31 Sicilian Mafioso Arrested; New "Directory" Ruling Body Identified

Blow to the Mafia, 31 arrests in the district of Bagheria | tiscali.notizie: At dawn, 500 policemen of the provincial command of Palermo, following a complicated investigation, arrested 31 leaders and members of Mafia families based in Bagheria, Villabate, and Ficarazzi Altavilla Milicia.

They face a variety of Mafia-related charges, including murder, kidnapping, extortion, robbery, illegal possession of firearms and arson.

Two pentiti, Sergio Flamia, a former hit man, and Enzo Gennaro, assisted in the investigation.

The investigations, in particular, documented the existence of a "Directory," a provincial decision-making body, which was used to establish the existence of a small group of bosses. In charge, according to police, was Giuseppe Di Fiore, who was referred to as the "head of water."

The investigation revealed 44 cases of extortion. Sixteen construction companies and other commercial interests were involved. "For the first time... as many as 20 victims have confirmed the extortion pressure to which they were subjected to, some for decades," according to one official.

The provincial commander of the police, Pierangelo Iannotti,  who along with his men ran the investigation and discovered the crimes.

The Bagheria clan has always been one of the most aggressive and dangerous in Palermo, as well as all of Sicily; this borgata was identified as the perpetrator of the murder of Anthony Canu of Caccamo, on January 27, 2006, and the attempted murder of Nicasio Salerno, also from Caccamo on August 23, 2005.

Comments

  1. I wonder if O'Ninno had anything to do with this?

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  2. What I never understood is how Persico held on. I've read that Orena had overwhelming support within the family and the backing of Gotti, Amuso and Massino... He was railroaded, Orena, I believe he's innocent of that murder that convicted him. The feds wanted him off the street to end the war because he couldn't wrap it up fast enough.

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  3. LOL!! You sound like you have first-hand information!!

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  4. Sicily must have a lot of informants then.

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  5. Hi ed this working for a living is for the birds any way if u bet horses the 4-9 -3 trfecta box and exacta box hopefully 4-9 at 50 times will be a nice score. Also still figuring this new system but i like it have a good weekend

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  6. Something else that surprised investigators was the fact that 20 of the 44 extortion victims helped the police. That is unprecedented. And yes there were Mafia snitches. I agree for them to be able to wipe out an entire administration like that there must be lots of informants.

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  7. Yeah and even more snitches will be made out of this case.

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  8. I see this talk of the United front against Mafia extortion as somewhat historic. That's the reverse of the usual. And this Directory thing and "head of the water" stuff. I need someone who speaks Italian to translate these news stories. They terms may be poor translations. I also believe there's more to this story than I understand.....

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  9. "the head of the water"....the translation is correct. It is an expression and in this case is used like the old "boss of bosses" back in Riina days. The Directory was a new formula the mafia was putting in place for some time now... similar but different than the old "provincial commission" with slightly different stucturing with "la testa dell'acqua" at the top as boss. The mafia in Sicily is far from done, they continue to re-organize and regroup, and this time instead of a "Nuovo Cupola" they were arranging what was referred to as a Directory.

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  10. Could you possibly email me? eddie2843@gmail.com

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  11. Do you know what the lotto number is for next week? Not really sure what you're saying....

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  12. its jb numbers for the race today 2 4 9 belmont stakes box trifecta and exacta.

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  13. That's where I'm from ... the racetrack! No, Elmont, the town around it...

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  14. By informants I meant the people are not scared of them anymore. I think most of the evidence came from the victims recording the transactions with the Mafiosi. I also don't think you can get a reduced sentence in Italy for cooperating. So by that definition the old country must still have some sense of rules.

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  15. Yes, the majority are still scared and 90% do still pay pizzo. But now we see a few that will call the police, and I have even seen in a couple store windows, where the owners have a sign that says "no pizzo"; very brave indeed.
    If you've been a fugitive and been convicted in absentia, you won't get a reduced sentence. What you will get is serving time in general pop, instead of under harsh 41-bis regime, which is reserved for Italy's top criminals, mostly mafiosi.

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  16. Do these businesses actually get any value in return for agreeing to pay the pizzo? If a shopkeeper calls up one of these guys and says someone else is trying to rob me, would they care? I don't think they would do anything.

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  17. Too late!!! My bro went to OTB early today.....gotta see what he bet

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