Word: nostrae
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Taken together, these arrests deal a major blow to the Mafia. But this hydra-like organization, also known as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), is so deeply woven into the fabric of Sicilian society that the Italian state is far from claiming final victory. "Cosa Nostra is built on a capacity to adapt to the time and situation, to camouflage itself and raise its head only when necessary," says a senior Palermo-based investigator who worked on the Lo Piccolo case. Lo Piccolo's takedown shuffles the deck in the organization, but hardly eradicates...
...Sicilian Mafia, founded in the mid-19th century as a protection racket in Palermo, is the master template of the modern organized-crime network. Yet its success is grounded in paradox. Cosa Nostra is a multinational conglomerate based in the backwater of Sicily, an organization bred in violence that accumulates power best when it maintains internal peace. It is an association of men - sometimes men of extraordinary influence and charisma - yet the Thing is always bigger than even its most powerful bosses...
...captured together Monday morning in a small hamlet outside of Palermo in Sicily, a bust immediately hailed as a major victory for the Italian state in its ongoing battle against organized crime. Lo Piccolo, 65, was considered the unrivaled leader of the world's best-known crime syndicate, Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), after the April 2006 capture of legendary capo Bernardo Provenzano. He had been a fugitive since 1983. Salvatore Lo Piccolo was the only one able to take over the mantle from Provenzano, Italy's top Mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso told reporters...
There's no such thing as the Mob, huh? Try telling that to small-business organization Confesercenti, which released a report alleging that the Mafia is Italy's "largest firm." "Mafia Inc," composed of Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Naples' Camorra, Calabria's 'Ndrangheta and Puglia's Sacra Corona Unita, brings in more revenue than the country's largest legal business--its government-owned energy company...
...doubt the biblical twist will add to the intrigue of the infamous crime network, which over the past century has occasionally crossed paths with the Roman Catholic church. But Cosa Nostra's sins share nothing with those of the Da Vinci Code or Francis Ford Coppola films - they are real. Provenzano is believed to have had a hand in the slayings of countless rival gang members, as well as of innocent bystanders and crusading magistrates. It's no longer a secret that some mobsters are deeply religious. The mystery remains that they can reconcile what they read in the holy...