Mafia News

Roy Lindley DeVecchio, who is retired from the F.B.I., and a lawyer, Ginnine Fried, in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Monday. Jesse Ward-Pool/Getty Images

The rumor was explosive, hard to believe: Gregory Scarpa Sr., a ruthless Colombo crime family capo known as the Grim Reaper, was receiving tips from a mysterious source inside law enforcement, a man he called “the girlfriend.”

The confirmation was devastating: Prosecutors working to cripple the family in the mid-1990s said that the source was their own Roy Lindley DeVecchio, a Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisor, the man assigned to lead the Colombo investigation. Continue Reading »

A U.S. court, citing the risk of torture, denies Italy’s request to extradite Rosario Gambino.

He served 22 years behind bars on a conviction for heroin trafficking. The U.S. wanted to deport him — and Italy wanted him back.

But there was a problem: His name was Rosario Gambino, with alleged ties to the infamous Gambino crime family. Continue Reading »

An Italian businessman who has broken ranks and crossed the Mafia worries he will pay a high price

TO MOST observers, Marco Venturi must seem like a model southern Italian businessman. He is a shareholder and director of Sidercem, a firm founded by his father in 1982 that checks the quality of construction materials. Two years ago he became chairman of the small businesses’ association of Caltanissetta, the province where he lives in Sicily. Last year he took up the same job at the local chamber of commerce. Continue Reading »

NEW YORK - Three alleged associates of the Genovese organized crime family, and four other people, are being charged with a series of extortions and violent home invasions in New York and New Jersey. Continue Reading »

New Mafia Fiction Thriller - “Sopranos Style”

Just when you think you are safe - all hell breaks loose! That’s what has happened to Frankie Granstino and his fiancée, Alicia.

“Better Off Dead In Paradise” is the new action packed, Mafia thriller novel, and sequel to “Better Off Dead”. “Better Off Dead” told the story of Frankie Granstino, the young life insurance salesman from Brooklyn New York, who got trapped by the Vongemi Mafia Family into writing life insurance policies on people who ended up dying mysteriously. Continue Reading »

PALERMO - Italian police arrested dozens of suspected members of the Sicilian Mafia on Tuesday in an operation they said was linked to the apparent murder of a member of the Santapaola clan of the Cosa Nostra. Continue Reading »

ROME — The best-selling Sicilian writer Andrea Camilleri has based his latest book, published Wednesday, on the hand-written notes with which top Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano communicated during his 43 years on the run. Continue Reading »

I must admit that when I arrived in Palermo, something was troubling me. No, it wasn’t the tiny arrival hall at Punta Raisi airport that was heaving with a mishmash of crazed Sicilians bone-crushingly hugging each of their relatives while shouting in the Sicilian dialect.

My itinery included seeing and eating everything Palermo had to offer — as per strict instructions by my friend Patrizia, who is a proud Palermitana. While I knew my culinary indulgence would come with a price, I was troubled by something far more sinister: The Mafiosi. Continue Reading »

The government has opened an old treasure trove of information on some 800 gangland goons who wielded power during the Mafia’s Golden Age - a virtual Social Register of the worst sociopaths to have packed a silenced pistol, wielded an ice pick or driven a getaway car in a sharkskin suit. Continue Reading »

One of Italy’s most dangerous Mafia bosses has been caught hiding in Sicily.

Enrico Scalavino (36), who allegedly ran a protection racket, was arrested by police in the island’s capita, Palermo. Continue Reading »