Italian Police Arrest 130 In Biggest Crackdown Against Sicilian Mafia In Decades
Italian police detained 130 people on Feb. 11 in an operation against the Sicilian mafia in Palermo, and the country's top anti-mafia prosecutor said the evidence suggested bosses in high security prisons were still passing on 'criminal directives' to those on the outside.
The carabinieri—Italy's national police—said the anti-mafia operation led to the issuing of restrictive measures for 183 people, 36 of whom were already in prison.
It was the biggest crackdown on the Sicilian mafia, known as La Cosa Nostra, since the 1990s.
The Cosa Nostra—made famous by movies such as 'The Godfather'—terrorized Sicily for years and at the height of its power, in 1992, killed two top prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, after they used informers known as 'pentito' to prosecute and put in jail hundreds of mafiosi.
Since the 1990s the Sicilian mafia has been overtaken as Italy's most powerful organized crime group by the 'Ndrangheta, who are based in Calabria on the Italian mainland.
The carabinieri said those arrested on Feb. 11 were accused of 'criminal association of a mafia nature, attempted murder, extortion aggravated by the mafia method, and association for the purpose of drug trafficking.'
Speaking on Feb. 11, Italy's national anti-mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Melillo, said the investigation mirrored findings in other regions, 'namely, that the high security prison circuit is a circuit that is subject to the domination of criminal organizations in which detained mobsters enjoy an intact ability to communicate and to spread criminal directives.'
The chief prosecutor of Palermo, Maurizio de Lucia, said that mobile communications devices in prisons—including video calls—undermined crime prevention to the point that 'being inside the prison or being outside the prison makes no difference.'
He specifically mentioned the mafia were using encrypted cellphones, which were often smuggled into jails.
'Two things are important: one is that the organization knows that in order to become strong again it needs a central direction, a commission, and it can't achieve this,' de Lucia said. 'The other is that it has adapted to this difficulty by connecting the mandamenti [areas controlled by a mafia family or its affiliates] through the technological tools we've talked about.'
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, writing on social media platform X, said the arrests had inflicted 'a very hard blow to Cosa Nostra,' and were giving a clear signal that 'the fight against the mafia has not stopped and will not stop.'
Click here to read more…
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Tribune
03-04-2025
- Daily Tribune
Real Madrid coach Ancelotti tells tax trial did not seek to defraud
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti denied in court having intentionally committed tax fraud on the opening day of his trial for allegedly failing to declare income to Spain's tax office, the latest in a string of such cases targeting sports figures in the country. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of four years and nine months for the 65-year-old Italian, accusing him of failing to pay more than one million euros ($1.1 million) due to undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015 during his first spell at the club. They argue Ancelotti had only reported the salary he was paid by the club and had omitted income from his image rights in his tax returns during this period. Prosecutors allege he set up a 'confusing' and 'complex' system of shell companies to hide his extra earnings during this time from his image rights and other sources such as real estate. Ancelotti told the High Court of Justice in Madrid that this payment system had been proposed to him by Real Madrid, and that 'all the players do it' as did another former coach, Jose Mourinho. 'When the club suggests it to me, I put Real Madrid in touch with my advisor. I didn't deal with it because I had never been paid that way,' he said. 'I never realised that something wasn't right,' he added, saying he 'never considered committing fraud'. Ancelotti arrived at the court with his wife Mariann Barrena and his son Davide, who serves as assistant manager at Real Madrid. The trial is expected to last two days. The parties could reach an out-of-court agreement at any point in the process. Previous similar cases involving footballers have resulted in suspended sentences, often via an out-of-court settlement. Ancelotti told the court he never realised that the company he had set up to transfer these rights to him allowed him to pay less tax. 'At that time, all the players and coaches were doing it that way, it seemed like the right thing to do,' he said. Spain has cracked down in recent years on top football players who have not paid their due.
Daily Tribune
29-03-2025
- Daily Tribune
Real Madrid coach Ancelotti to go on trial for alleged tax fraud
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti will go on trial next week for allegedly failing to declare income to Spain's tax office, the Madrid court which will hear the case said yesterday. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of four years and nine months for the 65-year-old Italian, accusing him costing Spain's treasury more than one million euros ($1.1 million) in undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015. The trial will begin on Wednesday and it is expected to last two days, a spokesman for the court said. Ancelotti, who as a coach has won a record five Champions League trophies including three with Real Madrid, must be present for the hearings, the spokesman added. Prosecutors accuse him of only declaring in his tax returns the personal remuneration received from Real Madrid during those two years even though he declared himself to be a tax resident in Spain and indicated his home was in Madrid. They accuse Ancelotti of allegedly setting up a 'confusing' and 'complex' system of shell companies to hide his extra earnings from his image rights as well as from other sources such as real estate. He earned 1.24 million euros in 2014 from the sale of his image rights and 2.96 million euros in 2015, according to prosecutors. A Spanish court in 2023 ordered Ancelotti to stand trial over the affair, but did not set a date. Ancelotti dismissed the affair last year as 'an old story that I hope will be resolved soon' when he was asked about the case. He took over at Real Madrid in 2013, leaving in May 2015, before being appointed by Bayern Munich the following year
Daily Tribune
19-02-2025
- Daily Tribune
Sinner case ‘a million miles from doping': WADA
Jannik Sinner's three-month ban for a pair of positive drug tests has been defended by the World Anti-Doping Agency after claims the world number one's punishment was too lenient. Sinner's long doping saga came to an end on Saturday after the tennis star agreed to the ban, admitting 'partial responsibility' for team mistakes which led to him twice testing positive for traces of clostebol in March last year. The Italian was facing a potential ban of two years after WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against his initial exoneration by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. But WADA withdrew its appeal and came to an agreement with Sinner over his three month ban after accepting the 23-year-old was inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist. Sinner said that the banned substance entered his system when his physio used a spray containing it to treat a cut, then provided massage and sports therapy to the player. The sanction has been questioned and criticised by current and former players including Novak Djokovic. However, WADA's general counsel Ross Wenzel believes the sanction level was 'in the right place' for what had occurred. 'This was a case that was a million miles away from doping,' he told BBC Sport on Tuesday. 'The scientific feedback that we received was that this could not be a case of intentional doping, including micro-dosing.
