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The Guardian
22-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
A raid and a secret tape exposed a Sicilian mafia that is shrunken, whiny and clinging on for survival
Palermo has not seen anything like it for years. Helicopters in the pre-dawn sky. Carabinieri barracks across Sicily emptied, with all 1,200 officers deployed. The Cacciatori – red-bereted shock cops – brought over from the wilds of Calabria. The Carabinieri's own film units serving up a morning montage of flashing blue lights, balaclava-wearing officers with submachine guns, police dogs sniffing, cottage doors breaking, and burly, handcuffed men ushered into Alfa Romeos. And then, of course, in the press, the humiliating wiretaps of gangsters sharing their secrets. Cosa Nostra is back in the headlines, and back under the cosh. Italian law enforcement is good at this stuff. Not a single one of the 181 men and women targeted for arrest on 11 February managed to go on the lam before the crackdown. Based on the numbers alone, this raid was the biggest anti-mafia operation since the 1980s. But Sicily was a very different place back then. It teetered on the brink of becoming a narco-state, and Cosa Nostra treated the Italian institutions with contempt, murdering any prosecutor, police officer or politician who got in its way. A heroic minority led the fightback. Its figurehead was, of course, judge Giovanni Falcone. His enormous 'maxi trial' of mafiosi in Palermo in 1986-87 demonstrated for the first time that the rule of law applied to the bosses too. After the supreme court confirmed the verdicts in 1992, the ferocious super-boss Salvatore 'Shorty' Riina had Falcone and his close colleague Paolo Borsellino killed in bomb attacks. It was a national emergency, Riina's declaration of war on the state. But, in the same instant, it was a spectacular confirmation that Falcone had won a history-making victory. For the last year of his life, the martyred hero had been in Rome redesigning the way Italy fights mafia crime, based on the lessons learned in Palermo. Specialised teams of anti-mafia prosecutors in every city. Highly trained police units. A vast database of 'men of honour' and their known associates. A new prison regime designed to prevent bosses communicating with their soldiers. Since then, Falcone's heirs have ground Cosa Nostra down. In this year's raid, it was older bosses, released from long stretches inside, who were taking the lead in trying to rebuild the mafia's structure. The bugging transcripts published in the aftermath make for a sullen collective portrait. The old bosses complain all the time. About the confiscation of their assets. About the collapse of omertà. About the quality of their recruits: 'The level's low these days. As soon as they arrest a guy, he turns penitent.' But these problems are not new: they are integral to life in today's Cosa Nostra. Exactly the same complaints surfaced during the last big round-up, in December 2008, when the Palermo mafia's entire leadership was arrested. Indeed, if anything, things have got even worse for Cosa Nostra since then. When it comes to narcotics, the Sicilian mafia is living off crumbs from the table of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate, the noisy neighbours from Calabria – crumbs served with seasoning of nostalgia: You've got to get by on a slab of hash? Is that how far we've fallen? The guys from the old days, the ones who've tragically been sent to prison for life, would they be talking about a slab of hash? If they talked about hash, it was because a shipload was due in … We're down in the dirt lads. We think we're doing business, but it's others who are really at it. Cosa Nostra looks more and more toothless and friendless. During this new wave of arrests, there was not a single murder on the charge sheets, and not a single politician called to account. (At least so far.) As after 2008, the Palermo underworld now faces a rebuild. But this time it is from an even lower base. Given such a record of law-enforcement success, the curious thing for outside observers is that the pessimism in mafia circles is not matched by optimism in Sicilian society. A good part of the blame lies with one trial that, for 15 long years after 2008, hoovered up what little attention Italy could devote to mafia issues. Called the state-mafia negotiation trial, it centred on a conspiracy theory so abstruse that a baffled foreign media ignored it. Yet it set judges at each other's throats, and divided the anti-mafia movement into fanatical camps. In essence, the prosecution argued that the murders of Falcone and Borsellino were part of an unspeakable pact that bound Cosa Nostra to politicians and deep-state actors such as secret agents and Freemasons. In the end, so the prosecution claimed, the pact brought Silvio Berlusconi to power in 1994, and left the mafia free to resume its ancient partnership with the powers that be. It took until 2023 for the supreme court to demolish this nonsense. But by then, beliefs were so entrenched that many are still convinced there was a cover-up. All kinds of things fed into this collective delirium. The grief of the victims' families. The failure of the Sicilian economy to provide an anti-mafia dividend. One of Italy's worst outbreaks of anti-politics. The precocious arrival of social media populism, in the form of comedian Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement. And demoralising scandals in the anti-mafia movement, including the body responsible for administering confiscated mob properties. So this month's 181 arrests represent a return to Earth after these flights of conspiratorial fancy. The operation's mastermind, the chief prosecutor of Palermo, Maurizio De Lucia, is a noted sceptic about the state-mafia negotiation trial who is also professionally cautious about the future. Palermo's struggling businesses can still benefit from engaging Cosa Nostra's services: cheap credit and debt recovery, for example. The dilapidated prison system has become porous again: scandalously, imprisoned bosses smuggled in encrypted smartphones and held video summits with their peers on the outside. That is why, for all their complaining, the old bosses can still tempt youngsters in the godforsaken outer quarters of the city with a strong collective identity. 'Inside us we've got our ideals, and we'll never let them die because we'd die for them,' one misty-eyed mafioso explained. Another put it more picturesquely: 'Cosa Nostra? You married this wife and you keep her as long as you live.' Armed with such resilience, mafiosi know they only have to be stronger than the weakest parts of the Italian system to hang on, and hope for better times. John Dickie is professor of Italian Studies at University College London and author of Cosa Nostra, Mafia Brotherhoods and Mafia Republic
Gulf Insider
16-02-2025
- Gulf Insider
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…
The Guardian
11-02-2025
- The Guardian
Police in Sicily arrest almost 150 people in mafia crackdown
Italian police have arrested almost 150 people in a significant operation against the Sicilian mafia in Palermo, areas of which remain in the grip of powerful Cosa Nostra clans. Warrants were issued against a total of 183 people on Tuesday, 36 of whom were already in custody, for crimes including mafia-type criminal association, attempted murder, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal gambling, police said. More than 1,200 officers were involved in dawn raids, in what media reports said was the biggest operation against the Cosa Nostra since 1984. The Sicilian mafia, the inspiration for the Godfather movies, is no longer the force it once was, subject to years of crackdowns by authorities and overtaken in terms of power and wealth by Calabria's 'Ndrangheta. But Palermo police said their two-year investigation had revealed how it continued to maintain its grip, these days coordinated by messages on encrypted smartphones. Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, hailed the operation, which she said 'confirms the state's constant commitment to the fight against organised crime'. Tuesday's operation was aimed at dismantling mafia clans in several districts of the Sicilian capital, Palermo, and its surrounding areas, after an investigation that provides an insight into how they operate. Police described how the clans cooperated on drug trafficking – a significant source of income – while also working with mobsters elsewhere in Sicily, and with the 'Ndrangheta on the Italian mainland. Within its territory, the Mafia 'exercises constant control', police said. As in decades past, they demand 'pizzo' – protection money – from businesses, and force traders to use their products, often at inflated prices. In one example, investigators revealed how a clan took control of distributing mussels and other seafood to restaurants in two seaside villages. While Cosa Nostra bosses these days try to resolve disputes peacefully to avoid attracting attention, weapons were found in Tuesday's blitz, police said, while reporting incidents of brutal beatings. The old rules of top-down organisation and membership until death still hold sway but police said clan leaders were 'up to date', using encrypted smartphones to communicate to avoid traditional meetings. Despite numerous arrests over the years, the Sicilian mafia 'still manages to attract a large number of young people who embrace its principles' and offer to work for them, police said. The investigation also revealed a wide network of informants, with a clerk in the Palermo prosecutors' office arrested last November accused of passing on files. For many years, the Sicilian mafia terrorised the Italian public and state, and became notorious for the killings of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. But that led to a fierce state clampdown and the 'Ndrangheta is now considered Italy's wealthiest and most powerful mafia, which controls the bulk of cocaine flowing into Europe.
Local Italy
11-02-2025
- Local Italy
Italian police makes over 180 arrests in major clampdown on Sicilian mafia
Over 1,200 officers were mobilised at dawn as part of the operation, which also extended to other Italian cities, Palermo police said in a statement. Those arrested are accused of crimes including mafia-type criminal association, attempted murder, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal gambling. The operation was "aimed at dismantling the mafia districts of the city of Palermo and its province," the statement said. The investigation has revealed the extent of the clans' drug dealing operations, and also how bosses exchange orders from inside prison facilities using encrypted mobile phones, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Sicily's Cosa Nostra terrorised the Italian state over the 1980s and early 90s with vicious bombings and killings, including that of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. The criminal group was subsequently hit by a fierce state clampdown and has in recent years been overtaken by the 'Ndrangheta, which is based in the southern region of Calabria. The 'Ndrangheta is currently considered to be Italy's wealthiest and most powerful mafia, and is heavily involved in drug trafficking, controlling the bulk of cocaine flowing into Europe. But the Cosa Nostra still wields significant influence in local public administration and businesses, and has several links in foreign countries.
Khaleej Times
11-02-2025
- Khaleej Times
Sicily police arrest 150 people in major Mafia blitz
Italian police arrested almost 150 people on Tuesday in a major operation against the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo, areas of which remain in the grip of powerful Cosa Nostra clans. Warrants were issued against a total of 183 people, 36 of whom were already in custody, for crimes including mafia-type criminal association, attempted murder, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal gambling, police said. More than 1,200 officers were involved in dawn raids, in what media reports said was the biggest operation against the Cosa Nostra since 1984. The Sicilian Mafia, the inspiration for the "Godfather" movies, is no longer the force it once was, subject to years of crackdowns by authorities and overtaken in terms of power and wealth by Calabria's 'Ndrangheta. But Palermo police said their two-year probe had revealed how it "continues to maintain its grip", these days coordinated by messages on encrypted smartphones. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed the operation, which she said "confirms the state's constant commitment to the fight against organised crime". Tuesday's operation was aimed at dismantling Mafia clans in several districts of the Sicilian capital Palermo and its surrounding areas, after an investigation that provides an insight into how they operate. Police described how the clans cooperated on drug trafficking -- a major source of income -- while also working with mobsters elsewhere in Sicily, and with the 'Ndrangheta on the Italian mainland. Within its territory, the Mafia "exercises constant control", police said. As in decades past, they demand "pizzo", or protection money, from businesses, and force traders to use their products, often at inflated prices. In one example, investigators revealed how a clan took control of distributing mussels and other seafood to restaurants in two seaside villages. While Cosa Nostra bosses these days try to resolve disputes peacefully to avoid attracting attention, weapons were found in Tuesday's blitz, police said, while reporting incidents of brutal beatings. The old rules of top-down organisation and membership until death still hold sway but police said clan leaders were "up to date", using encrypted smartphones to communicate to avoid traditional meetings. And despite numerous arrests over the years, the Sicilian Mafia "still manages to attract a large number of young people who embrace its principles" and offer to work for them, police said. The investigation also revealed a wide network of informants, with a clerk in the Palermo prosecutors office arrested last November accused of passing on files. The Sicilian Mafia for many years terrorised the Italian public and state, notorious for the killings anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. But that led to a fierce state clampdown and the 'Ndrangheta is now considered Italy's wealthiest and most powerful mafia, which controls the bulk of cocaine flowing into Europe.
