Word: buscetta
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...reason for the roundup was unique. Low-level "soldiers" have occasionally broken with the Mafia and decided to work with the authorities. But for the first time in years, a high-level Mafioso had decided to cooperate. Tommaso Buscetta, 56, known as "the boss of two worlds" for his extensive operations in Italy and Brazil, has spent the past two months singing to Italian and U.S. authorities. His song, like a good ballad, had told quite a tale. Buscetta, who is being kept under close guard in a secluded villa on the outskirts of Rome, had not only reportedly fingered...
...process, Buscetta painted a picture of a 1980s-style Mafia that differs considerably from the all-in-the-family cliches of Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Today's mobster, in both Italy and the U.S., is greedier, meaner and less likely to respect the Mafia's internal code of honor than were the Mafiosi in the generation of his father's father (see box). Officials on both sides of the Atlantic consider Buscetta's break with the Mob a significant gain for law enforcement, which has thus far had only limited success in getting those...
According to Judge Giusto Schiacchitano, one of the Italian state prosecutors involved, Buscetta's revelations "opened doors that before had always remained closed...
Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, whose territory covers the southern district of New York, said that as a result of Buscetta's disclosures, "we have a whole new area of intelligence that wasn't available to us before." U.S. and Italian authorities hope to use that information to round up even more Mafiosi and crack the Sicilian connection that has smuggled billions of dollars' worth of heroin into the U.S. in the past few years...
Many Mafia leaders are clearly worried. Late last week Leonardo Rimi, a mid-level Sicilian mobster and ally of Buscetta's, was gunned down as he hid in a farmhouse 30 miles from Palermo. Some Italian law enforcement officials interpreted the murder as a warning to Buscetta and to anyone else who might be tempted to talk. There was anxious speculation that the upheaval caused by Buscetta's revelations could produce a new round of all-out bloodletting...