{"id":236714,"date":"2025-02-11T19:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T19:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/italian-police-arrest-181-in-important-blow-to-cosa-nostra\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T19:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T19:55:07","slug":"italian-police-arrest-181-in-important-blow-to-cosa-nostra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/italian-police-arrest-181-in-important-blow-to-cosa-nostra\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Police Arrest 181 in \u2018Important Blow\u2019 to Cosa Nostra"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/11\/multimedia\/11italy-mafia-1-wzjl\/11italy-mafia-1-wzjl-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Italian Police Arrest 181 in \u2018Important Blow\u2019 to Cosa Nostra\" title=\"Italian Police Arrest 181 in \u2018Important Blow\u2019 to Cosa Nostra\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Italian police officers on Tuesday arrested 181 people believed to be affiliated with the Cosa Nostra, as the Sicilian mafia is known, dealing what officials said was an \u201cimportant blow\u201d to a criminal organization that has held the region in its grip for generations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cCosa Nostra is far from dead,\u201d even after years of being targeted by prosecutors and police raids, Domenico La Padula, a lieutenant colonel with the Carabinieri police who oversaw the investigation, said in a telephone interview. The investigation, he said, showed that the group had reorganized and \u201chad found new energy and new strength,\u201d by enlisting new recruits and setting aside differences to instead focus on profiting from new criminal ventures, like online gambling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The organization had been able to survive because it remained \u201cstrongly tied to the rules of its founding fathers and its ancient rituals,\u201d even as it modernized, the Carabinieri said in a statement \u2014 for example, by using encrypted smartphones that \u201climited the need for traditional meetings and gatherings to the bare minimum.\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tuesday\u2019s arrests were carried out in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, and neighboring towns, and involved about 1,200 Carabinieri officers. Video released by the police showed hundreds of officers waiting for orders to enter homes as helicopters patrolled the skies during overnight raids. The arrests, which came after two years of investigations, covered a range of charges, including mafia affiliation, drug trafficking, extortion and attempted murder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even though police and prosecutors were able to restrict the Cosa Nostra\u2019s activities for years, the Carabinieri said in a statement, the group had not lost its grip and was still \u201cwell anchored in its territory over which it exercises constant control, significantly affecting the economic fabric through extortion and the imposition of products.\u201d It \u201cused force, when it saw fit,\u201d and had an ample supply of weapons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For decades the Cosa Nostra was dominated the so-called Corleonesi crime family \u2014 associated with the town of Corleone, a name first made famous by Mario Puzo\u2019s book, \u201cThe Godfather\u201d \u2014 whose affiliates included Matteo Messina Denaro, a top boss who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/09\/25\/world\/europe\/matteo-messina-denaro-dead.html\" title=\"\">died in 2023<\/a>. But investigators said that Palermo had regained primacy within the organization, and its \u201cclans have become central to the dynamics of Cosa Nostra,\u201d Lt. Col. La Padula said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The investigation also found that different clans in Palermo had opted, for now, to set aside differences to achieve a common goal: making money. The Cosa Nostra also found synergy with the \u2019<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.interpol.int\/en\/Crimes\/Organized-crime\/INTERPOL-Cooperation-Against-Ndrangheta-I-CAN\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Ndragheta<\/a>, the dominant organized crime group in Calabria in southern Italy, when it came to drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Drug dealing also allowed the Cosa Nostra clans to have direct contacts within Sicily, \u201ca form of control, and so, a signal of strength and power,\u201d Mr. La Padula said. Online gambling, which replaced the raffles and lotteries once controlled by the mob, was another profitable enterprise that demonstrated the transition from the traditional to the modern, he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The investigations that led to Tuesday\u2019s arrests involved many youths, a sign that \u201cCosa Nostra continues to exert its appeal in certain environments like suburbs where young people have limited life alternatives and identify with representations of power that the mafia still enjoys,\u201d Palermo\u2019s chief prosecutor, Maurizio De Lucia, told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. \u201cWe have to be particularly careful\u201d about the new recruits, because \u201cthat is the future of the mafia,\u201d he said, according to the ANSA news agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The investigation also showed that Cosa Nostra still used old-time tricks \u2014 like informers inside the prosecutor\u2019s office and lawyers \u2014 to stay ahead of investigators, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/11\/world\/europe\/italy-cosa-nostra-arrests.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italian police officers on Tuesday arrested 181 people believed to be affiliated with the Cosa Nostra, as the Sicilian mafia is known, dealing what officials said was an \u201cimportant blow\u201d to a criminal organization that has held the region in its grip for generations. \u201cCosa Nostra is far from dead,\u201d even after years of being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/11\/multimedia\/11italy-mafia-1-wzjl\/11italy-mafia-1-wzjl-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5114,3381,184642,184639,6360,3832,184643,61457,184640,6273,184641],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236716,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236714\/revisions\/236716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}