1974-1992: From the Drug Trade to the Maxi-Trial                  

 

  

1969: rise in mafia activities

Substantial acquittals of Mafiosi at the 1969 trials after the first mafia war (1962-3)

The Commissione (or Cupola) broke up after the outburst of the first mafia war (1962-3); it was reconstituted in 1969 with the form of a triumvirate:

-          Badalamenti (Cinisi boss, movie I Cento Passi)

-          Bontade (Palermo)

-          Liggio (Corleone)

The 1969 Commission was different from the first one; it just represents just the most important mafia groups

  

The Drug Trade: The Sicilian Connection

1969: Mafiosi were released, but had lost money in legal expenses

Not all the groups were poor (for example those controlling the drug trade such as Michele Greco, Gaetano Badalamenti and Stefano Bontade), but the Corleonesi had to turn to kidnapping and tobacco smuggling, less lucrative businesses compare to the drugs

Filippo Calderone, mafia informant: suddenly, they all became millionaire

Another favor from America to the Sicilian mafia: Nixon 1969 declares war on drugs, closure of Corsican-run refineries Marseille

 

1974-1982: Drugs

Mafia control all the steps in the process: refine, import and distribution

80% of the drugs in the North-East of the Us came from Sicily

More financial autonomy of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra from the Us one

Partners (cross marriages…)

The easiest way for the mafia to profit from drugs was to protect the dealers

 

Bankers, Masons, Tax Collectors, Mafia: the Vatican Connection

$ deriving from drugs was reinvested in both legal and illegal activities:

-          SWI

-          stock exchange market

-          resorts

-          Sindona/Calvi

 

THE BANKERS OF GOD AND THE MAFIA: MICHELE SINDONA AND ROBERTO CALVI

                                                    

                                               (Michele Sindona)                             (Roberto Calvi)

Michele Sindona

You can listen to an intimidatory phone call from a Mafioso on YouTube: 

             http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRdWHymnT50

Sindona was a banker; in his career he bought many banks (Banca Privata Finanziaria, Franklin National Bank).

In 1976: Arrested for fraud and bankruptcy, and condemned for the homicide of loss adjustor Giorgio Ambrosoli). During the investigations, it emerged the membership to P2, the links with the Vatican, the Masons, and the mafia.

Italian newspapers talk of a “list of the 500”.

Michele Sindona revealed the American journalist Nick Tosches that the other banks used by the mafia to recycle money were:

    “In Sicily sometimes the Bank of Sicily. In Milan a small bank in Piazza Mercanti".

He died in prison with the correct coffee of 1986… (archived as a “suicide”, despite Sindona said they have poisoned me before he died.) OFFICIAL VERSION: A suicide by simulating a homicide.

 

Roberto Calvi

Cosa Nostra after Sindona’s death entrusted its $ to Calvi, president of the Banco Ambrosiano

Pecunia non olet

Calvi became associated with the IOR, the Bank of the Vatican

The Vatican financed with these money Solidarnosc. After the fall of Communism in Poland communist regimes fell in all the other eastern countries. Cosa Nostra killed Calvi, he was considered guilty of having lost the control of the money deriving from the drug trade given to him by Cosa Nostra

The Italian Masonic Lodge P2

            http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=GdaLl7PEepk

 

About Money Laundering

 

1st Stage: Placement Stage 

Usually a bank or a financial institution, it is the most dangerous because it is the only one in which there is face-to-face contact

2nd Stage: Laundering stage

A) Buy stocks, then: if the value goes up, they make more money; if it doesn’t, they sell.

B) Buy properties, borrowing the money from an offshore company (offshore company = OUT OF THE COUNTRY); then they SLOWLY pay off the mortgage

C) Buy pieces of art, then they re-sell it charging a higher price, making more money and FROM A CLEAN SOURCE.

3rd Stage: Integration Stage

The CLEAN MONEY is now integrated into the economy…

 

II Mafia War (a coup d’état within Cosa Nostra by the Corleonesi)

Corleonesi had developed through the 70’s:

   - Military power (Initiating soldiers without informing the Commissione)

   - Alliances within the 

     mafia (Infiltrating other families)

 

The important bosses from Palermo (Bontade, Badalamenti, and Inzerillo) developed:

   - $ (drugs)

   - Alliances outside the mafia (Italian politicians, Us American mafia families)

 

The attack of the Corleonesi took place in 1981, an extermination campaign then followed

Next to this, mafia began to kill personalities of the Institutions in a delirium of omnipotence

 

The eminent corpses were:

 

-          Terranova (judge, 1979)

-          Michele Reina (Palermo secretary of DCI 1979)

-          Boris Giuliano (head of Carabinieri police body 1979)

-          Costa (prosecutor, 1980)

-          Mattarella (President of the region of Sicily,1980)

-          Pio Lo Torre (communist MP, April 1982)

-          Dalla Chiesa (Prefect of Palermo, Sept. 1982)

-          Rocco Chinnici (Palermo Chief Prosecutor, 1983)

  

The 416bis article of the Penal Code: The “mafia-type association crime” (1982)

Equivalent of RICO (Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations) measures in US. 

   1) This law allowed the state to confiscate a Mafioso’s ill-gotten gains.

   2) For the first time it was possible to arrest whoever was demonstrated to be a member of Cosa Nostra (Pio La Torre’s proposal became law)

  

1983

Palermo Chief Prosecutor Rocco Chinnici killed by the Corleonesi

Caponnetto, an elderly magistrate from Sicily living in Florence, applied for Chinnici’s place. After being appointed, he founded the:

 

ANTIMAFIA POOL

Its members were:

-          GIOVANNI FALCONE

-          PAOLO BORSELLINO

-          LEONARDO GUARNOTTA

-          GIUSEPPE DI LELLO

The system used was:

Working on the same cases + sharing information

But the most important reason of their success was…

 

…a new weapon: PENTITI

   1984: the antimafia pool was able to announce its first important pentito: TOMMASO BUSCETTA

 

 

To sum up:

 

1974-beginning 80’s: Pizza Connection

 

1981: Bontade, Inzerillo killed

 

1981-83: Mattanza: Corleonesi take power within Cosa Nostra

 

1979-1983: excellent cadavers (most important: La Torre (416 bis law), Dalla Chiesa, Chinnici are murdered)

 

1983: Antimafia Pool (Caponnetto + other prosecutors: Falcone, Borsellino, Guarnotta, Di Lello)

 

1986-1992: Maxi-Trial (1987, 91’ – Meli head the pool, pool is dismantled; Falcone given 2 offices created for him in Rome: DIA, DNA, 92’)

 

1992: Falcone – Borsellino assassinated – 41 bis law, Witness Protection Program passed, troops sent to Sicily

 

1993: Riina arrested

 

1993: Bombs in Rome, Florence, Milan (mafia’s subversive t strategy) + Churches in Rome