Word: palermo
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...Palermo, much of the evidence in the original Naples case was based on the testimony of pentiti (repentant) or vengeful organized-crime members who have decided to turn state's evidence. Prosecutors are worried that convictions based solely on the testimony of former Syndicate lieutenants will not stick...
...massive blue tanks guard the entrance to the specially built $19 million courthouse, and at least 25 guards keep watch outside. An underground tunnel is used to shuttle prisoners from the adjacent L'Ucciardone Prison into a succession of holding pens in the enormous courtroom. The scene is Palermo, Sicily, where for seven months a Mafia trial that dwarfs the various legal proceedings in New York has been under way. In the homeland of the Cosa Nostra, 474 alleged Mafiosi, whose ranks range from the reputed "Boss of Bosses," Luciano Liggio, to a corps of picciotti, or soldiers...
...next March, a daunting prospect for the two judges, six jurors, two prosecutors and 60-some lawyers working to bring the case to a close. The trial's duration may mean losing some of the minor defendants as their maximum pretrial detention period expires. Perhaps presaging limited results for Palermo, a Mob appeals trial in Naples ended last week with directed acquittals for 114 of 191 defendants...
Italian police say Greco is the chief of the commission that oversees all Mafia operations in Sicily, including the lucrative heroin trade to the U.S. Until last week he was one of the 112 in absentia defendants in the mammoth Mafia trial now going on in Palermo. He is charged, among other things, with having ordered 90 murders, including the 1982 slaying of General Alberto Dalla Chiesa, the former prefect of Palermo. Greco, who has been in hiding since 1982, is already under a life sentence for ordering the 1983 murder of a Palermo magistrate. His capture represents yet another...
...have filled the Sicilian clans' coffers with billions of dollars and have been the focus of Sicilian gang wars that have killed at least 300 since 1981. The new drug Mafia has also gunned down several high-ranking Italian security officials, including General Alberto Dalla Chiesa, the prefect of Palermo who was assassinated in September 1982. Dalla Chiesa's murder resulted in a spate of new laws that led directly to the current trial. Some of those on the losing side of the gang war turned to the police for protection; 30 of them are scheduled to testify...