European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 3, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Rundown waterfront area of Palermo mafia is diversifying its drug operations and reverting to lucrative extortion and kidnapping rackets italian officials say. A photo new York detective was murdered in 1902. Petrosino who was investigating the mafia was shot with a sawed off Shotgun known As a Luparia. Modern versions sub machine guns More recently killed an average of one person a Day in Palermo. Italian and . Authorities agreed that mafia families had made a strategic Retreat to regroup not Only reorganizing their drug operations but also concentrating More on extortion and Ransom. Such venerable dons As Michele Greco and Luciano Liggio convicted in the Maxi trial live lavishly in prison with servants bringing them Champagne meals from Palermo s finest restaurants these Guys can run a drug operation from inside prison just As Well As they can outside a . Drug enforcement officer observed. Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano of the dominant Corleone family Are still Loose. Besides police say the mafia is known As la Piovera the octopus because it regenerates severed tentacles. By the mafia italians mean about 30 sicilian families linked in crime not blood whose worldwide income makes up perhaps 0.5 percent of Italy s Gross National product. Thousands of men sworn to silence by the code of Romerta supervise couriers bag men informers and enforcers. Grassi estimates As Many As 50,000 people might be involved in mafia operations. Sicilian patriarchs hold tight Sway Over family branches in the United states and latin America rarely trusting Home grown mobs that often go under the generic Label of mafia. The . Drug enforcement Agency officers discovered that heroin networks were compartmentalized so that couriers knew Only their immediate controller. Families made sure that key people do not talk. We found that every time we got up to a certain level we had a homicide on our hands one senior agent said. The drug traffic brought deep changes to the mafia which had evolved slowly from its roots in Feudal Sicily where it once defended Rural landowners. The mafia has specialized in construction but kept a Hammerlock on Sicily s Economy. Shopkeepers pay a Pizzo a Premium against Petty criminals or untoward accidents. Public services must contend with mafia for labor and services. Palermo is the last major european City to dig itself out from world War ii its old port is pocked with crumbling buildings and gaping empty spaces. Mayor Leoluca Orlando staunchly anti mafia fears contracts awarded to local companies will enrich criminals. In the past reconstruction was stalled because so much Money was stolen. In the City of Catania an american trained doctor said they Are in everything. They decide who is hired and they take a Cut of what is one Public Hospital spent enormous sums for spoiled food from a mafia run catering service after its a photo Many Young sicilians say they Are tired of seeing their province paralysed by fear and stagnation. Kitchen was destroyed mysteriously he said. In the 1970s, after the French connection was severed in Marseille the sicilian mafia hired lebanese chemists and took Over the business. Vast new revenues made the mafia a major multinational. Sleek ruthlessly ambitious Young men began replacing folkloric dons in baggy pants. The title honorable society lost meaning for sicilians who once condoned it. By some estimates their drug turnover reached $10 billion a year at its Peak. In the late 1970s, mafia killers began striking Back at the state. In 1982, Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa a popular police general who had fought the red brigades was sent to Palermo to quell the mafia. He and his wife were murdered in a Spray of bullets. Hours earlier Dalla Chiesa had complained to a Diplomat that Rome had not delivered promised support. At the funeral his daughter Rita a television journalist in Rome returned Flowers to officials she suspected were implicated. I Don t know if the mafia is weaker now but people Are no longer afraid to say its name she said in a recent interview. In 1982, the la Torre Law named after a murdered legislator made mafia membership illegal and allowed property seizures. Since then a growing anti mafia is speaking out. Many Young sicilians say they Are tired of seeing their province paralysed by fear and stagnation. Rita Costa widow of a crusading magistrate murdered in 1980, has since become a regional legislator dedicated to the anti mafia. We can fight them Only by mobilizing people by teaching children about the dangers they face she said. We must say no to the even within the mafia some of the old guard draw the line at killing wives and using women to smuggle drugs. Buscetta said the breaching of old codes was a reason he turned against the mafia. In the anteroom outside Orlando s office supplicants wait on dark Wood benches for solutions to their problems. City officials know that if they do not respond the mafia might. Judge Giovanni Falcone the flamboyant head magistrate lives behind a 24- your guard of heavy arms vault locks and television cameras with varying support from Rome. He cancelled scheduled anti mafia courses at a local University when authorities decided it was just too dangerous. In some ways Falcone is More a prisoner than the men he has locked up. Luciano Liggio in a Well appointed cell took up painting nature scenes. His first show sold out and he put the earnings toward a kidney clinic for the grateful citizens of Corleone. Sunday july 3, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 17
