Italian bishop asks Mafia to stop using holy shrines for initiation ceremonies

An Italian bishop has written an open letter to Mafia bosses, imploring them to stop using holy shrines for their initiation ceremonies.
Monsignor Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini, bishop of Locri Gerace in Calabria, spoke out after more than 300 alleged mobsters – including the 80-year-old “Godfather” Domenico Oppedisano – were arrested in a police blitz earlier this [...]

Italy’s restaurants in grips of mafia’s ‘pasta connection’

Rome – Almost a fifth of all restaurants in Rome and Milan have fallen into mafia hands, according to a report published Friday by one of Italy’s main newspapers.
“It is the largest are staurant chain’ in Italy, controlling at least 5,000 establishments, (employing) 16,000 people and with a turnover of more than a billion euros [...]

On the run in Calabria

As police fan out across Italy in a bid to shut down the notorious ‘Ndrangheta, Adrian Humphreys looks at the Mafia investigation’s Canadian connections.
For the past five years, Antonio Coluccio ushered guests through tall glass doors into his office on the ground floor of his million-dollar home north of Toronto, where a five-foot-tall oil painting [...]

Italian Mafia probe shines light on GTA mob

A top Mafia boss flew to Toronto in an underworld detente mission aimed at quelling tensions between GTA mobsters and rebellious underlings in Thunder Bay, Italian court documents show.
The underworld peace mission last year came to light in what’s considered the biggest Italian police offensive in more than a decade against the ’Ndrangheta, a strain [...]

Former Toronto resident among suspects in raid on Mafia

For the past five years, Antonio Coluccio ushered guests through tall glass doors into his office on the ground floor of his million-dollar home north of Toronto, where a five-foot-tall oil painting of his father, a Mafia boss murdered before his sons were old enough to remember him, glared down at visitors.
On Tuesday, Mr. Coluccio [...]

Major anti-crime sweep in Italy

ROME — Italian police say they have arrested some 300 people in one of the biggest operations ever against the powerful ‘ndrangheta crime gang, including top bosses in Calabria and Milan.
The Carabinieri police in Reggio Calabria said Tuesday that the man believed to be the ‘ndrangheta’s top boss was picked up earlier in the day [...]

Seattle strip-club magnate Frank Colacurcio Sr. dies at 93

Frank Colacurcio, Sr., who led a local strip-club empire and was painted by law enforcement as the Pacific Northwest’s own organized crime figure, died Friday, according to his attorney.
Colacurcio, 93, had most recently been under indictment on racketeering charges stemming from massive law enforcement investigation into prostitution inside his well-known clubs, including Rick’s on Lake [...]

Italian police arrest 15 alleged mafia members

Rome – Special police units in the Sicilian capital of Palermo on Friday arrested 15 alleged mafia members during dawn raids, Italian media reported.
The Cosa Nostra clan members are suspected of having extorted money from businessmen in the construction industry and of being involved in the drugs trade.
Anti-protection money organisations on the Italian island applauded [...]

Italian police arrest 46 ‘mafia’ members

Italian police have arrested 46 alleged members of the mafia over several murders carried out decades ago and for running a concrete racket on a major motorway.
Two rival clans belonging to the ‘Ndrangheta, the mafia syndicate dominating the southern region of Calabria, would force companies working on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria autoroute to buy concrete from [...]

Police: Italy mafias run produce markets

Anti-mafia police say they have broken up an unusual alliance of Italy’s three main crime syndicates controlling wholesale produce markets, including price fixing.

Police said they were arresting dozens of suspects Monday, including a suspected mobster who had just disembarked at Naples’ port from a honeymoon cruise.
Gen. Antonio Girone of Italy’s anti-Mafia DIA squad says the [...]

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