Restaurants, discos, casinos and nightclubs. The ideal place to invest hard cash. The Casalesi here have banked on restaurants and gambling. Nicola Schiavone planted part of his family’s fortunes here – now he is locked up in the 41 bis,” Tizian writes of the maximum-security jail that houses convicts from the organised crime families.

According to turncoat Francesco Della Corte, Schiavone’s right-hand man Nicola Della Corte “handled the clan’s economic interests in Malta, Romania, Corsica, Elbad and Emilia Romagna.”

Despite the alleged inexistence of the kind of violence and deep-rootedness of Mafia-style criminality, the links with Sicilian gangs and local criminality have long been established. While gangs from the Cosa Nostra families and Camorra clans benefit from the weak state in the south of Italy, in Malta they find intimate connections with top businessmen, links with political patrons, and financial and legal know-how for their money laundering activities.

An Italian magistrate’s dossier and transcripts on conversations between the deceased boss of the Resuttano mandamento of the Sicilian Mafia, Gaetano Fidanzanti (first reported in MaltaToday in February 2014) and an Italian connection seeking to set up a gaming business in Malta – in MaltaToday’s possession – names a prominent business group and its chairman as a possible hook-up to set up shop on the island.

It’s no secret that Sicilian traffic to Malta provides casinos, of which there are none on the Sicilian island, with up to 50% of their business: connections made with Sicilian businessmen and similar ‘men of honour’ are easy to make.

“The way money laundering works is… the money has to arrive in Ireland, then return to Italy, and then make psychopathic turns. The secret is to never let it stop, move it continuously to clean it, until it cannot be whiter. Europe has become a large washing machine,” Tizian writes.

Nicola Schiavone was arrested in 2010 in his villa in Casal di Principe, the small town north of Naples where his clan is based. He is the son of imprisoned mobster Francesco Schiavone, reputedly the long-time top boss of the clan. Nicola Schiavone was wanted in connection with three murders.

Fighting money laundering

The use of Maltese bank accounts and international wire transfers have featured in the vast majority of suspected transactions reported to the police and Malta’s financial intelligence analysis unit (FIAU) in 2013.

29 suspected offences were reported to the police in 2013, the highest amount since 2008, the majority pertaining to suspected fraudulent activity.

“The main trend observed during the year as that most cases referred to the Police for investigation involved the use of a company registered in Malta having at least one non-resident foreign beneficial owner. Once again, the use of Maltese bank accounts and international wire transfers featured in the vast majority of the cases reviewed,” the FIAU said in its annual report.

“As observed in 2012, the use of companies licensed by the LGA (Lotteries and Gaming Authority) to operate in the remote gaming sector also featured in a number of cases referred to the police for investigation. Similarly, companies licensed or authorised by the MFSA (financial services authority) to provide services were identified as having potentially been used to disguise the origin of criminal proceeds,” the FIAU said.

The LGA says individuals involved in the gaming sector are closely kept under review and monitored to make sure that the fit and proper test is satisfied at all times.

“Malta has a strong reputation in this industry and a number of EU member states use Malta as a best practice model to launch remote gaming regulations in their own countries,” the authority said.

↓http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/natio ... 4A2VNLPaSp

Right. And he's one of the 4 top bosses of Camorra. He has nothing to say about MMD, and I'm sure has no clue where he is anyway.
The thing with these guys, in the rare times that a boss would rat in Italy..they give bits and pieces of info, and half-truths. They throw out just enough info to get them out of the harsh 41-bis regime in jail, which is what this guy will be under if he doesn't speak. Still, plenty of people are going to suffer now because of this.

That's pretty much it. But being half-a-rat is like saying someone's a little pregnant. Because there are still going to be labor pains.

This is surprising, though. Not shocking; nothing shocks me anymore. But it's still surprising.

You seem to be knowledgeable about the Italian mafia in Italy/Europe. I know the Italian organizations have a strong influence on local politicians and possibly the police. I am ignorant on how deep is the mafia in corrupting the police. But can you tell me how corrupt is the local police or state police and what relations do they have with the local captains or bosses. Is it as deep as the cartels in Mexico are with the local and state authorities or is it much less or less obvious.

^^ I really couldn't answer that, BP. From what I've seen, and what I know...the local carabinieri seem to take their job very seriously. Politicians, that's a given that they're corrupt, but I haven't seen that with the local police, but I'm not there to really speak on this.

8 people, included 4 carabinieri, were arrested in the town of Gela and charged with mafia association, extortions, frauds and other crimes.This was 10 days ago.

So what are you saying is that the local police aren't as corrupt as the local police in Mexico. But I don't get if the local police are corrupt and complicent as the local authorities. Do the local bosses have some juridisction over the local police or what?

I am guessing the caribineri are the local authorities. But what I don't get is how are the local authorities so anti mafia?

So the local police has power over the local bosses or what? It's hard to images that. I thought the Italian mafias more powerful than what you are telling me? I mean if they are.getting arrested by the local authorities doesn't that mean they don't have power over the local politicians or police?

no western european country is as corrupted as mexico

and as far as italy is concerned, I agree with carmela, law enforcement agencies do take their job seriously.

especially anti-mafias squads.

A trader of 42 years was killed in the evening in Palermo under the eyes of his daughter in front of his market .

Translated by:google translate from italian.

Luankuci Mexico is not in Europe bro.

I don't think u understood it good.He didn't say that Mexico is in Europe,he said there is no country in western Europe that is corrupted as Mexico.lol whatever i said now....

12 arrested in anti-Camorra mafia sweep
Probe sheds light on turf war between rival Ponticelli clans

(ANSA) - Naples, May 27 - Police on Tuesday arrested 12 people in an anti-mafia sweep against the Campania region's Camorra crime syndicate.
The suspects, who are said to belong to the De Micco clan operating in the Ponticelli district of Naples, were arrested on charges of mafia association for drug trafficking, attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms. In total, 14 people have been placed under investigation in connection with the probe. Two suspects are currently on the run. Investigations showed how some alleged De Micco clan members wore a tattoo reading 'Bodo' - the clan's nickname - followed by the words "respect, fidelity and honour". Police also uncovered an accounts book recording profits from criminal activities and monthly payments to be made to affiliates, as well as legal and weapons expenses. The investigation also shed light on the ongoing turf war between the De Micco clan and the rival D'Amico group, which led to the murders of respective clan members in January and March 2013. The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta and the Neapolitan Camorra have posed the most powerful threats to the legal economy in recent years, outstripping Sicily's Cosa Nosta.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2014/05/...fc723b6454.html

Political corruption 'helped Mob thrive', says Camorra boss
Iovine says Neapolitan mafia not solely to blame for crimes

(ANSA) - Naples, May 28 - Antonio Iovine, a top Camorra boss turned State witness, has told prosecutors that the Neapolitan mafia was able to thrive thanks to the complicity of widespread corruption in the local political system. "There was money for everyone in a system that was completely corrupt," Iovine told investigations days ago. "It made no difference what political side a mayor came from because the system operated, and operates, in the same way...
"I'm well aware of the crimes that I've stained myself with. But I'm explaining to you a system in which the Camorra is not the only one to blame". Iovine's statements were rendered public on Wednesday after being presented as evidence in a criminal trial. Iovine, also known as 'o ninno', is considered one of the four former bosses of the powerful Casalesi Camorra clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta, whose death threats have forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano into 24-hour police protection.
The others are Francesco Bidognetti, Francesco Schiavone (aka Sandokan) and Michele Zagaria.
Iovine, 50, is currently serving a life sentence for multiple murder and other crimes under Italy's tough prison regime for organised criminals, the so-called article 41-bis, after being captured in November 2010 following 15 years on the run.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in January 2010 along with Bidognetti, Schiavone and Zagaria following the 12-year so-called Spartacus maxi trial against the Casalesi clan.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_...20460350f8.html

Plans of Palermo courthouse attack leaked to security forces
After letter with death threat to Palermo chief prosecutor

(ANSA) - Palermo, May 28 - An attack on the Palermo courthouse is allegedly in the planning, confidential sources said Wednesday.
Judicial sources confirmed the news, and Sicilian public-order authorities are gathered in an emergency meeting to discuss new security measures.
A letter containing death threats to Palermo chief prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato and the carabinieri officer in charge of courthouse security was delivered to the ANSA Palermo newsroom earlier on Wednesday.
"Watch out we've prepared a crackling present for Scarpinato and the courthouse carabinieri chief," said the missive signed P.R.A.
The initials are unknown to security forces. Scarpinato was the chief prosecutor in the 1996-2004 trial of former premier Giulio Andreotti, who was found guilty of long-term Mafia association but acquitted on grounds that the crime had timed out.
Scarpinato has also led hard-hitting investigations into the slayings of anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, as well as into the relationship between the Mafia and the masons, the Mafia and the financial system, and alleged negotiations between the State and the Mafia.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2014/05/...9dd6e76aee.html

Well I guess the local authorities are heavily funded by the state then but from what I see or read from mw2 is that politicians,public officials and bussinessman are much more opportunistic and are lured to make money with the Mafia. What you have in Italy is industrial corruption something that doesnt happen in Mexico at least not done by the cartels. Sure there is corruption in Mexico but the corruption caused by the cartels is mainly with the local and some areas with the state police agencies like the AEI. What you have in Italy or at least southern Italy is a cultural problem with the Mafia where doing (illegal) bussiness with the mafia is the normal. It might appear that Mexico is more corrupt(probably is but its caused by politicians keeping some public money in their pocket not cartels doing bussiness with politicians) because of the occassional shootouts and police corruption but the federal authorties/army/marines and.federal government are very anti-cartel and not to mention the DEA in Mexico feeding information to the federal authorities. Lots of capos and captains of all levels have been killed or captured by the federal authorities. Not to mention they get beaten by the army or federal police to confess crimes. I think it would be more efficient to pump all those billions into the local authorities instead of having the army and marines going after them. That way the local police wont have to rely on cartel and citizen bribes to earn a decent living and curb stomp cartel activities more efficiently. Its just unfortunate that the PRI doesnt want to give power to the state.governments like the PAN did. But there ARE European countries more corrupt than Mexico including Russia and many slavic states.

Your kidding rite? Politicians in mexico dont take money from cartels???? Thats hilarious