Nov 25 2008
Palermo — Police on Tuesday arrested five people including the wife of jailed Mafia boss Antonino Madonia, in the Sicilian city of Palermo, and seized suspected Mafia assets worth 15 million euros. Madonia’s wife, Maria Angela Di Trapani, is suspected of taking orders from her husband in prison. She and the other four – none of whom were named – are suspected of Mafia association and extortion. Continue Reading »
Nov 25 2008
Killer call: A policeman demonstrates how the bullets were loaded
It’s the mobile phone that could leave you with more than a warm ear. As startled Italian police discovered, the device seized in a raid on a Mafia gang is actually a pistol. The phone gun – complete with a dummy display – holds four .22 bullets. Continue Reading »
Nov 25 2008
PALERMO — A father and three sons used code words and sign language to run their Sicilian Mafia clan from a maximum-security prison, Italian police said Tuesday.
Francesco Madonia, the head of the Madonia clan, died in prison in 2007. Continue Reading »
Nov 24 2008
An acting capo in the Luchese crime family and five others were arrested Monday for running a sports betting ring in the Bronx, Manhattan federal prosecutors said. Continue Reading »
Nov 11 2008
Ankara – More than 12 years after a traffic accident in western Turkey exposed links between the Turkish mafia, police and politicians, the trial of the then interior minister was set to get underway in Ankara on Tuesday, but the court decided that another court should try the case, the Anadolu news agency reported. Former Interior Minister Mehmet Agar was implicated in ties with Turkish mafia boss Abdullah Catli with prosecutors claiming that Agar had protected Catli, a figure wanted by the police for a number of murders, and had even signed Catli’s gun licence. Continue Reading »
Nov 11 2008
The Italian mafia is squeezing legitimate businesses for £130,000 every minute through extortion, protection rackets and loan sharking, a report has revealed.
Mobsters use intimidation and violence to force shop keepers, restaurant owners and companies to pay more than £200m worth of ‘pizzo’ – Italian slang for protection money – every day. Continue Reading »
