Word: mafiosi
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...countries to crack open a powerful transatlantic drug ring accused of flooding the U.S. with Italian heroin smuggled in wine bottles, tomato cans and the luggage of Sicilian housewives. At week's end the arrests stood at 80, a virtual Who's Who of Mafiosi in Italy...
Conspicuously missing from the debate is the central role of the Mafia in spreading the epidemic. Even the heavy blows dealt the Mob in the so-called Pizza Connection trials in the U.S. in 1987 and the mass trial and subsequent imprisonment of more than 300 Mafiosi in Sicily proved to be only temporary victories. Palermo's special investigating magistrates are trying, with little evident success, to untangle the intimate ties between the Sicilian Mob and politicians in the South. Like many legitimate businesses, the Mafia has gone global and uses sophisticated financial strategies to launder drug profits...
Seven months ago, a court in Palermo, Sicily, jailed 338 mafiosi in the biggest trial of its kind in Italian history. Last month, however, eight Sicilian magistrates who have been leading the crackdown requested transfers; they charged that through "omissions and inertia" the government was retreating from the war against organized crime. Among the frustrated judges was Giovanni Falcone, 49, the celebrated Mafia-buster who worked on the Palermo case, as well as the Pizza Connection trial in New York City. Said Minister of Justice Giuliano Vassalli: "The Mafia can hardly fail to exploit this disagreeable episode...
...spending money (sometimes meeting him in the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and to take his phone calls several times a week. Donnie Brasco (Pistone chose the name at random) never took notes and rarely carried a recorder or radio transmitter because they might be discovered when he greeted fellow Mafiosi with the traditional hug and kiss. He began by frequenting Manhattan clubs and restaurants where wise guys hang out and gradually joined the fringes of the Colombo family. As he started establishing relations with Bonanno Family Members Lefty Ruggiero and Sonny Black, the FBI decided to continue the operation...
Even as the court wound up its courageous deliberations, another trial against 78 alleged mafiosi continued in the same Palermo courtroom. Meanwhile, a new wave of killings was feared imminent: only three hours after he was acquitted of charges of international drug trafficking and Mafia association, Antonino Ciulla, 35, was gunned down in Palermo on his way to celebrate his release. Italian police also launched an investigation into the execution- , style slaying of Businessman Francesco Gitto, 58, a first cousin of Matilda Cuomo, the wife of New York Governor Mario Cuomo. Gitto, a well-known figure in his hometown...