Sicily's Mafia primed for reversal of fortune (2024)

Ties to Italian mafia
'Dutch wanted after raid on Sicily, father and son K. produced deadly bad drugs'

Marcel Vink

Modified: Yesterday, 18:44Yesterday, 16:53in Domestic

ADRANO - After a raid on a country house on the Italian island of Sicily on Thursday, a father (53) and son (23) from the Netherlands are wanted by local justice. In a drug lab, our compatriots Johan K. and Johan K. junior, it is suspected, produced hard drugs of such poor quality that their use was extremely dangerous. The two are said to have collaborated with local mafia.

After a raid on a country house on the Italian island of Sicily on Thursday, a father (53) and son (23) from the Netherlands are wanted by local authorities for drug production.
© ANP

This is reported by Italian media. The two Dutchmen, who are said to be from Renkum, were involved in converting what the Italian police called 'waste' into heavy drugs. The raid was carried out in the town of Adrano, a short hour's drive from the eastern city of Catania.

After the operation, which had been prepared for a long time, all sorts of things were seized. The indictment against our compatriots and their co-suspects amounts to over two hundred pages. The 53-year-old Dutchman Johan K. and his 23-year-old son Johan K. junior are considered the main suspects. Their names have been on the long list of suspects that the Public Prosecutor's Office of Catania wants to arrest for some time. They seem to be in the Netherlands at the moment.

The two Dutchmen are accused of drug trafficking, together with 48 others, with the aggravating circumstance that they worked closely with a local criminal group. This concerns the Mazzei clan in Adrano, also known as the Carcagnusi , which in turn is said to belong to the Cosa Nostra . This is the umbrella criminal organization of the various Sicilian mafia families, with the most important one being the clans from Catania and Palermo.

Chemical process
A few years ago, father and son K. arrived in Sicily to process large quantities of marijuana and turn it into harder drugs, such as heroin. This is done through a chemical process involving acids. They first came onto the radar of investigators in June 2021, when a conversation was intercepted between Giuseppe Viaggio, a 41-year-old alleged mafia boss of the Mazzei clan who also goes by U Puffu , and 39-year-old Carmela Scalisi.

The two – according to judicial documents signed by investigating judge Stefano Montoneri, reported by the Italian media QDS – discussed renting a property outside Adrano to house three men who could not be seen with them and the other suspects. The investigations that followed soon shed light on who the people were who had to be housed: the two Dutchmen. Father and son K. went to live in a house in the countryside of Lentini, in the San Giovanni Arcimusa district, an hour from Adrano.

"A laboratory was set up in the house for processing marijuana," the investigating judge wrote. The ingredients processed by father and son were said to have been of very poor quality. This is confirmed by the analyses carried out on hard drugs seized in July of the same year from a man who was in possession of a package weighing more than seven kilos, which apparently came from the Lentini laboratory.

“It was a lethal mixture of substances, sold at a very low price as a derivative of marijuana, when in reality it contained dried marijuana leaves of poor quality,” it said. “It had been treated with various solvents, including acids from used car batteries.”

During the investigation, investigators monitored the two Dutchmen and the people they visited at various times. All involved appeared to be close to the Mazzei group, which was allegedly led in Adrano by Cristian Lo Cicero, a 38-year-old known as Cri.

Other Gangs
From the investigation documents, Lo Cicero emerges as a person who strives to make his way in organized crime, even in an area like Adranita, where the presence of other gangs – the Santangelo and the Scalisi – makes it dangerous. Nevertheless, Lo Cicero would have planned to get control of the drug trade. It would have led some rivals to form an alliance with each other to prevent that. A violent retaliation against the Mazzei member was even being prepared.

Lo Cicero threatened to wage a mafia war if necessary, stating that he was prepared to resort to violence using motorcycles and weapons.

https://ansabrasil.com.br/english/n...9528af1-2a4f-4c99-8efa-5de4a4e49820.html

Detained 'heir of top Mafia boss' served arrest warrant
Savoca suspected of being leader of Brancaccio 'families'

Gaetano Savoca arrested, believed to be the new mafia boss of Ciaculli-Brancaccio
In particular, the investigative findings revealed the constant mafia influence exercised by Savoca, through highly confidential meetings and scheduled encounters with other associates, especially in the areas of extortion and drug trafficking, giving instructions and directives on the methods of implementing illicit activities.

The investigative activities in question have also highlighted the managerial capacity, in the capacity of district leader, of the current suspect exercised through the resolution of disagreements between members and in resolving conflicts that arose between affiliates for the economic support of detained members, as well as in influencing the hiring of personnel at a cooperative active in railway construction sites.

The context outlined above is also part of the serious bloody events that occurred in the aforementioned area on February 26th on the occasion of the prejudicial murder of Giancarlo Romano, a man of honour who was rising rapidly within the Corso dei Mille family, and the wounding of his associate Alessio Salvo Caruso, with the consequent arrest of two suspects held responsible, in various capacities, for the murder.

An English website covering all Italian organized crime would be gap in the market there is content enough lol.

4 cops indicted for Borsellino cover-up

Men charged with perjury in misdirecting probe into 1992 killing

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/ge...bab4307-d84a-4a88-a5f4-13b039799c05.html

Is he really the heir? Or just a regent for the Greco clan?

The investigating judge Giovanni Falcone, murdered by the Mafia, in a photo taken on May 12, 1992 - eleven days before his death.

At the moment he is the regent because Giuseppe Greco is in prison. Giuseppe dealt with dealings between members of the Brancaccio, Roccella and Corso dei Mille families, advised by the elderly Ignazio Ingrassia. The two organised the purchase and sale of real estate and made agreements with the 'ndrangheta for the purchase of cocaine.

On 22 January 2019, all the new bosses of the new Commission were arrested by the police, including Leandro Greco, grandson of Michele Greco, also known as The Prince of The Pope.[9][25] Before his arrest, Leandro Greco had been appointed the capomandamento of Ciaculli, according to the authorities he has the mentality of an old man in the body of a young man.[26] Leandro Greco was subsequently subjected to the strict 41-bis prison regime, and the regent of the Ciaculli family became Giuseppe Greco "U Minnuni", the son of Salvatore "The Senator" Greco and Leandro Greco's cousin, who had been one of the members of the Corleonesi death squad during the 1980s mafia war. In 2021, Giuseppe Greco was arrested once again

Severed horse head found at Sicilian property, in echo of Godfather scene
Local authorities think head discovered at businessman’s property may be part of mafia intimidation tactic

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...lian-property-in-echo-of-godfather-scene

@CabriniGreen some more info.

Bosses killed or in prison, in Brancaccio the "hegemonic faction" steps aside

Who rules in the Graviano brothers' fiefdom?
THE INVESTIGATION
by Riccardo Lo Verso
4 min read
November 23, 2024, 06:00
PALERMO – Two factions have fought over mafia power in Brancaccio in recent years. Arrests and releases have influenced the balance. Last February, lead was added, killing Giancarlo Romano , one of the most authoritative bosses of the hegemonic group.

Savoca, “the last boss”
A few days ago Squadra Mobile and Sisco arrested Gaetano Savoca, considered by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate to be the last boss of Brancaccio-Ciaculli. Who is his successor? In a raid last March, Giuseppe Arduino, also an old acquaintance of the investigators, ended up in prison.

A year ago Arduino claimed his mafia weight by talking to Pietro Asaro , a figure from Corso dei Mille with a mafia conviction behind him. Asaro was part of the faction of the boss Nino Sacco opposed to that of Antonio Lo Nigro.

For a while Sacco ruled the roost, but his arrest in 2011 changed that. Asaro was especially sorry about the treatment he was supposedly given while in prison. Things didn't get any better once he'd finished serving his sentence. Basically, he said, they'd cast him aside.

Lo Nigro's faction
Lo Nigro's point man was Giancarlo Romano . The solid bond between the two had already emerged in 2018. Romano was driving the car with which Lo Nigro, after having finished serving a sentence in Holland, was returning with false documents. They were stopped along the Autostrada del Sole not far from Frosinone.

He had been on the run for a year because he had violated the personal prevention measure. In the past he had already been the protagonist of a daring escape. Lo Nigro had hidden in Calabria. They found him in Siderno, in the province of Reggio Calabria, but in 2008 he managed to escape while sunbathing at a beach. A year later, in March 2009, the carabinieri arrested him in an elegant apartment in the center of Bagheria.

In 2011 he was sentenced to thirteen years and four months, but in 2013 the sentence was overturned and he was acquitted. In 2022 he was arrested again. The informers Francesco Colletti of Villabate and Filippo Bisconti of Belmonte described his role in drug trafficking. No one like him would have been able to bring kilos and kilos of cocaine to Palermo.

His grandmother is Agata Tagliavia, sister of Pietro Tagliavia, historical boss of the Corso dei Mille family that is part of the Brancaccio district. His cousin Cosimo Lo Nigro, a lifer, was charged with procuring the explosives for the Capaci massacre and was part of the commando that killed Don Pino Puglisi.

Antonio Lo Nigro was the trusted man of Andrea Adamo, regent of Brancaccio, arrested together with Salvatore and Sandro Lo Piccolo, in the Giardinello hideout. It all makes sense since Adamo is the brother-in-law of Gaetano Savoca.

Nino Sacco is free
Of the ruling faction headed by Lo Nigro, all are in prison. Nino Sacco, on the other hand, was released after serving 13 and a half years in prison. As was Giuseppe Faraone, who had been his co-defendant together with Arduino and Cesare Lupo (who is serving a 20-year sentence). They were the ones in charge in Brancaccio, the fiefdom of the Graviano brothers.

The massacre bosses chose their successor after ending up in prison in the early 1990s. It was Giuseppe Guttadauro, u dutturi, who through his son Mario Carlo remained in contact with Savoca until the day of his new arrest in 2022. Guattaduro was sentenced to five years. He will soon be free again.

The other released prisoners
Brancaccio is a district where a high number of released prisoners are concentrated. Among them are the defendants convicted in a trial cancelled due to a procedural issue. The terms of the phase have expired and Giovanni Lucchese, known as Johnny, Claudio D'Amore, and Giuseppe Caserta are attending the appeal hearing at liberty .

In the same district , Giuseppe Gambino, Giovanni Asciutto, Cosimo Fabio Lo Nigro have finished serving their sentences . Giuseppe Giuliano, nicknamed “Folonari”, is also free.

“He was told some time ago, when the doctor came down to worry about his area…”, said Giuseppe Greco, who for a period took over the regency from his cousin Leandro Greco, known as Michele, as a sign of respect towards his grandfather, the 'pope' of Cosa Nostra.

Sentenced, but free
Someone was trying, in January 2020, to claim more power. That someone would have been “Folonari” who a few days ago was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months on appeal after being acquitted in the first instance.

Power comes from the money that is accumulated through drugs and the control of gambling. Sometimes it comes from the past and maybe it has remained hidden who knows where without anyone claiming it. Then one day it happens that someone comes back to collect it as it happened with Savoca against the builder Giovanni Ienna.

Rinella bosses sent to trial for the murder of trade unionist Mico Geraci

"They did a favor to Bernardo Provenzano"
THE PROCESS
by Riccardo Lo Verso
3 min read
November 22, 2024, 4:25 PM

PALERMO – Twenty-six years later, two bosses ended up on trial for the murder of Mico Geraci, assassinated on October 8, 1998 in Caccamo.

The preliminary hearing judge Lorenzo Chiaramonte sent the brothers Salvatore and Pietro Rinella to trial. The Trabia bosses allegedly killed the unionist to do “a favor” to Bernardo Provenzano.

The request of the deputy prosecutor Marzia Sabella and of the substitutes Giovanni Antoci and Bruno Brucoli was accepted.

The civil parties
The wife and children of the murdered trade unionist , assisted by the lawyers Giuseppe Crescimanno and Armando Sorrentino, the Uil with the assistance of the lawyer Ettore Barcellona, ??the Municipality of Caccamo , represented by the lawyer Fabio Trizzino, the Pio La Torre Study Centre with the lawyer Francesco Cutraro, and the Sicilian Region have joined the civil action.

The investigation by the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Operational Findings of the Provincial Command, would have revealed that the mafiosi of Caccamo asked Provenzano to get rid of the UIL trade unionist who was hindering the interests of Cosa Nostra : from building permits to agricultural contributions, from the regulatory plan to water distribution.

Geraci was about to run for mayor – after leaving the DC and becoming close to Francesco Dolce and Beppe Lumia of the Ulivo – and his election was seen as a risk to the interests of the mafia that controlled the municipal machine.

Giuffrè overtaken
Provenzano would have the green light to organize the ambush, bypassing the head of the Caccamo district, Nino Giuffrè. The latter had opposed because he feared the reaction of the police. "They did it without my knowledge", said the boss when he became a collaborator of justice.

In recent years, the statements of three other collaborators of justice have been added: Emanuele Cecala, Andrea Lombardo and Massimiliano Restivo.

The Tale of Cecala
Cecala reported having received some confidences about the murder from an uncle of Giuffrè in 2004: “My son is capable of knowing nothing at all (referring to Giuffrè, ed.) because they were people from Trabia… the Rinella brothers, Pietro and Salvatore … The instigators, they were orders that came from Bernardo Provenzano, who felt they had carte blanche and could do something like this in another district… He told me that the Rinella brothers were 100 percent involved”.

“Political things”
“Immediately after the murder of Mico Geraci, Diego Guzzino told me – added Lombado – that another murder had taken place in Trabia. As he said, the Geraci murder had been committed in concert between the Caccamo family and the Trabia family, the Rinellas, Rinella Pietro… The reasons, he spoke of political things, that perhaps there were mayoral candidacies” .

The role of the killers
Restivo confirmed the role of the killers: “In Trabia there were two boys who have now been killed who spoke to me about a murder, that they had to do a favor to the people of Caccamo, that this favor had to be done by the Rinellas and they hired Filippo Lo Coco, who is dead, and Antonino Canu… Both Lo Coco and this Canu gave me an appointment in Santa Rosalia, in Trabia, telling me if I wanted to take part in the murder, that they were making us the leaders of Trabia .”

The Rinellas allegedly chose Filippo Lo Coco and Antonino Canu as their killers. They waited until Geraci returned home in the evening to shoot him six times with a rifle. A few years later, Lo Coco and Canu were also murdered. They were considered two loose cannons.

he is a regent, the latest official boss/capo mandamento is Leandro Greco, i wonder the role of Benedetto Graviano who is free, anyway

Dissociation is not enough, Filippo Graviano remains in hard prison

The Court of Cassation has declared the boss's appeal inadmissible
the decision
by Riccardo Lo Verso
2 min read
November 21, 2024, 11:23 AM

PALERMO – Filippo Graviano remains in 41 bis. The Court of Cassation has declared inadmissible the appeal of the Brancaccio boss who asked to leave the harsh prison regime.

Sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Blessed Pino Puglisi and for the massacres of 1992 and 1993, he hoped that the judges would take into account his re-education process and dissociation from Cosa Nostra in the courtroom in 2021.

The dissociation of Filippo Graviano
Three years ago he signed a declaration of dissociation from the mafia, which was not followed by collaboration with justice. He simply admitted to having been part of the Brancaccio gang.

Filippo Graviano claimed that he no longer has contact with his brother Giuseppe, that he has dedicated himself to studying and that he has maintained regular prison conduct since he has been detained (since 1994).

The Surveillance Court of Rome rejected Graviano's appeal against the two-year extension - the renewal is periodic - of the prison regime reserved for mafia bosses. The Brancaccio boss, believing that the sentences of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court have been violated, turned to the supreme judges.

What the boss says
In particular, the boss contested the violation of Article 3 of the Constitution ( “All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law ”) and the failure to respect the “non-automatic nature of the denial of benefits.

Another point of the appeal is the "duty that even the differentiated prison regime does not frustrate the re-educational purpose of the sentence".

Appeal inadmissible
The Court of Cassation deemed the appeal “inadmissible”. The reasoning states that Filippo Graviano “opposes to the reconstruction of the appellant’s criminal history, carried out in the contested order on the basis of the conviction sentences, a different reconstruction based on the acquittal sentences, diminishing the relevance and scope of those with contrary content, and does not confront the contested order in the part in which it underlines the ascertained contacts with the clan to which he belongs, maintained through some family members”.

The “danger of reinstatement” of his criminal role is real. The ruling of the Court of Cassation is from October 14th, the reasons have been published now.

Savoca was also involved in the NY-Palermo axis (Old Bridge)

Gaetano Savoca, the repentants and the meetings of the "uncle who became a boss"

The arrest of the alleged mafia boss of Brancaccio-Ciaculli
THE ARREST
by Riccardo Lo Verso
3 min read
November 19, 2024, 5:26 PM

PALERMO – Fifty-seven years old, with three convictions for mafia behind him and the accusation of being the new boss. The name of Gaetano Savoca , arrested on charges of having become the head of the Brancaccio district, was part of the list of people involved in the Goldenmarket, Ghiaccio and Old Bridge raids which resulted in as many convictions in 1998, 2006 and 2010.

Gaetano Savoca, “the new boss”
His would have been a criminal climb, strong in his kinship ( he is the son of the boss Pino Savoca, brother-in-law of the life-sentenced Andrea Adamo and the man of honor Benedetto Lo Verde ), but also for the "merits" earned on the field. After serving his old sentences, he lived for a period in Cesenatico under special surveillance. Then, in 2018, he returned to Palermo.

The repentants
The repentance of Francesco Colletti and Filippo Bisconti , mafia bosses of Villabate and Belmonte Mezzagno, updated Savoca's role. Bisconti knew that "Pino Ficarra could not manage the district because he did not have the qualities to do so, but he managed it with the directives of his cousin Gaetano Savoca".

In particular, Bisconti reported that Ficarra “had made an agreement with all the districts to supply all the areas with concrete” but in exchange “had to give three euros per cubic meter”. Bisconti also said he had met Savoca.

Colletti, on the other hand, did not know him personally but met him indirectly when Girolamo Celesia , another well-known face of the Brancaccio mafia, went to ask for protection money from a furniture dealer.

That Savoca would hold a top role, according to the Palermo District Anti-Mafia Directorate, would emerge from his decision to " suspend" Gaspare Sanseverino from his role as a racket collector. "You have to stop," Celesia would have told him, as Sanseverino himself told a friend, Sergio Giacalone.

“Uncle Gaetano”
Giacalone suggested that Sanseverino talk about it with “the uncle”, whose name was revealed “his name is Gaetano, you know, right?”. Then a series of references to other people, including Andrea (Andrea Adamo ed.) that would allow us to identify “Gaetano” as Gaetano Savoca.

The investigation documents include a series of shadowings carried out by the agents of the Flying Squad. “I’m going to the dentist,” Giuseppe Arduinio said to his wife. In reality, it was a way of saying that he was about to leave for a private meeting.

The meetings
Piazza Strauss, via Filippo Di Giovanni, cortiggio Vaccaro, Via Gran Inghilterra, via Svizzera are just some of the addresses where meetings took place between Gaetano Savoca, Giuseppe Arduino , already convicted of mafia and returned to prison last March, Giancarlo Romano (murdered last year at Sperone), Tommaso Militello (also arrested in the meantime).

Sometimes Savoca and Arduino were photographed exchanging packages. Other times they were intercepted while talking about things to sell, percentages to disappear and people who had to leave. They talked in the open air, walking in public gardens so as not to be intercepted.

There were small and large issues at stake. Like when a woman believed she had been wronged by her ex-husband and turned to Margherita Riccobono, the wife of Tommaso Natale's boss, Michele Micalizzi, who allegedly implicated Gaetano Savoca.

About Leandro Greco.

“U criaturi (the little creature, the boy)”, as Giovanni Di Giacomo , a life-sentenced killer from Pippo Calò’s fire team, called him, had made his way into the new Cosa Nostra. He was at the table of the new provincial commission that met in 2018 in a house in Baida. At just 28 years old, he was the youngest.

Benedetto Graviano , known as "Benny", is the cousin of the Graviano brothers from Brancaccio, the massacrers of '92-'93, and is the namesake of one of the boss-brothers, the only male of the Graviano family to be unconnected to the attacks and the murder of Don Pino Puglisi , acts for which Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano are serving life sentences .

Benedetto Graviano is the older brother of Filippo and Giuseppe, in the late 1980s was made capomandamento by Totò Riina but later shelved because considered a bit crazy and replaced by his brothers

How is Benny related to them he is the son of?

Benny Graviano was sentenced to 4 years in 2023 in a Mafia and drug investigation but i dont know how they are related

Their father was Michele Graviano, uomo d'onore that belonged to the Brancaccio Mafia family and was murdered by Gaetano Grado in 1982.

So I guess Benny is a sibling of one of Michele's brothers.

Mafia, former Carabinieri generals accused of obstruction of justice sent to trial: among them Falcone's historic collaborator
by Editorial Staff

November 20, 2024

The preliminary investigations judge of Caltanissetta, Graziella Luparello, has sent to trial the former generals of the Carabinieri Angiolo Pellegrini, 82 years old, a long-time collaborator of the judge Giovanni Falcone, and Alberto Tersigni, now retired. Both are accused of obstruction of justice.

Also on trial is former police officer Giovanni Peluso, accused of external complicity in mafia association. The two officers, who had been with the DIA for a long time, allegedly obstructed the investigations of the Prosecutor's Office to verify the statements of the repentant Pietro Riggio, a former prison police officer, later arrested on charges of being linked to mafia clans.

Pellegrini and Tersigni, in the early 2000s, managed the collaborator of justice, on whose reliability, however, many prosecutors have repeatedly expressed doubts. According to the prosecutors, they did not give due weight to the revelations of Riggio, their confidant at the time, revelations that, always according to the investigators, could have led to the capture of the fugitive Bernardo Provenzano and to the discovery of a plan to attack the former judge of the anti-mafia pool Leonardo Guarnotta.

Peluso, on the other hand, allegedly facilitated Cosa Nostra, among other things by favoring the fugitive status of the Corleonese boss. The trial will begin on January 14th in the Caltanissetta court.

Anti-mafia operation Gigante, 6 arrests for drugs and extortion: among them also Lo Piccolo, referent of the mafia clans in Palermo
by Editorial Staff

November 26, 2024

Since the first light of dawn in Genoa, a vast anti-mafia operation has been underway, conducted by the local Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate, supported by the DIA Operations Centers of Palermo, Milan and Turin.

The DIA is executing precautionary measures in prison, issued by the investigating judge of the capital, at the request of the District Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office, against 6 suspects, accused to varying degrees, of fraudulent transfer of assets, aggravated by the aim of facilitating the activity of mafia associations, criminal association aimed at international drug trafficking, illicit possession of weapons and extortion.

The Genoese entrepreneur who worked in port logistics, Gabriele Silvano, ended up in prison. Also arrested with him was Salvatore Mario Lo Piccolo, considered a contact for the mafia clans in Palermo and formally an employee of Silvano.

Precautionary measure also for Enrico Bomarzo, employee of a Genoese shipping company. The others to end up in handcuffs are three South American citizens: John Harold Ordonez Garcia, Boris Jiampier Maruri Moreira and Victor Manuel Maruri Moreira. The investigation is coordinated by the Anti-Mafia Public Prosecutor Monica Abatecola.

Also underway is the preventive seizure of a plot of land in Palermo, personal and house searches of additional suspects. The operation, called Gigante, stems from the anti-mafia investigations carried out by the DIA of Genoa against some logistics companies, from which the risk of mafia infiltration through some members of the Tommaso Natale district of Palermo emerged, which is why the companies were hit by interdictions.

The investigations led to the discovery of 4 pistols and over 500 bullets, hidden in a container/shelter, used by the logistics company and available to the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is accused of having formed an organized group dedicated to the international trafficking of cocaine from South America.

Finally, the entrepreneur was also charged with extortion because, thanks to the availability of weapons, he threatened to kill a person, forcing him not to sell a property on the hills of Genoa, available to the latter, and instead to sign a loan for use contract in his favor in order to use it as a B&B from which the suspect would have drawn exclusive profits. The six arrested were taken to the Genoa Marassi prison at the disposal of the judicial authorities.

Masculine honor, social identity, and the Sicilian Mafia: New insights from researc

https://www.psypost.org/masculine-h...cilian-mafia-new-insights-from-research/