The Italian mafia has become a prominent icon of the country, but in the past two years, the gangs have disappeared because of the full police round-up. On the 4th local time, 46 mafia were arrested in Palermo, Sicily, including the previously elected boss. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi di Maio swore an oath: "Italy will no longer allow such scum to survive." However, it is a fact that the mafia is still active around the world, and they have developed more new ways to make money without blood.
The biggest gain of the Palermo police operation on the 4th is the new leader, Settimo Mineo. He is an 80-year-old jeweler who was previously believed to be the successor of the former mafia boss. Following the death of the mafia "godfather" Salvatore "toto" riina in prison in November 2017, the Sicilian mafia has been in a slump, so the regional chiefs held their first secret meeting of chiefs since 1993, and on May 29 this year, Minho was elected as the new chief as the "boss of the bosses".
▲ "Godfather" Salvatore Toto Rina.
According to Italian media reports, Francesco Colletti, a veteran member of the mafia who was arrested, once revealed to the driver that the rally was "serious and beautiful", gathering many elderly figures, and "only the heads of the families and the regional authorities are eligible to attend." The conference was all about setting "new rules," and Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said the mafia urgently needed to re-sort out the increasingly chaotic organizational structure and reclaim the rules that had been lost over the decades. It was through The police that cooperated Colletti that they were able to follow the vines – although they did not know the exact location of the meeting, But Minho and the other bosses entered the police's field of vision.
According to Italian media reports, Minho has been active in the Palermo region, operating a mafia business in the local pagliarelli region. He doesn't like to travel by car, but often chooses to walk and doesn't use a mobile phone. Because of Rina's appreciation, Minho has also encountered many targets. By 1982, Minho and his brother Giuseppe had been assassinated, leaving him alone. Six months after the incident, another of his brothers, Antonino, was also shot dead in front of the family's jewelry store. When Minho was arrested for his involvement in organized crime in 1984, he innocently told his interrogators: "I don't know what you're talking about, I'm really confused." ”
▲ Two prosecutors who were killed.
In the final trial, Minho was sentenced to five years in prison, and the five-year-long mafia-related trial, which took place from 1986 to 1992, became an important turning point in the history of the Italian mafia. Two months after the trial was decided, 2 prosecutors in the case, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, were assassinated on the orders of Rina and killed in a car explosion. The incident sparked a "war" between the Palermo authorities and the mafia, and eventually led to the famous godfather being arrested and imprisoned 6 months later and sentenced to 26 years in prison.
In 1996, Rina was arrested by the police.
The 46 people arrested are currently awaiting trial on charges of gun regulations, extortion, arson and multiple other charges. Italy's deputy prime minister and interior minister Matteo Salvini commented on the action on Twitter that it was an outstanding police operation in the fight against a new generation of mafia.
The Italian police have been working to root out mafia influence, and the relevant actions have become more frequent in recent times. Just after the news of the arrest on the 4th, Salvini said on Twitter that the police also carried out a surprise operation in Turin, arresting 15 mafia members - although the news was alleged to disrupt the relevant police operations and was untrue (the number of arrests was not correct, and the suspects were not all related to gang crimes).
Earlier, in November, the Italian police launched a series of bombings: on November 30, 30 key members of the fourth largest mafia were arrested; on November 27, antonio orlando, the leader of one of the mafia forces, who had been on the run for 15 years; on November 21, Casavini personally led more than 600 police officers and 400 fire police teams, with the cooperation of dozens of heavy bulldozers, to forcibly dismantle the Roman mafia leader Vittorio Lopez. 8 illegal villas of the vittorio casamonica family in Rome...
The New York Post pointed out that this is mainly due to the fact that after the collapse of the Genoa Bridge in August this year, anti-mafia groups accused the suppliers of the bridge as mafia-owned companies, saying that they built the tofu slag project for profit, which eventually led to the tragedy. The allegation stoked outrage and brought new pressure and motivation to the police. In addition, BBC pointed out that the death of the original leader Rina also allowed the police to breathe a sigh of relief - although the boss was in prison, he could still remotely control the operation of the mafia and obstruct the police from handling the case.
The Italian Sicilian Mafia is generally referred to as "cosa nostra", meaning "our stuff", and the general symbol is a capital letter m supplemented by the family crest of each family. The core idea of mafia is loyalty, and betrayers will be severely punished and even pay the price of death - which is why mafias usually use the family as a group.
Although the mafia today has many ways to make money (illegal), such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, assassination, political bribery, art theft, etc., their initial and most famous "business" is smuggling goods, opening a black market, and collecting protection fees, which is their "making a fortune" and is still engaged in related businesses today.
The mafia rose to prominence in Sicily, Italy, but it was the United States that really made them famous. The Prohibition period of the 1920s was a perfect time for the mafia to become active, taking advantage of the opportunity to seize territory in Chicago, New York and other cities. Today, the stage of cosa nostra is not limited to Italy and the United States, Russia, Albania and other countries have their presence, in addition, the mafia will cooperate with local gangs to earn benefits together. The FBI estimates that there are about 500,000 Italian mafias worldwide, half of which are distributed overseas at home and half of them.
In addition to the Sicilian mafia, the other three most famous and dominant families in Italy are: camorra, 'ndrangheta) and sacra corona unita. The distribution of power in the quartet is as above.
The Globe and Mail also noted that Palermo's mafia has also partnered with African gangs to allow these new gangs to come to Italy to sell drugs — of course, the suppliers of drugs are still the mafia, and drug traffickers also have to pay a weekly sales tax of $114. The advantage of this approach is that gang members no longer have to personally go to the streets to sell drugs, and naturally do not have to worry about being identified and arrested by the police, while reducing risks and ensuring profits.
In addition, as the international situation changes, the mafia has also sniffed a new business opportunity: refugees. After the outbreak of refugees in Europe, Italy encouraged many hotels to convert into immigration shelters, and the mafia used the opportunity to make a lot of money for every refugee they received. According to AFP, this refugee hotel business can make gangs earn about $1 million a day. Mario Michele Giarrusso, a five-star movement mp, has criticized: "A lot of money flows into the mafia's pockets like water, and the government does not check the hotels involved in the black background." He also said the mafia needed to be held accountable for all the refugees who drowned in the Sicily Because they wanted more refugees to arrive and stay long enough to make money for them.
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