Police arrest 19 as US Mafia clan tries to move in on Sicily
POLICE yesterday launched an international crackdown on a Mafia family that was allegedly seeking to rebuild its power base in Sicily after years of exile in the United States.
More than 200 police officers, including agents from the FBI, arrested 19 people on the Italian island as part of their investigation into the Inzerillo clan and the allied New York-based Gambino family.
Sicily’s organised crime group, known as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), has been in a state of flux since 2017, when its “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina died in prison, following his arrest in 1993.
Nicknamed The Beast, Riina launched a turf war in Sicily in the 1980s, chasing the Inzerillo family out of their stronghold in the capital, Palermo, and into self-imposed exile in the United States.
It is understood the family has since tried to reclaim its old business helped by their influential allies in New York.
“The investigation has shown the strong bond established between Cosa Nostra in Palermo and US organised crime, with particular reference to the powerful Gambino crime family of New York,” a police spokesman said.
Among those detained was Salvatore Gambino, the mayor of Torretta near Palermo, and Francesco and Tommaso Inzerillo, close relatives of Totuccio Inzerillo, a mafia don who was gunned down on the orders of Riina in 1981.
“The Gambino and Inzerillo families brought to their knees by the forces of law and order,” Nicola Morra, the president of Italy’s parliamentary anti-mafia commission, wrote on Twitter following the raids. “We can defeat the mafia.”
The suspects face a string of charges, ranging from Mafia association to fraud and aggravated extortion. They were allegedly involved in a wide range of illicit businesses, from online betting to whole food supplies, said police who confiscated assets worth about €3 million (£2.7 million).
The Gambinos are one of five Italianamerican “families” based in New York.