Italy vs. the Mafia: Beheading the 'Ndrangheta

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2003598,00.html

Italy vs. the Mafia: Beheading the 'Ndrangheta
By Stephan Faris / Rome
Tuesday, Jul. 13, 2010

The wiretap evidence included scenes straight out of The Godfather. After months of clandestine recording, Italian police launched a predawn raid Tuesday, July 13, snatching up more than 300 alleged members of the powerful 'Ndrangheta criminal organization, including top bosses, businessmen and corrupt civil servants. Among those netted was Domenico Oppedisano, an 80-year-old man with a field worker's tan. Investigators say evidence from wiretaps shows that he was confirmed as the syndicate's top boss during a 2008 wedding of the children of two of the organization's leaders.

In another cinematic moment caught on tape by Italian police, 22 men in suit jackets raise their glasses in a toast to the new leader of the region around Milan. The location: a center dedicated to the memory of two anti-Mafia judges assassinated in the 1990s. It was clearly meant as an insult to the dead. "This drove us even more," says Ilda Bocassini, a Milanese prosecutor and one of the heads of the investigation. "To keep going, keep moving towards the top."

The raids, which involved more than 3,000 law-enforcement agents, also seized millions of dollars in property. Described by Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni as a "blow to the heart" of the 'Ndrangheta, the arrests highlight the reach of one of the world's most powerful criminal organizations. Little-known outside of Italy, the criminal syndicate is considered the most dangerous in the country, teaming up with Colombian cocaine producers to control a large share of the European cocaine trade and its annual turnover of $55 billion, equivalent to roughly 3% of the Italian economy. According to the Interior Ministry, the charges against those arrested include arms and drug trafficking, murder, extortion, loan-sharking and criminal association.

Italian authorities say their investigation uncovered a change in the structure of the group, which has evolved from a collection of intermarried families to a top-down hierarchical organization in which power has been increasingly centralized even as its geographic reach and influence have spread. Oppedisano's capture, which was greeted with applause in the Italian Senate, took place in the group's traditional stronghold in Calabria, the region that makes up the toe of Italy's boot. But most of the arrests were carried out in the rich industrial area around Milan, where investigators say the group has concentrated most of its economic activity. Those apprehended included businessmen and employees in the government's health care system, including its head of operations for the city of Pavia. "The most worrying thing is their ability to infiltrate themselves in such a wide variety of settings," says Giuseppe Pignatone, a prosecutor from Reggio Calabria and one of the lead investigators.

The prosecutors point out that the case hinged on wiretaps, a hot political topic as Italy's Parliament considers putting strict limits on interceptions. Though the controversial law makes exceptions for cases involving terrorism and organized crime, prosecutors worry that its tougher standards of evidence and tight time limits could nonetheless make investigations of the kind that bore fruit on Tuesday harder to carry out. "The 'Ndrangheta almost only spreads through the growth of the natural family," says Francesco Forgione, the former head of Italy's antimafia commission, a fact that he says makes the group's tightly bound members difficult to flip. "You'd have to turn in your brother-in-law, your son, your nephew," he says. "It just wouldn't happen."

Police discover Mafia's 'Ten Commandments'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=492449&in_page_id=1811

Police discover Mafia's 'Ten Commandments' after arresting Godfather
8th November 2007

The Mafia's Ten Commandments have been found after police arrested a top Godfather in Sicily.
Under the secret Cosa Nostra code of conduct, the so-called "men of honour" must avoid bars, other gangsters' wives and girlfriends and be on time.

The list of rules emerged from documents seized after the arrest of Salvatore Lo Piccolo, 65, at a secret mob meeting in Palermo, along with his son Sandro, 32, and two other godfathers.

The 10 'Mafiosi' commandments are:

1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.

2. Never look at the wives of friends.

3. Never be seen with cops.

4. Don't go to pubs and clubs.

5. Always be available for Cosa Nostra, even if your wife's about to give birth.

6. Appointments must be respected.

7. Wives must be treated with respect.

8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.

9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.

10. People who can't be part of Cosa Nostra are anyone with a close relative in the police, with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn't hold to moral values.

Some of the rules are obvious, such as that absolute silence and secrecy - "omerta" - must be kept at all times.

Along with the rules, police found a holy image bearing the Mafia initiation ritual. The wording is: "I swear to be faithful to Cosa Nostra. If I should betray it, my flesh must burn, just as this image burns."

Lo Piccolo apparently carried the papers everywhere with him in a brown leather briefcase.

Well, That and Negligible Thespian Skills...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070817/en_nm/seagal_dc

Seagal says FBI probe ruined career
Fri Aug 17, 2007

Steven Seagal, whose action movies once were major box-office attractions, believes false allegations by FBI agents ruined his career, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

The comments in the Times are the first Seagal has made publicly about an investigation begun some five years ago by the FBI into accusations he intimidated a reporter and had ties to organized crime.

The Times said Seagal is demanding an apology from the FBI. A spokesman for the actor was not immediately available on Friday.

"False FBI accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the Mafia," Seagal told the newspaper. "These kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers -- and kill careers."

Seagal, 56, was once a major star of action movies such as 1992's "Under Siege," which earned $156 million at worldwide box offices, but now he makes straight-to-DVD releases such as "Flight of Fury and "Attack Force."

The FBI investigation stemmed from Seagal's ties to former private detective Anthony Pellicano, who once was employed by many Hollywood stars, directors and producers, but is now in federal prison awaiting trial on wire-tapping and other charges.

The Pellicano investigation dates to 2002 when a free-lance reporter for the Los Angeles Times found a dead fish, a red rose and a note saying "Stop!" on her car. At the time, the reporter was researching Seagal and a former business partner.

Seagal told the Times that he and Pellicano had not been on speaking terms since the 1990s and the Times' story said his lawyers told FBI agents that by 2002, Seagal and Pellicano had become rivals in a bitter legal dispute.

The actor said in October 2004, an FBI official told him that federal agents knew he had nothing to do with the Pellicano investigation. Still, Seagal claims they have not publicly exonerated him.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment "because of the ongoing nature of the investigation" and referred calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney noted Seagal has never been charged or accused of being involved in the incident that eventually led to Pellicano's arrest. The spokesman added that the office does not comment on talks it has with attorneys representing defendants, investigation targets or witnesses.