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1282
Mar 30, Furious inhabitants of Palermo attacked
French occupation force in the "Sicilian Vespers." The Mafia appeared
in Sicily to revolt against French rule after a drunken soldier
attacked a young woman on her wedding day.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(MC, 3/30/02)
1891 Mar 14, A mob in New Orleans
broke open a jail after a court dismissed charges against 19 Italian
men indicted for the murder of police chief David C. Hemmessey. 11 of
19 defendants were hanged. The book "Vendetta" by Richard Gambino, and
the movie of the same name, covered the event.
(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M3)
1902 Jul 4, Meyer Lansky (d.1983),
mobster (Started numbers), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky)
1905 Jan 18, Joseph Bonanno
(d.2002), later NYC mafia boss, was born in Castellmmare del Golfo,
Sicily.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A23)
1921 Mar 21, "Big Jim" Colisimo,
US gangster, was murdered by Al Capone.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1925-1933 Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was used by Al
Capone-led mobsters to store liquor for smuggling to the US on the Soo
Line. Underground tunnels, built for steam heating the city, were
converted mob quarters. In 2000 “The Tunnels of Moose Jaw” opened as a
tourist attraction.
(WSJ, 8/19/02, p.B1)
1928 Nov 4, Arnold Rothstein (46),
US mobster, was shot to death at the Grand Hotel in NYC. In 2005 Nick
Tosches authored “King of the Jews,” a biography of Rothstein.
(SSFC, 6/12/05, p.B6)
1929 Apr 6, "Crazy" Joe Gallo,
mobster, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1929 May 7, Albert Anselmi, John
Scalise and Joseph "Top Toad" Giunta, US gangsters, were murdered by Al
Capone.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1930 Mar 17, Mob boss Al Capone
was released from jail.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1931 Oct 17, Mobster Al Capone was
convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He
was released in 1939.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1932 Feb 2, Al Capone was sent to
prison at Atlanta, Georgia, for "tax evasion."
(MC, 2/2/02)
1932 Feb 8, Vincent "Mad Dog"
Coll, mobster, was killed by Dutch Schultz gang.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1932 Apr 7, Erv A. Kelley, US
policeman, was shot to death by Pretty Boy Floyd.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1932 May 4,
Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal
penitentiary in Atlanta.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1932 May 18, Luigi Malvese,
bootleg gangster, was ambushed and shot to death in front of the Del
Monte Barbershop at 720 Columbus Ave, SF, Ca. A police dragnet rounded
up some 1,000 “usual suspect” in an attempt to pressure the underworld
to rein in its wild men. Louis Dinato, Al Capone’s tailor, was among
those rounded up.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1933 Jun 17, In the Kansas City
Massacre 1 FBI agent, 4 cops and 1 gangster were killed by the mob.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1933 Jul 10, 1st police radio
system began operations at Eastchester Township, NY.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1935 Feb 2, A lie detector was 1st
used in court at Portage, Wisc.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1935 Oct 23, Abe Landau, US
gangster, was murdered.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1935 Oct 23, Dutch Schultz (33),
born as Arthur Flegenheimer, was shot in the men’s room of the Palace
Chop House and Tavern in Newark, New Jersey. He lingered for nearly a
day before dying after being the target of a mob hit. Schultz wanted to
have Thomas E. Dewey murdered because the special prosecutor had set
his sights on the numbers racket operated by Schultz. A syndicate of
New York’s top mobsters decided to murder Schultz because it feared the
wrath of the authorities and decided against the assassination.
(MC, 10/23/01)(HNQ, 9/27/02)
1942 Mar 12, Salvatore "the Bull"
Gravano, mobster (testified against John Gotti), was born.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1944 Mar 4, Louis Buchalter, aka
Lepke, was executed at Sing Sing along with Mendy Weiss. Lepke and
fellow gangsters had dispatched Weiss in 1935 to kill Dutch Schultz,
who had planned to kill NYC prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey.
(AH, 12/02, p.4)
1947 Jan 25, American gangster Al
Capone died of syphilis in Miami Beach, Fla., at age 48.
(AP, 1/25/98)(MC, 1/25/02)
1950 Jul 5, Salvatore Giuliano
(b.1922), Sicilian bandit, was shot by police in Castelvetrano.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Giuliano)
1957 Oct 25, Mob boss Albert
Anastasia, the "Lord High Executioner" of "Murder Inc.," was shot to
death in a barber shop inside the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York.
(AP, 10/25/07)
1957 Carlo Gambino (d.1976) became
head of the Gambino crime family and was later the model for Don
Corleone in the film “The Godfather.”
(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.4)
1959 Jan 1, Fidel Castro led Cuban
revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista, who fled to the
Dominican Republic. American mafia scrambled to secure their cash and
close casinos ahead of crowds that took to the streets and trashed
their businesses. In 2008 T.J. English Morrow authored “Havana
Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba …and Then Lost It to the Revolution.”
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 1/28/00,
p.A14)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)
1962 Jan 26, Charles "Lucky"
Luciano (65), NYC Mafia gangster, died.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1962 May, A memo from the CIA
briefing for Attorney Gen’l. Robert Kennedy revealed that $150,000 was
offered to the US mob for the assassination of Fidel Castro. The mob
insisted on doing the job at no charge.
(SFC, 7/2/97, p.A5)
1964 Joseph Valachi was the first
La Cosa Nostra member to publicly confirm that organized crime existed.
He talked under a new Witness Security Program before a congressional
committee. “The Valachi Papers” by Peter Maas was written in 1972.
(SFC, 6/9/96, p.A-10)(SFEC, 4/20/97, Par p.7)
1964-1987 FBI agents in Boston used hit men and mob
leaders as informants and shielded them from prosecution in exchange
for information on the Mafia. This allowed the Winter Hill Gang to rise
in power as the prosecutors brought down the Patriarcha crime family.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A5)
1965 Mar 12, Edward “Teddy” Deegan
was found dead in an alley in Chelsea, Mass. A week later an FBI memo
named 6 men, including Vincent J. Flemmi and Joseph “The Animal”
Barboza, as the killers. Barboza became a star witness and provided
false testimony to convict 4 innocent men. The New England Mafia
shotgunned Barboza in SF in 1976.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A5)
1966 Fred J. Cook (1911-2003)
authored "The Secret Rulers," a look at organized crime
(SFC, 5/5/03, p.B4)
1970 Mar 23, Mafia "Boss" Carlo
Gambino was arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1971 Apr 3, Joseph Valachi
(b.1903), US gangster, died at La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution
in Texas. A biography heavily influenced by Valachi’s memoirs and by
interviews with Valachi was written by journalist Peter Maas and
published in 1968 as The Valachi Papers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Valachi)
1972 Apr 7, "Crazy" Joe Gallo,
flamboyant mobster, was gunned down at his 43rd birthday party in
Manhattan’s Umberto's Clam House.
(SFC, 12/30/04, p.A2)
1973 Feb 18, Frank Costello
(b.1891), Italian-born US gangster, died in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Costello)
1975 Jun 19, Sam Giancana
(b.1908), Italian-American mob boss, was murdered at his home in Oak
Park, Ill. He had a romance with Phillis McGuire, of the McGuire
Sisters vocal group, and was credited with assisting John F. Kennedy in
efforts to win the presidential election. A movie was made in 1995 that
depicts the Giancana-McGuire romance.
(WSJ, 11/16/95,
p.A-18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Giancana)
1975 Jul 30, Former Teamsters
union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the
Machus Red fox Restaurant in suburban Detroit. Although presumed dead,
his remains have never been found. He was scheduled to meet with Mafia
captain Tony Jack Giacalone (d.2001 at 82) and New Jersey Teamster boss
Anthony Provenzano. In 2004 Charles Brandt authored “I Heard You Paint
Houses,” in which he says Teamster official Frank Sheeran (d.2003)
claimed to have shot Hoffa. Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AP, 7/30/97)(SFC, 2/26/01,
p.A24)(SFC, 5/29/04, p.A2)
1976 Oct 15, Carlo Gambino
(b.1902), US gangster, died at his summer home in Long Island.
(www.gambino.com/bio/carlogambino.htm)
1976 Joseph “The Animal” Barboza
was shotgunned in SF by the New England Mafia.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A5)
1976-1981 Joe Pistone, FBI agent, infiltrated the
Bonanno family. His testimony later helped jail more than 120 mobsters.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1977 Dec 6, SF FBI agents arrested
James “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno (64), a reportedly leading West
Coast Mafia figure.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.E16)
1979 In Italy the Mafia killed a
journalist. In 1996 Premier Giulio Andreotti went on trial for
allegedly turning to the Mafia to kill a troublesome journalist.
Andreotti was acquitted by a jury in 1999. 5 others were also acquitted.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A14)
1980 Mar 18, John Favara struck a
killed Frank Gotti (12), the son of mobster John Gotti, as the boy
darted in front of his car on a minibike in Brooklyn. Favara
disappeared on July 28. In 2009 it was reported that mobster Charles
Carneglia (62) had killed Favara and dissolved his body in acid.
(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A2)
1981 There was a bloody war for
control of the Bonanno family.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1982 Jun 18, In Italy Roberto
Calvi, director of Banco Ambrosiano, hanged himself following the
fraudulent bankruptcy of the bank. In 1992 the chairman of Olivetti SpA
Carlo De Benedetti was convicted for contributing to the bankruptcy. In
1996 the courts upheld his conviction and that of 30 others. In 2003
RAI state television said prosecutors believed the Mafia killed Roberto
Calvi because he lost their money and knew too much about their
operations.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A10)(MC, 6/18/02)(AP, 7/24/03)
1982 Jul 31, Jai Alai executive
John B. Callahan (45) was fatally shot in Miami by mob hit man John
Martorano. Callahan’s body was found Aug 2 in the trunk of his
Cadillac. In 2008 former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of 2nd
degree murder for leaking information to mobsters that led to the
shooting death of Callahan. In Jan, 2009, Connolly was sentenced to 40
years in prison.
(SFC, 11/6/08,
p.A9)(http://mafiatoday.com/?p=442)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)
1982 Tony Mirra, mobster friend of
Donnie Brasco (aka FBI agent Joe Pistone), was shot to death.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1983 Jan 15, Meyer Lansky (born
Majer Suchowlinski, July 4, 1902), American gangster, died. He and
Charles "Lucky" Luciano were instrumental in the development of the
so-called "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States. He was the
intellectual impetus behind the Commission and the so-called "Mogul of
the Mob." In 2004 Enrique Cirules authored "The Secret Life of Meyer
Lansky in Havana." The book was only available in Cuba in Spanish.
(AP,
5/28/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky)
1985 Dec 16, Reputed
organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New
York City restaurant on orders from John Gotti (d.2002). Gotti seized
power in the Mafia after he had Paul Castellano killed.
(AP 12/16/97)(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A2)(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par
p.5)
1986 Feb 10, The largest Mafia
trial in history, with 474 defendants, opened in Palermo, Italy.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1986 Dec 17, Richard Kuklinsky, a
Mafia hitman known as the Iceman, was arrested in New Jersey. He was
found guilty of all charges May 25, 1988. Anthony Bruno later authored
“The Iceman.”
(www.crimelibrary.com)
1986 The bodies of Tony (48) and
Michael (41) Spilotro were found buried in an Indiana cornfield. Tony
“The Ant” Spilotro was a top mob figure in Las Vegas. In 2005
prosecutors indicted 11 Chicago mob figures for at least 18 murders,
including the Spilotros.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A5)
1987 Mar 13, John Gotti was
acquitted of racketeering.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1989 Oct 29, Angelo Mercurio
(1936-2006), an FBI informant, attended a Mafia induction ceremony at a
suburban Boston home. His evidence helped bring down the crime family
led by Raymond “Junior” Patriarca.
(SFC, 2/13/07, p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/36ccng)
1990 Feb 9, John Gotti (1940-2002)
was acquitted of charges that he commissioned the Westies gang to shoot
a union official in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen. This earned him the
nickname “The Teflon Don.”
(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A2)
1991 Joe Massino took over as head
of the Bonanno family in NYC. In 2004 he faced trial on racketeering
charges and 7 murders.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1992 Apr 2, John Gotti (d.2002),
Mafia boss, was convicted in New York City of 5 murders and
racketeering. Underboss Sammy “the Bull” Gravano provided testimony.
The murders included the 1985 hit on Paul Castellano, head of the
Gambino family. He was sentenced to life in prison on June 23.
(AP, 4/2/98)(USAT, 9/24/98, p.11A)(SFC, 6/11/02,
p.A2)(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.4)
1992 May 23, In Sicily anti-Mafia
investigator Giovannii Falcone was murdered on a highway outside
Palermo. Falcone’s wife and 3 bodyguards were also killed. Sicilian
politician Salvo Lima was also murdered. Anti-Mafia investigator Paolo
Borsellino was killed in another blast some months later. In 1997
Pietro Aglieri, aka "U Signurinu" (The Little Gentleman), was arrested
for involvement in all three murders. 24 mobsters were convicted in the
murder in 1997, including Leoluca Bagarella.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A12)(SFEC, 6/7/98,
p.A23)(http://giovanni-falcone.foosquare.com/)
1992 May 27, Tony "Big Tuna"
Accardo (86), mobster (heir to the late Al Capone), died.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1992 Jun 23, John Gotti (d.2002),
Mafia boss nicknamed the "Teflon Don" after escaping unscathed from
several trials during the 1980s, was convicted on 14 accounts of
conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering and sentenced in New York
to life in prison. His son John Gotti Jr. succeeded him as head of the
Gambino crime family and was arrested in 1998.
{Mafia, USA, New York}
(AP, 6/23/97)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.A8)
1992 Jul 19, Paolo Borsellino,
Italian anti-mafia judge, was murdered by mafia.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1993 May 18, Italian police
arrested Mafia boss Benedetto "Nitto" Santapaola.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1993 May 20, Giovanni Brusca was
believed to have led teams that damaged the Uffizi museum in Florence
with car bombs. He is believed by many to be the leader of the Italian
Mafia teams. In 1996 he was arrested in Sicily and charged with
masterminding the murder of Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three
bodyguards in 1992. In 1998 Mafia boss Lelluca Bagarella and 13 others
were sentenced to life in prison for the May and July bombings.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)(SFC, 8/24/96, p.A12)(SFEC,
6/7/98, p.A23)
1994 Mar 19, Giuseppe Diana,
Italian anti-mafia priest, was murdered.
(http://tinyurl.com/7plc8)
1994 Jun 4, Gregory Scarpa,
nicknamed The Grim Reaper, died in a Minnesota prison. He was a soldier
for the Colombo crime family and an informant for the FBI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Scarpa_Sr.)
1996 Apr 13, James "Jimmy the
Gent" Burke (64), criminal, died.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1997 The Mike Newell film Donnie
Brasco with Al Pucino and Johnny Depp opened. It was based on a true
story of an FBI agent, Joseph D. Pistone, who infiltrated the mob in
1976 and wrote Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia in 1988.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.D4)(SFC, 2/24/97, p.E2)(SFEC,
3/2/97, DB p.48)
1999 Chris Paciello was indicted
for the home-invasion murder of a Staten Island housewife. He confessed
to Mafia financing for his nightclubs and vanished into the witness
Protection Program.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.5)
1999 John A. Gotti Jr. pleaded
guilty to racketeering and extortion and accepted a 6-year prison
sentence.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.5)
2000 Jan 14, In Boston
investigators found the bodies of 2 men and a woman believed to be the
victims of mobsters Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi and James "Whitey"
Bulger. One of the bodies was said to be Arthur "Bucky" Barrett, one of
6 men who stole $1.5 million in a 1980 bank robbery.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A8)
2000 Feb 24, In Arizona Salvatore
Gravano, "Sammy the Bull," was arrested for financing a drug ring led
by Michael Papa, the founding member of a white supremacist gang.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A2)
2001 Feb 23, Anthony Giacalone,
Detroit mobster, died at age 82.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B7)
2001 Aug 23, Peter Maas, novelist
and non-fiction writer, died at age 72. His work included “The Valachi
Papers” (1969), “Serpico,” “The King of Gypsies,” and “Underboss: Sammy
the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia.”
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D7)
2002 May 11, Joseph Bonanno (97),
former Mafia boss, died in Tucson. His autobiography was titled “A Man
of Honor.”
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A23)
2002 Sep 6, Salvatore Gravano, mob
turncoat aka Sammy the Bull, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In
1998 Gravano, took over his son’s failing Arizona drug-dealing
operation, an ecstasy drug ring. Gravano pleaded guilty in 2001.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A6)(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A4)
2002 In Italy Francesco Sbano
co-produced a new malavita (mafia folk music) CD: “La Musica della
Mafia.”
(NW, 8/26/02, p.54)
2003 Mar 6, Italian police
raided a house in Palermo and captured Salvatore Rinella (49), a
top Mafia boss.
(AP, 3/7/03)
2003 Nov 23, Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno
(57), a regional Mafia boss, was killed in Springfield, Mass. In 2008
Frankie Roche (35), a low level Mafia member, admitted to the murder.
(SFC, 4/18/08, p.A4)
2004 May 27, Vito Bigione (52),
one of Italy's most-wanted Mafia suspects, was captured in Venezuela.
He was accused of a key role in international drug trafficking and
flown back to Italy. Bigione had spent years living in Namibia and only
recently moved to Venezuela.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2004 Jul 30, In NYC Joseph
Massino, a Bonanno crime boss, was convicted of orchestrating murder,
racketeering, arson and extortion over the last 25 years.
(SFC, 7/31/04, p.A2)
2004 Dec 17, Italy's interior
ministry said 181 people had been arrested in the past three months in
a crackdown on the Camorra in Naples whose turf warfare now overshadows
that of the Sicilian mafia.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2004 Dec 18, Naples police said
they have broken up a mob protection racket focused on local bakeries
and flour makers.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2005 Jan 22, In Italy a war within
the Camorra, the regional mafia of Naples, was reported to have claimed
35 lives over the last 4 months.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.46)
2005 Mar 9, The acting boss of the
NYC Gambino family and at least 30 other mob figures were arrested
following an undercover FBI operation.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 9, In Las Vegas 2 retired
NYC police detectives, Louis Eppolito (56) and Stephen Caracappa (63),
were arrested on federal charges of taking part in 8 murders on behalf
of the Mafia.
(SFC, 3/11/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 25, In Chicago 11 reputed
mob figures were indicted on charges of plotting at least 18 murders
including the 1986 hit on Tony Spilotro.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A5)
2005 Jun 23, Joseph Massino, who
went from the New York Mafia's last old-school don to its
highest-ranking turncoat in a betrayal that rocked organized crime, was
sentenced to life in prison after admitting his involvement in eight
mob murders.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jul 11, A judge ordered the
arrest and isolation of 3 senior officers of the Banco di Credito
Cooperativo Sofige Gela, a small bank on Sicily’s southern coast. The
had been under investigation for aiding and abetting the Mafia.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.72)
2007 Oct 22, An Italian lobby
group for small businesses said revenue from organized crime amounts to
an estimated $127 billion annually, making it the largest segment of
the economy.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 23,
Police broke up an Italian-Canadian mafia clan that ran drug
trafficking and money laundering operations, arresting 12 people and
seizing millions of dollars in assets. The clan was led from Canada by
Nick and Vito Rizzuto, a father and son, who were jailed for previous
crimes respectively in 2006 and 2005.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Dec 3, Daniele Emmanuello
(43), the Mafia godfather of Gela, Sicily, was killed while trying to
escape police. He was considered one of Italy's 30 most dangerous Mafia
fugitives.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.62)
2007 Dec 4, In Italy Vincenzo
Santapaola, a suspected Mafia boss, and scores of alleged mobsters were
arrested during raids in Catania, Sicily. Police also seized weapons
and drugs, and found a book that listed extortion fees and salaries of
the people working for the family.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 15, Italian authorities
said they have captured, Edoardo Contini (52), a fugitive Naples crime
boss who built one of the most dangerous cartels.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Joseph Dominick Pistone
(b.1939), alias Donnie Brasco, authored “Donnie Brasco: Unfinished
Business.” Pistone, a former FBI agent, worked undercover for six years
(1976-1981) infiltrating the Bonanno family and to a lesser extent the
Colombo Family, branches of the Mafia in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Brasco)
2007 Roberto Saviano authored
“Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of
Naples’ Organized Crime System.”
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.76)
2008 Jan 16, Italian police
arrested scores of suspected mobsters in Palermo in the latest raid on
suspected Sicilian Mafia hideouts.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 18, A court in Palermo
convicted Sicily's Gov. Salvatore Cuffaro of helping a Mafia boss and
sentenced him to five years in prison.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Feb 7, Authorities in Italy
and the US conducted raids targeting dozens of alleged members of Mafia
clans who controlled drug trafficking between the two sides of the
Atlantic. A 169-page indictment in the US went back 3 decades and
included at least 7 murders. The main targets in NY included 3 of the
“five families” controlling organized crime in America: the Genovese,
Bonanno and Gambino families.
(AP, 2/7/08)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.41)
2008 Feb 13, In Italy police
raided sites in Calabria and issued arrest warrants for 57 people,
including politicians, bankers and businessmen, in the latest mafia
sweep targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 18, Italian police
captured Pasquale Condello (57), the top boss of a powerful organized
crime syndicate. The Condello crime clan was one of the most ferocious
'ndrangheta families and Condello had received several life prison
terms for four murders and other crimes.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Mar 4, Italian police said
they have seized 150 million euros of property and goods from feuding
Calabrian mafia clans who are under investigation for the murder of six
Italians outside a pizzeria in Germany last year.
(Reuters, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 15, Thousands of Italians
marched in an anti-mafia protest and called on all citizens to take a
public stand against Italy's powerful crime syndicates.
(Reuters, 3/15/08)
2008 Apr 7, Italian police
arrested 38 suspects in a sweep against a clan of the 'ndrangheta
organized crime syndicate accused of murder, extortion and arms and
drug trafficking.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Aug 5, John A. "Junior" Gotti
(44) was arrested at his Long Island home on charges linking him to
three New York murders. In 1999 Junior Gotti pleaded guilty to
racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud.
He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in 2005.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Sep 30, Italian police
arrested scores of suspected mobsters, including three top fugitives
believed linked to the gangland-style slaying of six African immigrants
near Naples.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 11, Italian security
forces including army paratroops arrested seven members of the Camorra
mafia believed linked to the killing of African immigrants near Naples
last month.
(AFP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 13, Italian police
arrested five people in the Calabria region, including the mayor of
Rosarno, for suspected ties to the local mob.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 16, Italian police
arrested Antonio Pelle (46), an alleged fugitive mobster, believed to
be the head of an organized crime clan involved in the slaying of six
people in Germany last year. His family was involved in a feud that led
to the Aug. 15, 2007 killing of six Italians outside a restaurant in
Duisburg, Germany.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Nov 4, Italian police
arrested 47 people including the wife of a jailed mafia boss in raids
on a Naples-based organized crime syndicate. They also seized bank
accounts and assets worth about 80 million euros ($102 million) in the
raids.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Italy Domenico
Magnoli (27), an alleged mobster, woke up in a private Italian clinic
following liposuction surgery, and was arrested for trafficking in
cocaine. Police alleged that Magnoli, born in Cannes, France, has links
to the Piromalli crime clan in the 'ndrangheta syndicate.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 17, A car carrying one of
Israel's top mafia kingpins exploded as it traveled in central Tel
Aviv, killing him and threatening to unleash an all-out war in Israel's
increasingly violent underworld.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, Italian authorities
in Sicily seized assets worth euro700 million ($885 million) from
Giuseppe Grigoli, a supermarket chain owner, suspected of letting the
Mafia use his businesses to launder money.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Dec 16, Italian police backed
by helicopters arrested almost 90 suspected mobsters and thwarted a
plan by the hobbled Sicilian Mafia to reconstitute itself and form a
new ruling commission to set strategy. Gaetano Lo Presti (52), the
alleged Mafia boss of a Palermo neighborhood, hanged himself in jail,
hours after he was arrested in a blitz against Cosa Nostra.
(AP, 12/16/08)(AP, 12/17/08)
2009 Jan 14, Italian police
arrested Giovanni Setola, a top Mafia fugitive, who had eluded capture
earlier this week by climbing through a trap door and into a sewer
below his hideout.
(AP, 1/14/09)
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Subject = Mafia
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