|
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was an Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization. Buscetta participated in criminal activity in Italy, the United States and Brazil before being arrested and extradited from Brazil to Italy. He became disillusioned with the Mafia after the murders of several of his family members, and in 1984, decided to cooperate with the authorities. He provided important testimony at the 1986/87 Maxi Trial, the largest anti-Mafia trial in history. After the murder of the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, Buscetta gave further testimony to the Antimafia Commission linking Italian politicians to the Mafia. Buscetta entered the Witness Protection Program in the United States, where he remained until his death in 2000. Early life Tommaso Buscetta was born on 13 July 1928, in Palermo, Sicily, the youngest of 17 chil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is in the northwest of the island of Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as ("flower"). Palermo then became a possession of Carthage. Two Greek colonies were established, known collectively as ; the Carthaginians used this name on their coins after the 5th centuryBC. As , the town became part of the Roman Republic and Empire for over a thousand years. From 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule in the Emirate of Sicily when the city became the capital of Sicily for the first time. During this time the city was known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital media, digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as ''The Daily (podcast), The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones (publisher), George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won List of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times, 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print it is ranked List of newspapers by circulation, 18th in the world by circulation and List of newspapers in the United States, 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is Public company, publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 189 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Mafia War
The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia family. Mafia boss Pietro Torretta was considered to be the man behind the bomb attack. The Ciaculli massacre was the culmination point of a bloody Mafia war between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s—now known as the First Mafia War, a second started in the early 1980s—for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicit heroin trade to North America.Schneider & Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 65-66Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 103-04 The ferocity of the struggle was unprecedented, reaping 68 victims from 1961 to 1963. Preceding events During the 1950s, the ''Mafia'' ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ciaculli Massacre
The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia family. Mafia boss Pietro Torretta was considered to be the man behind the bomb attack. The Ciaculli massacre was the culmination point of a bloody Mafia war between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s—now known as the First Mafia War, a second started in the early 1980s—for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicit heroin trade to North America.Schneider & Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 65-66Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 103-04 The ferocity of the struggle was unprecedented, reaping 68 victims from 1961 to 1963. Preceding events During the 1950s, the ''Mafia'' had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Socialist Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yugoslavia occurring as a consequence of the Yugoslav Wars. Spanning an area of in the Balkans, Yugoslavia was bordered by the Adriatic Sea and Italy to the west, by Austria and Hungary to the north, by Bulgaria and Romania to the east, and by Albania and Greece to the south. It was a one-party socialist state and federation governed by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and had six constituent republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Within Serbia was the Yugoslav capital city of Belgrade as well as two autonomous Yugoslav provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina. The SFR Yugoslavia traces its origins to 26 November 1942, when the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Ṭanja-Aẓila Prefecture of Morocco. Many civilisations and cultures have influenced the history of Tangier, starting from before the 10th centuryBCE. Between the period of being a strategic Berber town and then a Phoenician trading centre to Morocco's independence era around the 1950s, Tangier was a nexus for many cultures. In 1923, it was considered as having international status by foreign colonial powers and became a destination for many European and American diplomats, spies, bohemians, writers and businessmen. The city is undergoing rapid development and modernisation. Projects include tourism projects along the bay, a modern business district called Tangier City Cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corsicans
The Corsicans ( Corsican, Italian and Ligurian: ''Corsi''; French: ''Corses'') are a Romance ethnic group. They are native to Corsica, a Mediterranean island and a territorial collectivity of France. Origin The island was populated since the Mesolithic (''Dame de Bonifacio'') and the Neolithic by people who came from the Italian peninsula, especially the modern regions of Tuscany and Liguria. An important megalithic tradition developed locally since the 4th millennium BC. Reached, like Sardinia, by Polada culture influences in the Early Bronze Age, in the 2nd millennium BC Corsica, the southern part in particular, saw the rise of the Torrean civilization, strongly linked to the Nuragic civilization. The modern Corsicans are named after an ancient people known by the Romans as '' Corsi''. The ''Corsi'', who gave their name to the island, actually originated from the Northeastern part of Nuragic Sardinia (Gallura). According to Ptolemy, the Corsi were formed by a compo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guardia Di Finanza
The ''Guardia di Finanza'' (G. di F. or GdF) () (English: literal: ''Guard of Finance'', paraphrased: ''Financial Police'' or ''Financial Guard'') is an Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance. It is a militarized police force, forming a part of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, not the Ministry of Defence. Guardia di Finanza is essentially responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling; it has also evolved into Italy's primary agency for suppressing the illegal drug trade. It maintains over 600 boats and ships and more than 100 aircraft to serve in its mission of patrolling Italy's territorial waters. They also have the role of border police and customs duties at Italian airports. Interpol summarizes the Guardia di Finanza (Ministry of Economy and Finance) as "a force with military status and nationwide remit for financial crime investigations and illegal drugs trafficking investigations". Mission The mission ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti (; 14 September 1923 – 29 April 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ''Don Tano'' Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 1987, he was sentenced in the United States to 45 years in federal prison for being one of the leaders in the so-called " Pizza Connection", a $1.65 billion drug-trafficking ring that used pizzerias as fronts to distribute heroin from 1975 to 1984."Extra Cheese: Busting a pizza connection" ''Time'', 23 April 1984. He was also sentenced in Italy to life imprisonment in 2002, for the 1978 murder of |
Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco
Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco (; 13 January 1923 – 7 March 1978) was a powerful mafioso and boss of the Sicilian Mafia Family in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo famous for its citrus fruit groves, where he was born. His nickname was "Ciaschiteddu" or "Cicchiteddu", translated from the Sicilian alternatively as "little bird" or as " wine jug". "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was the first "secretary" of the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was formed somewhere in 1958. That position came to him almost naturally because he headed one of the most influential Mafia clans at the time, which went back to the late 19th century. Early life He was the son of Giuseppe Greco who was killed during a bloody internal feud between the factions of the Greco Mafia clan in Ciaculli and Croceverde Giardini in 1946-47. The peace between the two rival factions of the Greco clan was settled by giving the rights of the Giardini estate to Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco and his cousin Salvatore Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angelo La Barbera
Angelo La Barbera (; July 3, 1924 – October 28, 1975) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was set up in 1958 as the capo mandamento for Mafia families of Borgo Vecchio, Porta Nuova and Palermo Centro. Gaia Servadio, an English/Italian journalist who wrote a biography on Angelo La Barbera, described him as the symbol of the quick, clever gangster. The new post-war mafioso who in the end became the victim of the many politicians he himself had built. He represented the proletariat who tried to become mafioso, middle class, and ultimately did not succeed.Servadio, ''Mafioso'', p. 182-84 Mafia career Angelo and Salvatore La Barbera were born in the slums of the neighbourhood of Partanna-Mondello in Palermo. Their father was an itinerant charcoal burner and vendor. They started with petty larceny and murder and rais ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cigarette Smuggling
The illicit cigarette trade is defined as “the production, import, export, purchase, sale, or possession of tobacco goods which fail to comply with legislation” (FATF 2012). Illicit cigarette trade activities fall under 3 categories: # Contraband: cigarettes smuggled from abroad without domestic duty paid; # Counterfeit: cigarettes manufactured without authorization of the rightful owners, with intent to deceive consumers and to avoid paying duty; # Illicit whites: brands manufactured legitimately in one country, but smuggled and sold in another without duties being paid. Cigarette smuggling, also informally referred to as "buttlegging," is the illicit transportation of cigarettes or cigars from an administrative division with low taxation to a division with high taxation for sale and consumption. The practice, commonly used by the tobacco industry, organized crime syndicates and rebel groups, is a form of tax evasion. Interstate 95, a highway traversing the East Coast o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.png "Click for more on -> The New York Times")
