News from Italy

[Strax]

Roberto Di Martino 62 was shot in head while sitting in his car in Vittoria,Sicily, he is pentito who left witness protection program.

He was a member of Dominante-Carbonaro clan, got arrested almost 30 years ago and turned state witness.

[aleksandrored]

"Rise and fall of young Leandro Greco, heir to the Pope of Cosa Nostra - The Profile."

He wanted to "cut to the chase," climbing the steps of mafia power, skipping the intermediate steps due to his heavy surname and reverence for his grandfather's memory.

April 22, 2024

More or less, ten years after the "Perseo" blitz of December 2008, which led to 99 detentions later converted into arrests, by December 2018, 49 people ended up in prison, involved in the operation called Nuova Cupola or Cupola 2.0. In both cases, the Carabinieri acted based on a detention order from the DDA, emphasizing the urgency of acting immediately to prevent the men of the city's and province of Palermo's crime families from committing further crimes, including murders and more. In Cupola 2.0, seven more people were identified just over a month later, thanks to the lightning-fast repentance of two top bosses like Francesco Colletti from Villabate (Palermo) and Filippo Salvatore Bisconti from Belmonte Mezzagno. On December 3, 2020, the hammer fell with approximately 4 centuries of imprisonment (the prosecution had asked for 700 years): 46 convictions and 9 acquitted; one defendant died during the trial phases. Among the convicted was Leandro Greco, then not even thirty years old - grandson of Michele Greco, the Boss of Ciaculli - who today has seen his millionaire treasure seized, including businesses and financial dealings. With the two blitzes, the Carabinieri had twice, ten years apart, halted attempts to reconstitute the commission of Cosa Nostra, the top organ of the mafia, once led by Michele Greco and then by Totò Riina, the "dictator" who effectively, although imprisoned, had led it until his death on November 17, 2017. The fact that the elderly boss of Corleone (Palermo) was still alive and kicking in 2008 had been a hindrance to negotiations to resurrect the "executive committee" tasked with assessing and deciding on murders, high-profile crimes, and potential new massacres (which were indirectly referred to in wiretaps when discussing "serious matters").

In fact, out of respect and fear that Riina instilled even while buried in life imprisonment, even before the maxi-detention of twelve years ago, the first attempt, led by Benedetto Capizzi, head of the Villagrazia district, to assert itself at the top was aborted. The cause, the dissent of those who argued that it was still essential, even from the prisons and from the deepest 41 bis, to have the consent of the "boss of bosses". In 2018, however, the situation was well defined because on May 29 of that year, the heads of the main districts had met in a villa on the outskirts of Palermo, located among the hillside hamlets at the foot of Baida, Mount Cuccio, and Bellolampo. The summit - held with a thousand precautions, in a place that not even the repentants had managed to locate with certainty - had led to an agreement: the task of trying to salvage what could be saved and to keep together an organization that had made unity and cohesion its disruptive criminal force, had been entrusted to Settimo Mineo, head of Pagliarelli, sentenced to 16 years. An almost eighty-year-old man, at the time of his arrest, who then - in times of Covid - repeatedly requested, in vain, release for the risk of contracting the virus in prison. Apparently modest, the brother of a man murdered in the 1980s, on the eve of the mafia war unleashed by the Corleonesi, Mineo had been pardoned and then, with his loyalty and utmost respect for the rules, had risen through the ranks of the mafia hierarchies and in the consideration of other bosses. Until he was considered the only one who could, by charisma, ability to work in the common interest, advanced age, tradition, and connections with the past, lead the mafia's attempt to rise again. The adventure had effectively ended with the blitz of December 4, 2018.

The investigations coordinated by the DDA of Palermo had also revealed another character who was the counterpart of Mineo, the young Leandro Greco, who had chosen to be called - to give himself a demeanor, a criminal dignity, almost a legitimization for exercising power - Michele, like his grandfather, precisely the boss of Ciaculli. It was him who managed relations with the towns in the province, he who demanded the "delegation" of the "townspeople" to express their positions. He wanted, as they say in dialect and in the jargon of Cosa Nostra, to "cut to the chase," climbing the steps of mafia power, skipping the intermediate steps due to the heavy surname and his veneration for his grandfather's memory. But he was still a young man, given that Greco, at the time of his arrest, as he left the Carini barracks, stooped to make a gesture certainly not fitting for a boss of bosses, blowing kisses from a distance to the family members who witnessed his translation to prison. Other prominent bosses included the boss of Porta Nuova, Gregorio Di Giovanni; the head of the opposite area of the city, Tommaso Natale, Calogero Lo Piccolo (27 years old, son of Salvatore and brother of Sandro), then the other heads of the districts of San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Palermo Centro, Noce, Cruillas: Erasmo Lo Bello, Rubens D'Agostino, Gaspare Rizzuto, Giuseppe Serio, Salvatore Sciarabba, Giovanni Salerno, and Francesco Caponnetto. And still, the boss of Corso Calatafimi, Filippo Annatelli, Gaetano Leto, Salvatore Pispicia, and Salvatore Sorrentino, from nearby areas, Pagliarelli, Mezzomonreale. All around a table to divide a power that, however, for Cosa Nostra, is very different from what it was thirty years ago, due to the blows suffered from the judiciary, law enforcement, repentances, and the reaction of civil society. In the trial of almost four years ago, 20 entrepreneurs, 5 anti-racket associations, and the municipalities of Villabate, Ficarazzi, and Misilmeri (Palermo) were civil parties. And justice struck another heavy blow, that time for 400 years.

[scagghiuni]

Corruption Scandal Engulfs Liguria Governor and Associates

There are ten suspects, subjected to various types of precautionary measures, in the investigation by the Genoa DDA that has engulfed the governor of Liguria, Giovanni Toti. These include individuals from his close entourage, entrepreneurs, and also links to Cosa Nostra.

https://www.ilmessaggero.it/en/corrupti ... 01858.html

[Strax]

Man shot in the legs in Palermo, victim name has not been released. He is guarded at hospital villa sofia.

[scagghiuni]

Operation against the 'Ndrangheta in Cosenza: 142 suspects

https://www.agenzianova.com/en/news/ope ... -indagati/

[antimafia]

Who is Pasquale Bonavota: the 'Ndrangheta fugitive arrested in church in Genoa
https://www.quotidiano.net/cronaca/pasq ... a-v9ea3qwa

'ndrangheta, Pasquale Bonavota «erede del clan di Sant’Onofrio». Dalla “mentalità malandrina” alla lunga latitanza
https://www.corrieredellacalabria.it/20 ... latitanza/

[Strax]

How Italy's Contini mafia clan took over an entire HOSPITAL led by mob boss dubbed 'The Nurse' with ambulances delivering drugs, surgical gloves used in 'murder kits' and fake X-rays for car crash scams

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... aples.html

[aleksandrored]

The repentant Avola at the hearing in Caltanissetta: «I committed murders outside Sicily on behalf of the secret services»

"These things are too serious and I can't talk about them because I risk disappearing overnight," said the former affiliate of the Santapaola clan.

I committed murders outside Sicily on behalf of the secret services before being arrested, but they are too serious and I can't talk about them because I risk disappearing overnight." Maurizio Avola stated this in Caltanissetta, according to what the Agi learns, during the evidentiary incident before the Nisseno investigating judge Santi Bologna, in the proceedings arising from his declarations starting from 31 January 2020 and which sees Aldo Ercolano, as well as himself, under investigation Marcello d'Agata and Eugenio Galea.

Avola, a collaborator of justice and former affiliate of the Santapaola clan, was arrested on 28 February 1993. His testimony lasted for two days. Avola says he played a role in the Capaci and Via D'Amelio massacres, in which the judges Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo, Paolo Borsellino and eight agents from the two escorts died. Also present at today's hearing, June 26, were his lawyer Ugo Colonna and the deputy prosecutor Pasquale Pacifico. Avola claims that the people of Catania played a role in the Capaci and Via D'Amelio massacres and that an American came to Sicily to train other subjects.

[OmarSantista]

Raffaele "Van Gogh" Imperiale sentenced to 15 years & 8 months.

https://www.antimafiaduemila.com/home/m ... -mesi.html

[B.]

The repentant Avola at the hearing in Caltanissetta: «I committed murders outside Sicily on behalf of the secret services»

"These things are too serious and I can't talk about them because I risk disappearing overnight," said the former affiliate of the Santapaola clan.

I committed murders outside Sicily on behalf of the secret services before being arrested, but they are too serious and I can't talk about them because I risk disappearing overnight." Maurizio Avola stated this in Caltanissetta, according to what the Agi learns, during the evidentiary incident before the Nisseno investigating judge Santi Bologna, in the proceedings arising from his declarations starting from 31 January 2020 and which sees Aldo Ercolano, as well as himself, under investigation Marcello d'Agata and Eugenio Galea.

Avola, a collaborator of justice and former affiliate of the Santapaola clan, was arrested on 28 February 1993. His testimony lasted for two days. Avola says he played a role in the Capaci and Via D'Amelio massacres, in which the judges Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo, Paolo Borsellino and eight agents from the two escorts died. Also present at today's hearing, June 26, were his lawyer Ugo Colonna and the deputy prosecutor Pasquale Pacifico. Avola claims that the people of Catania played a role in the Capaci and Via D'Amelio massacres and that an American came to Sicily to train other subjects.

While even some of the reliable pentiti have referenced ties between the Italian government and the Sicilian mafia, which I believe, Avola has now claimed that John Gotti sent a bomb expert to help prepare for the Falcone/Borsellino killings and is now saying he himself did hits for the Italian Secret Service. It's going to take a lot for him to regain any credibility at this point.

[Strax]

Emanuele Pietro Montefusco 49 known as Zamberletto was killed in Naples, he is a brother of Camorra boss Salvatore Montefusco.

[AustraliaSteve]

Alvaro clan arrests

https://www.approdocalabria.it/giornal ... lo-i-nomi/

[AustraliaSteve]

Fucken double posted. Sorry.

Interesting read tho.

[scagghiuni]

Catania. Operation “Shadow”: 25 subjects arrested with different profiles of responsibility for mafia-type association crimes

https://lamilano.it/en/Catania/catania- ... e_vignette

[scagghiuni]

Police cracks down on 'Catania Mafia clan'

Bosses gave orders on the phone from prison

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/genera ... c13fa.html