Italian police arrested nearly 150 folks Tuesday (February 11, 2025) in a serious operation towards the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo, areas of which stay within the grip of highly effective Cosa Nostra clans.
Warrants had been issued towards a complete of 183 folks, 36 of whom had been already in custody, for crimes together with mafia-type prison affiliation, tried homicide, extortion, drug trafficking and unlawful playing, police mentioned.
Greater than 1,200 officers had been concerned in daybreak raids, in what media experiences mentioned was the most important operation towards the Cosa Nostra since 1984.
The Sicilian Mafia, the inspiration for the “Godfather” films, is not the power it as soon as was, topic to years of crackdowns by authorities and overtaken by way of energy and wealth by Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta.
However Palermo police mentioned their two-year probe had revealed the way it “continues to take care of its grip”, as of late coordinated by messages on encrypted smartphones.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed the operation, which she mentioned “confirms the state’s fixed dedication to the battle towards organised crime”.
Younger folks
Tuesday’s (February 11, 2025) operation was aimed toward dismantling Mafia clans in a number of districts of the Sicilian capital Palermo and its surrounding areas, after an investigation that gives an perception into how they function.
Police described how the clans cooperated on drug trafficking — a serious supply of earnings — whereas additionally working with mobsters elsewhere in Sicily, and with the ‘Ndrangheta on the Italian mainland.
Inside its territory, the Mafia “workout routines fixed management”, police mentioned.
As in a long time previous, they demand “pizzo”, or safety cash, from companies, and power merchants to make use of their merchandise, typically at inflated costs.
In a single instance, investigators revealed how a clan took management of distributing mussels and different seafood to eating places in two seaside villages.
Whereas Cosa Nostra bosses as of late attempt to resolve disputes peacefully to keep away from attracting consideration, weapons had been present in Tuesday’s blitz, police mentioned, whereas reporting incidents of brutal beatings.
The previous guidelines of top-down organisation and membership till dying nonetheless maintain sway however police mentioned clan leaders had been “updated”, utilizing encrypted smartphones to speak to keep away from conventional conferences.
And regardless of quite a few arrests through the years, the Sicilian Mafia “nonetheless manages to draw numerous younger individuals who embrace its ideas” and provide to work for them, police mentioned.
The investigation additionally revealed a large community of informants, with a clerk within the Palermo prosecutors workplace arrested final November accused of passing on information.
The Sicilian Mafia for a few years terrorised the Italian public and state, infamous for the killings anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992.
However that led to a fierce state clampdown and the ‘Ndrangheta is now thought of Italy’s wealthiest and strongest mafia, which controls the majority of cocaine flowing into Europe.
Printed – February 11, 2025 07:39 pm IST
