Word: cosa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...than a passing (and indecipherable) allusion about the crime to the authorities since his arrest in Palermo a year after the Borsellino killing. His longtime partner in crime and successor as capo dei capi, Bernardo Provenzano, has also stayed mum since his capture near Corleone in 2006. Known as Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mob has long maintained power on the island (and beyond) with the help of omertà, a vow of silence and absolute refusal to cooperate with authorities. Most had expected Riina, 78, to take his secrets to the grave...
...late 1980s and early 1990s were a tumultuous period in Italy. Bribery scandals eventually brought down much of the postwar political class. In Sicily, political corruption mixed with murder, as the Falcone and Borsellino assassinations were followed by Cosa Nostra's deadly bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan. Some Mafia experts believe the Mob's decision to take its battle to the mainland was a response to the breakdown in longstanding attempts by certain government authorities to negotiate a truce with mob leaders. Indeed, after Riina's years on the lam, his arrest, in broad daylight in central Palermo...
USAGE: "Neapolitan gangsters, including the alleged fugitive boss captured Saturday night in the city of Marbella, have a name for Spain: La Costa Nostra ... The term plays off Cosa Nostra, or Our Thing, as the Mafia is called, and underscores what authorities say: that Spain has become a top base for the Naples underworld." --Los Angeles Times...
...from the heartland of the Italian island. (A boss who flees his home turf with a suitcase of cash is, on the other hand, considered a failure and possible traitor.) Of course, power and money feed off each other: Provenzano, for one, never stopped working to acquire wealth for Cosa Nostra, even if he couldn't spend it himself. Despite the blows to its leadership, the organization still generates billions of dollars of annual turnover in extortion, public-works contracts and drug-trafficking...
...arrest in 2006 of Riina's successor, Provenzano, left a potential battle for control. After the boss in line to take over, Lo Piccolo, was nabbed last year, Cosa Nostra decided it was time to reconstitute the Cupola for the difficult work of rebuilding the organization, authorities...