Searches and arrests against Matteo Messina Denaro's supporters. A police blitz in the Province of Trapani and Caserta is underway from the first light of dawn.

Fifteen suspects in various capacities for mafia association, extortion, possession of weapons and aiding the hiding of the mafia boss. The home of Castelvetrano was also searched, the residence of the fugitive Messina Denaro.

The mobile team of Caserta, with the coordination of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Naples, is making numerous arrests against members of the criminal association led by Michele Aria, an ex Cutolian, current regent of the Casalesi clan in in the area of ​​Teano and Caserta North.

A key role in the superlatitant's system would have been played by Giuseppe Calcagno, 46, and Marco Manzo, 55, both arrested.

Calcagno, in particular, was responsible for the collection and distribution of the "pizzini" with which Messina Denaro sent orders to his men on the operations to be promoted: above all intimidation that served to get their hands on plots of land and to impose decisions to encourage "friends". The "pizzini" method, invented by Bernardo Provenzano, and the archaic and allusive language used in communications between bosses and wingmen contrast with the image of the modern and unprejudiced boss that Messina Denaro has built in his long hiding.

During reserved meetings and through the exchange of "pizzini", extortion, the purchase and sale of agricultural funds and the management of public works were decided.

Calcagno is described as a central figure in the godfather's "system". His crime rate is related to his proximity to the boss Vito Gondola, the elderly head of the Mazara del Vallo district who died three years ago. Gondola was at the center of a network of mafia groups and "families" which included half the province of Trapani.

Anti-mafia operation in Palermo, 10 arrests in the San Lorenzo district
06/23/2020
Anti-mafia operation in Palermo in the mandamento that was the undisputed kingdom of Salvatore and Sandro Lo Piccolo. A blow to one of the key mandates in the management of mafia power in the Sicilian capital.

The carabinieri of the provincial command of Palermo have executed an order for pre-trial detention in prison and house arrest issued by the investigating magistrate of the Court, at the request of Dda, against 10 suspects (9 in prison and 1 under house arrest), accused of various titles of association leaders for mafia-type criminal offenses, aggravated extortion, aggravated theft, violation of the provisions imposed by preventive measures.

The Teneo operation represents a new blow against the mafia mandamento of San Lorenzo and Tommaso Natale. Giulio Caporrimo ends up in prison again, released from prison in 2019 and who would have regained control of the mandates.

Maxi anti-mafia operation in Catania leads to over 50 arrests

https://corporatedispatch.com/maxi-anti-mafia-operation-in-catania-leads-to-over-50-arrests/

Salvatore Lo Piccolo authorized the Cappello clan to form the new Cosa Nostra family in Catania.

Ex mafia informant killed in ambush In Sicily

(ANSA) - VITTORIA, JUN 30 - A former informant on the Sicilian mafia was killed in an ambush on Tuesday.
Orazio Sciortino, 51, was gunned down in the countryside near Vittoria not far from Ragusa.
Sciortino, a former member of the Carbonaro Dominante clan, helped shed light on the San Basilio Massacre in Vittoria on January 2, 1999, which left five dead.
His body was found on his farm. (ANSA).

11 arrested as Cosa Nostra clan busted near Palermo

(ANSA) - PALERMO, JUN 30 - Italian police on Tuesday arrested 11 people in a mafia sweep near Palermo.
The operation busted the Farinella clan at San Mauro Castelverde, police said.
Those arrested have been charged with mafia association, extortion, corruption, persecutory acts, aggravated damages and fraudulent transfer of goods in Sicily, Lombardy and Veneto.
(ANSA).

Anti-mafia operation against Cosa Nostra in Sicily and Germany, police arrested 46 members of the crime families based in the province of Enna on charges of mafia-type association, drug trafficking, extortions, corruption and illegal possession of weapons; among the arrested the provincial boss Raffaele Bevilacqua and public officials
Giuseppe Emilio Bevilacqua was located and captured in Germany thanks to the support of the Bka and the German police, with the operational coordination of the European police agency Europol.
The boss Raffaele Bevilacqua was already convicted in the so-called "Leopard" trial, which between the end of the 1980s and In the early 2000s he was not only a member of the board of directors of the Democrazia Cristiana, DC, and in very close relations with Salvo Lima, but also at the top of the Cosa Nostra ennese by direct investiture of Bernardo Provenzano.

^^^^
Dozens arrested in anti-mafia raids in Italy, Germany

https://www.dw.com/en/dozens-arrested-in-anti-mafia-raids-in-italy-germany/a-54015083


46 Cosa Nostra arrests in Sicily and Germany - English - ANSA.it

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/ge...0f10f4f-0d78-4c90-8669-b79000cd5977.html

Mafia, pallets exported to the North and recycled money: confiscation of assets from the Tagliavia family of Palermo. The Guardia di Finanza of Prato seized assets for 38.6 million euros from the alleged exponents of a criminal group linked to the Palermitan family of Corso dei Mille, who would have laundered money resulting from the illicit activities of Cosa Nostra.

The pallet business and the recycling of millions of euros through a network of ghost companies were the affairs of the Tagliavia gang which had extended its interests throughout Italy, especially in Tuscany.

At the center of the investigation was Pietro Tagliavia, Francesco's son, the boss sentenced to life imprisonment for the massacres of via D'Amelio and via dei Georgofili. A Palermo labor consultant, suspended by the Order, residing in Tuscany, would have specialized in the management of false invoices.

Mafia, the boss 'Nino' ​​Santapaola suffering from schizophrenia: trial suspended
July 13, 2020

Proceedings suspended for mafia association and extortion against Antonino 'Nino' ​​Santapaola, brother of the historical mafia boss Benedetto, defended by the lawyer Giuseppe Lipera, for inability to stand trial. The Third Criminal Section of the Catania Court of Appeal ordered it, chaired by Carmen La Rosa.

The decision was taken after hearing the expert appointed ex officio, prof. Antonino Petralia, psychiatrist, who for confirmed "the inability to stand in judgment of the accused, suffering from schizophrenes".

The court, not opposing the deputy attorney general, Iole Boscarino, ordered the suspension of the trial for a further six months, postponing the hearing of January 14, 2021 to be affected again by the expert and to update the Court on the health conditions and 'Nino' ​​Santapaola to consciously participate in the process.

Police blitz in the Catania area, which led to the arrest of 15 people. The suspects are accused in various capacities of criminal association aimed at trafficking and the sale of drugs, weapons, extortion with the aggravating circumstance of having facilitated the Mafia gang Scalisi. The Scalisi are one of the most dangerous mafia realities in the Etna province. Adrano's allies of the Laudani clan of Catania for some years have decided to lay down their arms and sign a truce with rival mafia families. A pact that would have led to being able to manage - without tension and therefore more under the arm - drug trafficking. Let's not forget the exchange of gifts - immortalized a few years ago in the Adranos investigation - between the boss of Cosa nostra Alfio Santangelo and Pietro Maccarrone, just a few steps from the home of the Scalisi contact person.
The details of the operation, called The King, will be illustrated during the morning.

Giuseppe Calcagno, 46 ​​years of Campobello di Mazara, considered the alleged "postman" of Matteo Messina Denaro, was released.
The man had been arrested last June 20, together with Marco Manzo, who is still in prison today.
According to the accusation, "the role played by Giuseppe Calcagno allowed the regent of the mafia mandate of Mazara del Vallo, Vito Gondola, to exercise his apical functions, punctually carrying out his orders. Calcagno has constituted a point of reference in the secret circuit of communications aimed at conveying the pizzini of the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro.

Mafia in Germany, drug trafficker Bevilacqua extradited to Italy
July 17, 2020
mafia, Giuseppe Emilio Bevilacqua, Caltanissetta, Cronaca
Giuseppe Emilio Bevilacqua returns to Italy today, accused of being the man of the drug trafficking of the mafia in Germany . The man will land in the early afternoon in Fiumicino escorted by the International Police Cooperation Service (Scip) of the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police, directed by the prefect Vittorio Rizzi.

Bevilacqua, recipient of a European arrest warrant for execution of an order for pre-trial detention in prison, issued by the investigating magistrate at the Court of Caltanissetta, is accused of the crime of mafia-type association aimed at drug trafficking.

The investigations of the Carabinieri Ros led to the maxi-operation "Ultra" last July, which led to the arrest of 46 people and allowed to reconstruct the structures of the criminal organization linked to Cosa Nostra and, in particular, of the Sicilian mafia family of Barrafranca in the province of Enna, and of which Bevilacqua represented "an operative glue for the interests of the mafia family". Bevilacqua was tracked down and arrested in Wolfsburg on the night between 30 June and 1 July, at the same time as the arrests made in Italy with a blitz, coordinated by Europol and which Scip supported in every
phase.

Upon arrival in Fiumicino, after the ritual notifications at the offices of the Air Border Police, the man will be taken over by prison staff and taken to prison, available to the Sicilian judicial authority.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Caltanissetta, in the Italian region of Sicily, on Friday asked for life imprisonment for the fugitive leader of Cosa Nostra, Matteo Messina Denaro, accused of being one of those responsible for the attacks that killed the judges. Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in 1992.

In particular Borsellino, because the magistrate was the one who had written the arrest warrant against his father, Francesco Messina Denaro.

Cosa nostra in Palermo, defeated mafia clan: 15 arrests. The boss meetings between the coffins of a funeral

https://www.web24.news/u/2020/07/15-arrests-the-boss-meetings-between-the-coffins-of-a-funeral.html

The Review Court canceled the arrest of the boss Mariano Asaro of Castellammare del Golfo known as the dentist. Two weeks ago, the man, enrolled in the Masonic lodge Isis 2, had been arrested by the carabinieri at the request of the prosecutors of the DDA of Palermo, as part of an investigation in which the former regional deputy Paolo Ruggirello was involved (arrested on March 5 of last year in the Scrigno blitz) and the mayor of Paceco, Giuseppe Scarcella, investigated for external competition in a mafia association, who addressed the boss calling him "Don Mariano".

Mafia, drug dealing and usury: blitz with 24 arrests in the province of Siracusa. The carabinieri carried out an order of precautionary custody against 24 suspects residing between Siracusa, Floridia and Solarino. They are held responsible, in various capacities, for mafia-type association, association aimed at trafficking and drug dealing (in particular cocaine, marijuana and hashish), criminal association aimed at usury, attempted extortion and abusive financial activity, all aggravated by the mafia method.

DIABOLIK-AL Who is Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro?
Evelyn Richards
28 Jul 2020, 9:35Updated: 28 Jul 2020, 12:04
MATTEO Messina Denaro once famously claimed "I filled a cemetery all by myself".

Denaro, accused of the deaths of over 50 people, is one of the subjects in Netflix's true-crime docu-series World's Most Wanted.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12242824/who-mafia-boss-matteo-messina-denaro-netflix/

Operation Stele: mafia, thefts and robberies: 24 arrests

"Operation Stele" dismantled in Palermo two criminal organizations, linked to Cosa Nostra, specializing in extortion, robbery, production and trafficking of drugs, illegal possession of weapons and theft, including the one that gives the name to the operation, committed at the Stele dedicated to the victims of the massacre of Capaci. There are 37 suspects and 24 precautionary measures in various regions. The carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Palermo in action in Sicily, Emilia Romagna and Puglia to execute the order of precautionary custody in prison issued by the Court of Palermo, against 24 people.

La ballena blanca de la Cosa Nostra
Matteo Messina Denaro, el último gran mafioso siciliano, lleva fugado 27 años. Considerado un capo de capos, es la gran obsesión de magistrados y policías en Italia

https://elpais.com/internacional/2020-08-01/la-ballena-blanca-de-la-cosa-nostra.html

Good article.

Never knew the Graviano brothers from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo were very close to MMD. They even spent their holidays together until the Giuseppe Graviano arrest, which dates back to '94..

they were all involved in the massacres of the early '90 and the rise of berlusconi, the graviano brothers even met him when they were on the lam

Son of Cosa Nostra boss Badalementi arrested
Wanted in Brazil, set to be extradited


(ANSA) - ROME, 05 AGO - Leonardo Badalamenti, the son of Cosa Nostra boss Tano Badalementi, was arrested at his mother's home at Castellamare del Golfo in the Sicilian province of Trapani on Wednesday. Leonardo Badalamenti was detained after DIA anti-mafia police executed an international arrest warrant issued by the authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is accused of criminal association for drug trafficking and is set to be extradited. (ANSA).

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/ge...6082881-9a06-417f-893e-67537d9ba19e.html

Interesting guy with connections.

Pietraperzia (enna), carabinieri found the body of the 40-year-old Andrea Paternò with previous convictions in a burned car, the man had been missing for days and shot before

Shooting in Catania, two dead and 4 wounded

The shooting took place in the afternoon in the Librino district. The victims are Luciano D'Alessandro, 48, and Vincenzo Scalia, 29. The wounded are 26, 31, 56, and 40 years old. One of the victims was close to the well-known neo-melodic singer Niko Pandetta, nephew of the mafia boss Turi Cappello, who posted a message of condolence.

It was a showdown between the Cursoti and Cappello clans.
Carmelo Di Stefano, regent of the "Cursoti Milanesi", allegedly organized the firing group and led a violent attack on 7 August against Gaetano Nobile, but he also physically participated in the shooting the next day aimed at killing the members of the rival clan. Di Stefano remained in prison together with Martino Carmelo Sanfilippo, considered by the prosecutor to be one of the hit men.

Fire in Suvignano, the Tuscan estate confiscated from the mafia
Last night a fire hit the Suvignano farm in Monteroni d'Arbia, a symbol of the fight against the mafia: the causes of the flames are to be ascertained, while no person was involved.

The firefighters have been intervening since last night, from 4, in Monteroni d'Arbia, in the province of Siena, at the Suvignano farm , for a fire that involved about 700 round bales of hay and about 250 quintals of grass seed medic and clover. The fire affected a warehouse of about 2000 square meters, which also contained an operating machine, a trailer and a pick-up. The causes of the flames are to be ascertained. There are no people involved.

The Suvignano estate - 640 hectares in the Sienese area, between the municipalities of Monteroni d'Arbia and Murlo - is known as an example of infiltration by the mafia in Tuscany and was then confiscated by the state over time. It was subsequently assigned to the Tuscany Region which manages it through Ente Terre. The Path of Legality was recently inaugurated near the estate, a path connected to the Via Francigena.

Syracuse, 27 arrests for drug trafficking and extortions

(ANSA) - SYRACUSE, 03 SEPT - The mobile squad and the carabinieri of Syracuse have carried out an order issued by the investigating magistrate of Catania which led to the arrest of 27 people close to the Bottaro-Attanasio clan for criminal association in order to commit drug trafficking and extortions, after an investigation by the Dda. The investigation, called "Demetra", discovered the drug dealing activity of two criminal groups from 2016 to 2019 and allegedly carried out extortions aggravated by the mafia method. The investigations made it possible to clarify the mechanism used by the two groups to sell was well underway and capable of regenerating itself even following the numerous arrests of " pusher ", say the investigators.