Palermo
THE LONGFORM
Mafia: Mister X, the "Wolf" and the bosses returned from the USA. The keepers of the hidden treasures of Cosa Nostra
by Salvo Palazzolo
A river of money is fueling the reorganization of Cosa Nostra. Pagliarelli is the richest clan, with investments in online betting, thanks to some unsuspected. Another decisive element is the alliance between the families once "losers". The daughter of the boss Riccobono replies: "My father's treasure has gone away with him". And it remains to discover also a piece of the treasure of Totò Riina
21 JUNE 2021
Let's start with the good news: the bosses of Palermo seem trapped inside a Big Brother of bugs and cameras that records them day after day. And periodically - they know it well too - they end up in prison. Thanks to an extraordinary investigation machine coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor's office. Let's go to the bad news: the bosses do not seem resigned at all. Watch them in the videos that are released by law enforcement in the aftermath of the blitz. They do not move like rats in cages, rather they always organize new meetings to talk mainly about their money. Those are not seen in the pictures. To listen to the interceptions, there is a lot of money, despite the seizures and confiscations of recent years. But where do they come from? And who hides them?
Mister X
The last mafia boss arrested by the carabinieri of the Investigative nucleus, the 43-year-old surveyor Giuseppe Calvaruso, considered the regent of the Pagliarelli district (the clan that exercises its influence in the eastern part of the city), was a very active building contractor who often went to Brazil. And he nurtured many important relationships. Listen to what he whispered to one of his trusted, and did not suspect that he was being intercepted: "That friend of mine that I introduced to you yesterday ... he is one who is not rich, more. In 1995 they make him a seizure to his father, seven hundred billion lire, he thinks his father was one of the strongest entrepreneurs in all of Sicily ... then they seized his patrimony. What they did in Riccione is impressive." They talked about new investments in the tourism sector. In Marsala, in Vulcano, in Sardinia. Who is the mysterious Mister X on whom Calvaruso focused so much?
The young godfather had left behind a conviction for mafia and after his release he gave himself the airs of a great entrepreneur. "You had what you had - said Giuseppe Amato, one of the owners of the Carlo V restaurant in Piazza Bologni - let's say that you missed ... good people like you are missing." Calvaruso was pleased with the praises of the esteemed restaurateur: "And I know." Amato reiterated: "People like you are missing. Me, my brother... we have strayed ... now you're there again... we need... because you are a polite person... a person of ethics, of certain principles... That is the matter. And you always have to go and improve in life. Friends want us, Peppe." Words that are worth more than a treatise on criminal sociology.
Settimo Mineo, the boss who led the reorganization of the DomeThe boss who becomes a friend, a "polite person, of certain principles". The praise of the owner of the restaurant was to relaunch business with a mafioso who, evidently, is still considered an important moment of mediation and solution, even of relaunch. Benedetto Amato, Giuseppe's brother, said: "Peppe, what we want to do together with you... it is truly to create an empire. And then consolidate it, to be made of rent". In short, criminal records are not an obstacle for a mafioso who returns to freedom. Calvaruso reassured: "There are all the prerogatives".
And Benedetto Amato reiterated his fidelity: "As they say... team that wins does not change. Practically we should keep the money of this mine that my grandfather left us and practically if it is the case to build other situations ... and this never abandon him". Calvaruso, once deputy of Settimo Mineo, the godfather who wanted to reconstitute the Dome, was truly a golden man. At the head of a clan that seems to be the richest in Cosa Nostra. And it is money that gives power to the mafia, to direct the criminal reorganization in one direction rather than another. Pagliarelli's mandate is the paradigm of the renewed alliance between the bosses and the worst bourgeoisie of Palermo. It is there that we must continue to look for money.
The "Wolf"
The investigations of the economic and financial police unit of Palermo have revealed that behind the renewed economic power of the Pagliarelli clan there is also another golden man, who is not really an unsuspected. But this still is not a problem for a piece of the "good" entrepreneurship of Palermo.
His name is Francesco Paolo Maniscalco, 57 years old, linked to the families of Corso dei Mille and Palermo center, in his criminal curriculum there is the ten million euro blow made on behalf of Cosa Nostra in 1991 at the Monte dei Pegni della Sicilcassa.
"A wolf, with a story behind him," salvuccio Riina, the son of the chief of chiefs, said of him. Twenty years ago, they went to lunch together to discuss new investments. Then, Maniscalco was arrested, he returned to freedom in 2010. With a wealth of secrets around the relationships that bind him to the unsuspected, those who still find it convenient to do business with the mafia. Thus, after his release, the "Wolf" invested in large-scale distribution, in the distribution of coffee. And also in the online gaming industry.
Salvatore Rubino
In this story, the unsuspecting is called Salvatore Rubino, one of the most well-known entrepreneurs in the betting industry. Maniscalco and Rubino became hidden partners: the first put rivers of money, the second managed investments. Also through a network of other entrepreneurs who had managed to buy some concessions of the Monopolies, the door to control dozens of agencies in Southern Italy. An unscrupulous pact that did not give up even illegal revenues: in every agency, there was in fact a terminal connected to a server based in Malta or in the countries of the East. On these sites run the clandestine bets, and above all a lot of money.
In 2018, the Gico of the Guardia di Finanza confiscated assets of 16 million euros from Maniscalco. But he did not resign, he started new business, in Rome. Thanks to other unsuspected relationships. The carabinieri of the Ros have seized a bar restaurant in Trastevere, "Da Nina" is called, Sicilian cuisine doc and related business managed by a new network of figureheads.
How many riches does the "wolf" still have? The carabinieri found precious watches and jewelry in a safe deposit box, inside a credit institution in Trastevere. In a garage, many paintings were kept, which are now being investigated, to find out if they are stolen.
Families once "losers"
The bugs hidden by the anti-mafia prosecutor in the belly of the city continue to record rumors and names that seemed forgotten. On December 8, 2017, the policemen of the mobile squad documented a meeting that probably contains the new course of mafia history, the one that opened after the death of Salvatore Riina, which took place on November 17 of that year.
At the home of the old boss Tommaso Inzerillo, in via Castellana, another godfather of the side arrived defeated by the war of the early eighties, is Michele Micalizzi. Two sentenced to death by Riina who now seem to have a great desire for revenge.
But what did they say to each other? They have one thing in common above all:
they are the heirs of treasures that have never been seized. That of Salvatore Inzerillo, the most prominent builder of Palermo, the "king" of drug trafficking, killed on May 11, 1981. And that of Rosario Riccobono, the other great godfather of Cosa Nostra Palermo that Riina had killed in 1982 together with his faithful. Tommaso Inzerillo was arrested in July 2019 by the police, because together with his cousin Franco (Totuccio's brother) he had reorganized the family of Passo di Rigano. Micalizzi, released in 2015 after serving a 20-year sentence, continues to meet with other mobsters. Who knows, maybe, maybe just to see old friends. Even the mafiosi are very nostalgic. Or, perhaps, not.
Tommaso Inzerillo "Miché, I'm understanding that you go wandering everywhere", Tommaso Natale's boss Giulio Caporrimo vented. He was speaking to himself, he imagined being in front of Micalizzi. And he did not suspect that he was being intercepted by the carabinieri. "Miché, I'm understanding that you go wandering everywhere - he reiterated - with what authorization of the district you don't understand ... Miché, let's face it, I'm covering your ass ... and I told you not to get off because they were there dead from vurrichiari (to bury - ed) above you, also above the new ones, the Inzerillos ". In other words, for someone in Cosa Nostra, Riina's fatwa was still relevant, the one that forbade the "losers" of the past to return to Palermo. But the Inzerillos and Micalizzi didn't seem worried at all when they met. And the question returns. What did they discuss?
Investigations suggest that they have been more and more interested in business than in major maneuvers to reorganize clans. And that's the big puzzle: where are their treasures hidden? And what was it invested in?
The daughter of the missing godfather
Already a few months ago, we dealt with the secrets of the old Palermo mafia.
And Rosario Riccobono's daughter, Mrs. Margherita, Micalizzi's wife, wrote to us on Facebook: "It makes me smile - this is how his message begins - it is true Rosario Riccobono had a treasure, but the treasure went away with him.
How many things written that are not true, but I do not blame you, you are journalists do your job, but I am sincere: why every time she talks about Riccobono she gets so angry about a person she does not know?". Margherita Riccobono's message also contains an appeal: "Let us turn the page, even if we have a broken heart. Let the dead, even the most evil, rest in peace.
Rosario Riccobono was an exemplary father to me, he adored us daughters and if I were born a second time I would always want him back". I replied on Facebook to Mrs. Margherita that I have respect for her pain as a daughter, but the treasure of Rosario Riccobono, godfather of drug trafficking and mafia of great relationships with deviated pieces of the institutions (as ascertained by the trial of the super policeman Bruno Contrada), is still a very current story, and certainly not private.
Also because in 2008 a substantial piece of Rosario Riccobono's treasure returned to the family. The Prevention Measures Court could not do anything else after discovering that the godfather had never been given the personal prevention measure, which is the prerequisite for the patrimonial one. An insurmountable legal problem. A mockery for the anti-mafia. And the family safe, the company "Magis", which manages real estate for ten million euros, has returned to the Riccobono. Who knows what Micalizzi does.
Mafia, exclusive images of the Palermo blitz. With Police and FBI in the kingdom of inzerillo
The villas and the mysterious goemetra
Two years after his release he was in Florence and was a building contractor: the carabinieri who investigated the negotiation for the sale of a bar in the center found him in a story in which a local politician and two mafia members were involved.
Michele Micalizzi was not investigated, but the interceptions of those days tell of his great activism as an entrepreneur. In recent months, in Palermo, he has instead dated Francesco Palumeri, also a mafioso of the old guard who after his release has returned to be a building contractor in a big way. Palumeri was arrested in January of this year by the carabinieri of the Investigative unit on charges of having become the head of the family of Partanna Mondello, that of Riccobono. How many coincidences, the past and the present of Palermo intertwine.
Years ago, the repentant Francesco Franzese told that among the "close friends" of Palumeri there is such a surveyor Ceraulo, "who at a certain point, in recent years, had begun to acquire jobs". He would also manage one for the Inzerillos: the construction site for the construction of some villas in Baida. We know about this deal because the bosses Nino Rotolo and Antonino Cinà, loyal to the Riina line, spoke about it, they did not want at all that the mafia of the once losing side return to Palermo. And they had also launched investigations, this emerges from the "Gotha" investigation.
The mafia history of Palermo has now changed. Although we do not know how, exactly. We still don't know where the river of dirty money from the past is heading. At the moment, those villas in Baida are the only point of contact between the clans of Passo di Rigano and Partanna Mondello. That is why it is important to find them as soon as possible.
Salvatore Riina
The treasure of the Corleonesi
Then there is an even more hidden treasure. That of the head of the leaders Salvatore Riina, who is now dead, but someone in his place (family members? Other accomplices?) Continues to benefit from it. A clue to try to understand is in the words of Riina himself, who in prison made a lot of confidences to his companion of the hour of air and did not suspect of being intercepted by the prosecutors of the "State-Mafia negotiation" trial.
"If I even recover a third of what I have, I'm always rich", the godfather of Corleone whispered on 4 September 2013 to the boss of the Sacra Corona Unita Alberto Lorusso: "These half properties are divided every month, every month they go there ... why? Because they know he's my grandson ... these properties are mine and my grandson, half mine and half my grandson. "
And yet another passage: "The money in the banks is finished, they are gone, I had a lot of things ... unfortunately life is like that". Nostalgic Riina. On October 21, he spoke of a maxi money laundering operation passed by a bank, thanks to some unsuspected accomplice: "My brother-in-law when he made the Canadian deal he sent me the check for five hundred thousand dollars, the check to Palermo from Venezuela. Shit, I was worried, shit the bank had seen it black ... Anyway, I sent them to Switzerland, from Switzerland I sent them to Venezuela and from Venezuela then they sent them to me here in Palermo ". Riina said that the money is gone. What about the properties he talks about instead?
The investigator believes that the "important nephew", the favorite nephew of the chief of the bosses, is Giovanni Grizzaffi, officially a farmer: he was arrested for the mafia already in the nineties, then also after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano, in 2006. Grizzaffi was released from prison in July 2017 and returned to Corleone.
Riina hoped in him not only for the management of the treasure, but also to revive the fortunes of the clan. "Let's hope - he still said on September 4, 2013 - I have this nephew of mine, when my nephew comes out ... I let them breathe a little ... fuck ... he is the main responsible ... they are warned".
An identikit by Matteo Messina DenaroIn the interception of September 4, Riina boasted that she could also count on an exceptional manager to manage her assets: "I have a responsible person and it would be Messina Denaro". That is, the superfugitive sentenced to life imprisonment for the massacres of 1993, impregnable for 28 years. Not even the head of the chiefs had more news than him. "However, what does this Messina Denaro do for now that I don't know anything anymore?" repeated the old godfather.
Corleone's godfather retraced his past as a manager: "I invested to make the walls tremble. The city was shaking." The investigations to find the treasure have never stopped, the last ones of the Ros of the carabinieri and the Palermo prosecutor's office, who looked inside the wallet of Riina's wife and her children.
In September 2017, the prevention measures section of the Palermo court blocked 37 accounts, but there was very little. Yet, between 2007 and 2013, Ninetta Bagarella, Riina's wife, issued cashier's checks or postal orders for her detained relatives (husband and son) for a total of 42 thousand euros. Where did that money come from? How does the family of the non-lieutenants Riina live?
In Corleone, only Ninetta woman remained. The children are far from Sicily: Giovanni is serving a life sentence; Salvo has already paid his debt with justice after a conviction for mafia and a period in a work house, back in freedom he wrote a highly contested book on his family and is now a guest in the community of a parish priest of Casalbordino, province of Chieti. Maria Concetta lives in Puglia, together with her husband, Tony Ciavarello, an entrepreneur engaged in the field of spare parts for cars and repairs: to him the Ros has seized three companies born from nothing, 16 bank accounts, a postal account, two securities deposits and two savings deposits.
Investigators found that between 2003 and 2010, Riina's son-in-law paid 136,000 euros in cash, of which 97,000 into an account at Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Where did that money come from? The youngest of the house, Lucia is a painter, two years ago she moved with her husband Vincenzo Bellomo to Paris, where they managed a restaurant.
In riina's interceptions the secret motive of the Falcone massacre
by Salvo Palazzolo21 May 2021
For the leader of the chiefs, the umpteenth pride was to have a hidden treasure: "My awakening is a phenomenon. I'm too smart, it's a matter that everyone can't have." In prison, he said he even had a pharmacy: "It was in the name of one, in turn this was headed by his mother ... I'm staying a little bad." Yes, this time, the head of the chiefs would be mocked by the figurehead. "Does your nephew know?" asked the air hour companion. Riina replied: "He doesn't know, nobody knows... my wife knows." The boss explained that he had invested 250 million lire. "Then he made himself great... and this here ended up in jail". At one time it would never have happened, a figurehead who cheats the godfather. But this is also a sign of the times. There are now other godparents who command