MAFIA NEWS THE GUARDIAN

MAFIA KILLER INVOLVED IN 100 SLAYINGS WHO DISSOLVED VICTIM IN ACID RELEASED FROM PRISON

BY BEN FEUERHERD

Anotorious Sicilian Mafia killer dubbed the “people slayer” — who admitted to a role in more than 100 killings, including a boy who was dissolved in acid — was freed from Italian prison Monday after serving just 25 years.

Giovanni Brusca, 64, who turned from La Cosa Nostra hitman to government informant was cut loose from Rome’s Rebibbia prison, sparking outrage from elected officials and the families of his victims, the BBC reported.

The notorious killer had a hand in several of the Italian mafia’s most infamous slayings, including the 1992 rubout of anti-mafia Judge Giovanni Falcone, who was blown up along with his wife and three bodyguards as they were driving near Palermo.

Brusca also ordered the killing of 11-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo, the son of a rival gangster. He had the boy kidnapped, tortured, strangled and his body desolved in acid, the BBC reported.

The wife of one of the bodyguards killed in the 1992 bomb blast told the Repubblica newspaper that she was incensed by his release after more than two decades behind bars.

“The state is against us — after 29 years we still don’t know the truth about the massacre and Giovanni Brusca, the man who destroyed my family, is free,” Tina Montinaro told the outlet.

ITALY’S LARGEST

MAFIA TRIAL IN THREE DECADES BEGINS AGAINST ‘NDRANGHETA

Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades has begun, with 900 witnesses testifying against more than 350 people, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the powerful ’Ndrangheta.

A high-security 1,000-capacity courtroom with cages to hold the defendants has been built by Italian authorities in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme.

Despite its symbolic importance, the opening day was largely procedural, with Judge Tiziana Macri reading out the names of the defendants. None attended in person but about 50 participated via video link.

Almost all of the defendants were arrested in December 2019 after a lengthy investigation that began in 2016 and covered at least 11 Italian regions. About 2,500 officers participated in raids focused on suspects in Vibo Valentia, Calabria, the heart of an area controlled mainly by the ’Ndrangheta’s Mancuso clan.

An elite carabinieri unit known as the Cacciatori, literally “the hunters”, arrested several suspects hiding in bunkers located behind sliding staircases, hidden trapdoors and manholes.

WHAT IS THE ITALIANAMERICAN MAFIA?

Since 1931, five families have run New York’s Italian-American Mafia: the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese.

Frank Cali was reputedly the head of the Gambino family. He was reportedly married to Rosaria Inzerillo, who was herself related to the Sicilian Inzerillo family. The Inzerilli fled Sicily for the US in the 1980s after losing a war with rival families.

Cali was also related to John Gambino, once leader of the family’s Sicilian faction - another link that might explain his rapid rise to leadership of the mob. The exact number of people in the family is unknown. In total, the FBI estimates there are about 3,000 members and affiliates of ItalianAmerican organised crime groups in the US.

New York Mafia boss Persico dies at 85

The families were once vastly powerful, wielding influence over federal and state politicians and holding stakes in entertainment industries, but the US authorities have slowly clamped down on organised crime. A series of major convictions and defections in the 1980s and 1990s crippled their leadership.

Former Gambino boss

John Gotti - who planned the murder of his predecessor in 1985 outside the Sparks Steak House in Manhattan - was known as the Dapper Don for his expensive suits and flamboyant interviews with the press. Under his tenure the family, made hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 22 - The infiltration of Italy’s various mafias into the lucrative tourism sector is worth some 2.2 billion euros, almost 40% of it concentrated in the Mezzogiorno where they are based, according to a Demoskopika report of which ANSA has seen an advance copy.

Italy’s leading mafia, the Calabriabased ‘Ndrangheta, has a 40% slice of the lucrative cake, the report said.

Some 4,500 tourism companies are at risk of being used for money laundering due to the COVID-19 emergency, the survey said.

“A tourism sector on its knees is an appetizing prospect for criminal syndicates”, said Demoskopika President Raffaele Rio.

Six regional tourism sectors present the highest risk of criminal infiltration by ‘Ndrangheta, Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and the Campania-based Camorra, as well as the smaller Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia, the report said: Campania, Sicily, Lazio, Calabria, Lombardy, and Puglia.

Four regions show the lowest risk: Marche, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige.

Tourism MInister Massimo Garavaglia told ANSA: “the Demoskopika probe on mafia infiltration in tourism is concerning.

“It is a phenomenon that heavily damages a sector which is composed of serious business people, who have been hurt by the pandemic.

“And who are suffering twice from COVID, in their business and in the mafia competition.

“The government is elaborating formulas for transparent financing able to support the operators hit by