The military strength of families

According to confidential documents from overseaswhich the AGI has been able to view - the Genovese family can now count on 175 members, that of the Gambinos on 165, the Bonanno on 132, the Lucchese on 121 and the Colombo on 90. added hundreds of other people. Each member, in fact, has the possibility to affiliate between 5 and 10 people. In all, therefore, there are between 3400 and 6800 affiliated to “La Cosa nostra” in the state of New York alone.

Relations with the Sicilian Cosa Nostra

Once the veto imposed by Totò Riina fell, as early as 2003 Cosa Nostra Siciliana was divided among those who saw a new business perspective in overseas bosses (such as Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who hoped to climb the Sicilian dome with their help) and other bosses who, fearing retaliation, remained loyal to Riina. Up to the too “noisy” interest of Frank Calì, intercepted by American investigators. Calì had taken the reins of the Gambino family, which historically belonged to John Gotti, who died in 2002 after a conviction - among others - for twelve murders.

In the recent report of the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate to Parliament, it is noted: “The escapees from the mafia war of the Eighties have established profitable entrepreneurial activities in the United States and the proceeds would have been destined for the maintenance of families and associates who remained in Sicily”. But the overcoming of Riina’s diktats can be seen in action. The Bonanno family, for example, saw “meetings” in Castellamare del Golfo, for a substantial “reconstruction”. Again, the boss of Cosa Nostra in Sciacca (Agrigento), Accursio Dimino, who had planned his escape while traveling to the USA. And then still other affiliates who continue to travel to and from NYC. In addition to the recent arrests of the Palermo DDA in the “New connection” blitz.

Cosa Nostra beyond New York City

There are not only the “five families” in the US. In Buffalo there is the Todaro family, whose head is Joseph Todaro jr and the sub-chief is Domenico Violi. According to what was learned from the AGI, the “family” controls the business of Niagara Falls and Hamilton in Ontario.

In Philadelphia there is the Merlino family, with at least thirty members and constantly growing. Here, the recent release of the boss Joseph Merlino is increasing the mafia caliber of the family in the so-called “Tri State Area” (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) and has a strong relationship with the Genoese.

Another important area for the Cosa Nostra is that in Elizabeth, the county seat of Union County in New Jersey. Here we find the “strong family” of the DeCavalcante, with a hundred affiliates and an important contiguity with the Gambinos.

In Boston is the Patriarca family that controls drugs, gambling, usury and illegal labor racketeering. In Los Angeles we find some members of the Gambino family.

Finally, Miami: here the situation is very varied, a sort of “open city” with all the aforementioned families present and a “new entry”, the Caruana-Cuntrera, historic mafia family from Agrigento (known as the Rothschilds of the mafia or the bankers di Cosa Nostra) which has tentacles in the Miami economy, in absolute connection with the other “families”.

The Camorra does not have an autonomous structure in the US, but has historical ties with the Genovese family, some Italian affiliates have properties in Florida (particularly nightclubs).

According to AGI sources, the super fugitive Raffaele Imperiale also frequented these shores, today the sought-after drug trafficker number one of the Naples Anti-Mafia District Directorate (considered by many to be the largest drug broker of organized crime capable of flooding the Neapolitan dealing squares with cocaine ). With Imperiale also Attilio Eugenio Repetti - a Genoese broker arrested for the first time in the mid-90s and, after an acquittal, ended up in handcuffs again in 2016 on charges of cleaning up the proceeds of the Camorra narcos.

“One thing between them” to return to the words of Lucky Luciano. A “thing” to defeat, with investigations by investigators but also with knowledge. Because the strategy of camouflage (devised by the mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano) worked all the more in the US, with small “accidents” along the way, such as the assassination two years ago of the boss of one of the most important

American mafia families, the Italian-American Francesco Paolo Augusto Calì, for all Frank.

The “Atlantic pact” between mafias, with the resumption at “full speed” of relations between the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the US, is of increasing concern. All the more so with the rain of billions (on the one hand the Biden Plan, on the other the Recovery Fund) sent to the economies of the United States and Europe. Between the shores of the ocean the sea is full of fish, the two mafias have their nets ready, we need to be vigilant starting from knowledge.