Carabinieri blitz in Catania triggered the arrest of 26 members of the Misterbianchese clan, protagonist of the bloody mafia war of the 90s against the group of Giuseppe Pulvirenti, of Malpassotu. Furthermore, the investigation shed light on one of the murders of that era and precisely that of the Christian Democrat city secretary Paolo Arena, shot dead on 28 September 1991.

The raid was taken this morning at dawn.handling and laundering in competition, illegal possession and possession of illegal weapons, fraudulent transfer of values ​​and corruption, with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method. The magistrate has also ordered the seizure of current accounts, real estate and commercial activities for a total value of over 1,500,000 euros.

Further details, with names and details, will be provided during a press conference. Today's blitz arrives a few days after the murder in Chiavari of the former repentant Orazio Pino, one of the protagonists of that mafia war.

Found this article....

I knew, even if they have a lot of production, there's NO WAY Sicily makes the best marijuana or concentrates in Europe. They control the LOCAL market.....

Holland, still I believe has the BEST stuff, and all the hash is still the preferred concentrate, which is still dominated by Gangs from Naples I believe.....




https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/palermo-cannabis-mafia-sicily-drugs-a8830756.html

True, but if the sicilians got the expertise and seeds from Holland they can produce high quality themselves.

Camorra doesn't dominate the Dutch hashish market as far as I know.

Moroccans living in the Netherlands definitely bring in a ton of hashish because they can directly source it from their native area in the Riff. The stuff is solid quality.

The, in my opinion, best hashish in the Netherlands is still stuff that's trafficked by the Dutch networks (often 'Kampers' from Brabant and South Holland). They mostly have direct lines to Pakistan and Lebanon to source the stuff.

Albanians move a shitload of hashish around Europe, including the Netherlands, as well. They seem to take a quantity over quality approach, but it's solid enough.

The established Italian community in the Netherlands has never been publicly associated with Italian organized crime, but from an internal report it can be concluded that between 1989 and 1990 about 30 criminal investigations were conducted in various places in the country into the big three mafia groups. But the first reports in the 70s did not relate to the Italian mafias but to members of the American Genovese family, who belonged to Meyer Lansky.
There is no doubt that the well-known Mafia organizations are involved in criminal activities (or have them carried out) on Dutch territory. Clans of cosa nostra have imported drugs directly and indirectly - via Belgium and Germany - from the Netherlands. Contact persons in both The Hague and Amsterdam were called in for this. South American cocane importers maintain close contacts with representatives, brokers, of one or more camorra clans in Amsterdam, via a few Italian restaurants (in the city and its surroundings).
Italian anti-mafia investigations have shown how the 'ndrangheta has used the Netherlands for its cocaine trafficking since the 1980s.

They definitely set up shop in the Netherlands. I don't think they have much interest in any kind of local "control" in the Netherlands though.

Belgium seems to have a bit more noticeable Italian OC activity. I'd say Belgian Limburg is one of the most important bases abroad for the Ndrangheta. Liege and other parts of Wallonia on the other hand are more Sicilian. They're all over though; a few years ago a Camorra member was arrested in Antwerp for raids on a few jewel shops throughout Belgium.

In 2011 Belgian intel still named Italian OC the most prevalent kind of "foreign" OC with at least 24 active criminal networks connected to the Cosa Nostra, Ndrangheta and Camorra. Italian OC was followed by Dutch, Albanian, Moroccan, Turkish (including Turkish-Assyrian and Turkish-Kurdish) and to a lesser extent "Russian" (including Russian and Georgian Jewish, Chechen, Georgian, Armenian, Azeri, Georgian Kurdish), Israeli, Chinese, Greek and Lebanese networks.

9-yr term requested for Mannino
Former Christian Democrat bigwig on trial over State-Mafia talks

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...1c34068-494e-4b7e-8143-da0cb40a6414.html

Antonio Di Liberto, 48, was shot dead in the town of Belmonte Mezzagno (Palermo); he was the brother of the ex mayor Pietro, close to the local mafia family.

Brother of former Sicilian mayor killed
Near Palermo

(ANSA) - Palermo, May 8 - The brother of a former mayor in Sicily was killed by gunshot wounds near Palermo on Wednesday.
Antonino Di Liberto, 49, was murdered at Belmonte Mezzagno, about 20 km from the Sicilian capital.
His body was found face down in his car parked in Via Umbria, police said.
He was the brother of the former mayor of the town, Pietro Di Liberto.
He worked as an engineer for a firm which lost a contract from power giant Enel because it was accused of having family links to Cosa Nostra.
Carabinieri are leading the murder probe.

Major hit !!

Antonio Di Liberto is a cousin of Filippo Bisconti, the boss of Belmonte Mezzagno who has repented and who in recent months has filled out reports by reconstructing the Cosa Nostra business not only in the area between Misilmeri and Belmonte Mezzagno but above all in Palermo.

Bisconti was arrested along with Settimo Mineo as they tried to rebuild the Cupola and restore order among the families.

I think he was killed because of his cousin , Bisconti. He was shot dead in his bmw.

This is like the old days when they go after relatives.

Italian PM sacks Salvini ally suspected of corruption and mafia ties

https://www.thelocal.it/20190508/it...r-suspected-of-corruption-and-mafia-ties

The mafia boss mentioned is Messina Denaro.

Italian anti-mafia champion sentenced for corruption

Sicilian member of Italy’s employers’ organization found guilty of links to the mob.

A former anti-mafia champion, Antonello Montante, was sentenced to 14 years in jail on Friday for a string of offences including corruption, according to Italian media reports.

Montante, who has always denied the charges against him, was the national spokesman on legal issues for Italy's employers’ organization, Confindustria, as well as the head of its Sicilian branch.

The sentence was tougher than expected as the prosecution had asked for 10 years. It could have been higher still; the jail time was cut by a third because of the type of trial Montante agreed to. Without that, he would have been jailed for 21 years: “Almost like a murder,” complained Giuseppe Panepinto, one of his lawyers, who said an appeal would be launched.

A probe was launched in 2015 after a string of mafia turncoats told prosecutors that, despite his attacks on organized crime, Montante was actually involved with Sicilian mob bosses — in particular Vincenzo Arnone and his father Paolino, who were best men at Montante's wedding in December 1980.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors uncovered what they dubbed "the Montante system" — a complex web of informants whose job it was to provide the former Confindustria man with information on his rivals and on the probe into his alleged mob links.

Prosecutors said they found a haul of documents in January 2016 in a room in Montante's villa at Serradifalco, near Caltanissetta in central Sicily. There were dossiers on politicians, prosecutors, investigators and others full of details collected by his informants. The suspicion is that the dossiers were to be used for blackmail, wrote the daily La Stampa.

The sentence “shows the gravity of the so-called Montante system,” said Nicola Morra, chairman of the Italian parliament's anti-mafia commission. However, Montante's lawyer Panepinto said his client had been set up by the mafia.

It's not the first time an anti-corruption figure has been arrested for such offences. In 2015 Roberto Helg, then head of Palermo’s chamber of commerce and a leading figure in the fight against corruption, was arrested after pocketing €100,000 extorted from a local businessman, although in that case the mafia was not involved.

Prosecutors have long denounced attempts by the mafia to infiltrate anti-corruption efforts in a bid to delegitimize them.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/ant...ScxmyB2TvhjLVbuiD39OVA_LI-ZCPkbbjTAiHfCM

What would you say are the strongest Sicilian clans these days?

Just by sheer number, it seems like the most clans are situated in Palermo and its province followed by the province of Agrigento.

Clans from Palermo followed by Trapani not Agrigento. Trapani is Sicilian mafia powerhouse for last 40 years.

In Sicily you have families that have much bigger power than mafia clans. For example you have Guttadauro's,they are members of multiple clans from all over Sicily,they are extremely rich and powerful. Giuseppe 'The Doctor' Guttadauro who is prime of Palermo hospital , is boss of Roccella family,probably member of freemasonry too,he is close to powerful politicians.Carlo Guttadauro capodecina of Bagheria family and Filippo Guttadauro powerful member of Castelvetrano family.

Then you have D'Ali's.(Matteo Messina Denaro's father started as armed guard for them) Antonio D'Alì Sr. was CEO of Banco Sicula,one of biggest private banks in Sicily,he was also member of P2. His son Antonio D'Alì jr. is a senator for Silvio Berlusconi's party Forza Italia, he was also under-secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, the institution responsible for fighting organised crime. Giacomo D’Alì is a counsellor of the Banca Commerciale Italiana in Milan. Antonio D'Alì jr. was photographed meeting with powerful Sicilian mafia members last year.

Thanks for the info. It does seem like Agrigento has a lot of mandamenti though; 10 as opposed to 4 in Trapani.

They have 7 mandamenti: Agrigento, Palma di Montechiaro, Burgio, Canicattì, Santa Margherita Belice, Cianciana and Santa Elisabetta.
Of course there are also stiddari operating there.

Stiddari and Cosa Nostra are working together in these past years.

A mafioso authorized the murder of his daughter.

"Better a dead daughter than separate," repeated Antonino Pipitone, an authoritative adviser to the Acquasanta mafia family. He could not bear that his daughter Lia attended a distant cousin, who had become her best friend; in the neighborhood it was said that the two young people had an extramarital affair. And the confirmation seemed to arrive when the young woman announced that she wanted to leave her husband, to go far from Palermo. An affront to the Cosa Nostra subculture.

"The murder was designed within the mafia environment and had to be carried out by simulating a robbery", writes judge Maria Cristina Sala in the reasons for the sentence that on July 17th sentenced Vincenzo Galatolo and Nino Madonia to 30 years. The regent of the Acquasanta family and the head of the Resuttana district are considered the instigators of the crime. "And the father authorized the murder," said the repentant Rosario Naimo.

https://palermo.repubblica.it/crona...spetto_che_tradiva_il_marito_-216666989/

Maxi-blitz in Rome against the Fragalà clan, a crew of the Santapaola crime family led by the boss Salvatore Fragalà, 33 people arrested across the capital and Catania on charges of mafia association, extortions, arsons, kidnapping, illegal possession of weapons and international drug trafficking.
"Among the people arrested is Francesco D'Agati, a man from" Cosa Nostra ". Years ago he was head of Villabate, near Palermo. One of the districts at the center of Dda's historic investigations in the Sicilian capital ". This was stated by Rome's acting prosecutor, Michele Prestipino, during a press conference."A two-year investigation, started with Giuseppe Pignatone, and which brought to light a well-rounded mafia family, because the components reside and operate in this criminal space. In the exercise of these activities - explained Prestipino - the clan of Catanese origin "federated" with other criminal groups, in particular with men close to the Casalesi with whom they started a mafia cartel. Over time we have in fact caught relationships with the Fascianos of Ostia and with the Neapolitan groups of the Senese ».Among the arrests today, there are also three women. Among these is Astrid Fragalà, former president of Confcommercio di Pomezia. The woman is now under house arrest.

http://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/4516/Prayer_and_preaching_to_fight_Mafia_in_Italy

Prayer and preaching to counter the impact of Mafia in Italy

Magistrates probed for Borsellino
Carmelo Petralia and Annamaria Palma may have 'favoured mafia'

(ANSA) - Palermo, June 11 - Two magistrates who worked in the Palermo anti-mafia pool have been placed under investigation in a probe into suspected cover-ups regarding the 1992 assassination of anti-mafia judge Paolo Borsellino.
Carmelo Petralia and Annamaria Palma, who worked on the bombing, have been placed under investigation with possible charges of complicity in aggravated calumny and having favoured Cosa Nostra.
Borsellino was murdered in July 1992, two months after his friend and colleague Giovanni Falcone.
The two crusading magistrates were instrumental in the creation of the pool.

Rosario Allegra, brother-in-law of the fugitive boss Matteo Messina Denaro, has died at the hospital in Terni, arrested by the prosecutor in Palermo on charges of having taken the reins of the "family" in the absence of the wanted family member.

Allegra, married to Giovanna Messina Denaro, who had been detained for 41 bis for years, had been admitted to the Terni hospital after a cerebral aneurysm. The process called Anno Zero, in which he was accused of mafia association, had been postponed.

The fugitive godfather has two other brothers-in-law, Vincenzo Panicola, Patrizia's husband, and Gaspare Como, Bice's husband, both in jail for mafia association, under the 41 bis regime.

Young man killed in the Syracuse area

AVOLA (SIRACUSA), 12 JUNE – Andrea Pace, 25, was killed tonight in Avola, in the Syracuse area, with blows firearm. The young man with several criminal records would have been the victim of an ambush around 3 at night, reached by several gunshots. The Public Prosecutor's Office coordinates the investigations conducted by the Carabinieri.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...b85c807-fc82-4219-8222-8f5cad76b756.html

Seven held in Agrigento anti-Mafia op

https://fr.euronews.com/2019/06/18/...31-personnes-liee-a-la-mafia-mardi-matin

Sicilian police arrest 31 Mafia-related people

Police in Catania arrested 31 people linked to the Mafia on Tuesday morning. Main target: the Cintorino family, linked to the Sicilian Cappello clan.

Between extortion, fraudulent transfers of money and drug trafficking, the mafia has been seized assets related to the Santapaola family for a million euros. Seizures made mainly in the tourism sector, fully controlled by the mafia in Catania and the surrounding areas.

A jet-ski rental company, a bar, and a seaside resort in Giardini Naxos have been the subject of these seizures.

http://www.ansa.it/sicilia/videogal...3159bd5-63de-46bf-87e0-81309a162182.html


Mafia: police confiscate assets from an entrepreneur linked to the Cappello clan

ANSA) - MONTEDORO (CALTANISSETTA), 26 JUNE - Goods for a total of 2.5 million euros were confiscated by Dia Caltanissetta from the brothers of the mafia family of Montedoro (Cl), Gaetano Falcone, 72, and Nicolò, of 69, the latter died on June 15 last. The two provisions were issued by the Cassation following the seizures arranged in 2015 by the Caltanissetta Court on the proposal of the Dia director. The Falcons are considered "men of honor" by Montedoro, and Nicolò played the role of "representative", also with top management, of Cosa Nostra del Nisseno, led by the historic boss Giuseppe 'Piddu' Madonia.
Overall, the assets confiscated from the Falcone brothers consist of 5 farms and 87 buildings (between buildings and land), as well as numerous banking relationships, for a total value of over 2 and a half million euros.