Salvatore Miceli (; born 12 April 1946, in

Salemi Salemi is a town and ''comune'' in southwestern Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). History Salemi is where Giuseppe Garibaldi anno ...

) is a member of the Sicilian

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

. He was on the "

Most wanted list A most wanted list is a list of criminals and alleged criminals who are believed to be fugitive, at large and are identified as a law enforcement agency's highest priority for capture. The list can alert the public to be watchful, and generates ...

" of the Italian Ministry of the Interior from 2001 until his arrest in Venezuela in June 2009. Some Mafia turncoats (

pentiti ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...

) referred to Miceli as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, due to his frequent trips abroad. Others called him "the chicken that lays golden eggs", referring to his lucrative drug business.

Drug trafficker

Miceli was born in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, in the

province of Trapani The province of Trapani (; ; officially ''libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 2015 by ...

. He was the grandson of the notorious heroin trafficker Salvatore Zizzo.Relazione conclusiva
Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul fenomeno della criminalità organizzata mafiosa o similare, January 2006 Together with Roberto Pannunzi, he is considered to be the intermediary between the Mafia and the Calabrian

'Ndrangheta The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...

clans with Colombian cocaine cartels.Forgione,
Mafia export
', p. 51-58 The two had met when they were living in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. They became close friends and Pannunzi became the godfather of Miceli's firstborn. The relation between the Calabrian and the Sicilian mafioso also was very useful for drug trafficking. Both were involved in a cocaine trafficking network with

Mariano Agate Mariano Agate (19 May 1939 in Mazara del Vallo – 3 April 2013 in Mazara del Vallo) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of Mazara del Vallo Mafia family since the 1970s when he replaced the old boss Mariano Licari. He also ...

, the Mafia boss of

Mazara del Vallo Mazara del Vallo (; is a city and in the province of Trapani, northwestern Sicily, Italy. It lies mainly on the left bank at the mouth of the Mazaro river. It is an agricultural and fishing centre and its port gives shelter to the largest fi ...

and Calabrian clans of Marando, Trimboli and Barbaro from

Platì Platì (; ) is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Calabria, southern Italy. It rises above sea level on the slope of the Aspromonte mountains and is located next to the Aspromonte National Park. History P ...

.Italia. Uno degli affari di Cosa Nostra e 'Ndrangheta insieme
ADUC droghe, May 30, 2003La joint venture della droga
Antimafia Duemila, N° 33 Luglio-Agosto 2003 When one of the cocaine transports to Greece went wrong, Miceli was taken hostage by the Colombian suppliers. He was moved towards a hacienda in the Colombian jungle and only to be released when the damage of losing 900 kilogrammes of cocaine, some 22.5 million US dollars, would be repaid. He was only released when Pannunzi guaranteed the money through his Calabrian contacts. The entire ring was dismantled in May 2003 – but Miceli remained at large. His wife Veronica Dudzinski and his sons Ivano and Mario Miceli were arrested in May 2003, when the cocaine trafficking network was disrupted.Dalla cella dava ordini al figlio laureato
Il Messaggero, June 1, 2003 At the beginning of the 1990s, after a failed cocaine transport, Mafia boss

Giovanni Brusca Giovanni Brusca (; born 20 February 1957) is an Italian mobster and former member of the Corleonesi clan of the Sicilian Mafia. He played a major role in the 1992 murders of Antimafia Commission prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and businessman Ig ...

also condemned Miceli to death. However, he was saved thanks to the intervention of Vincenzo Sinacori and

Matteo Messina Denaro Matteo Messina Denaro (; 26 April 1962 – 25 September 2023), also known as ''Diabolik'' (from the Italian comic book character), was an Italian mafia boss from Castelvetrano. He was considered to be one of the new leaders of the Cosa Nostra a ...

– the boss of

Castelvetrano Castelvetrano () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Trapani, Sicily, southern Italy. The archeological site of Selinunte is located within the municipal territory. The municipality borders with Campobello di Mazara, Mazara del Vall ...

– who made clear that Miceli belonged to the Mafia in the

, and that the "palermitani" could not act against him without the permission of the Mafia bosses of Trapani.Salvatore Miceli, 'il ministro degli Esteri' di Cosa Nostra
La Repubblica, June 21, 2009

Arrest

On 20 June 2009, Salvatore Miceli was arrested by police in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. The arrest was made after a joint operation between Italian and Venezuelan authorities and

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

agents.'Mafia man' arrested in Venezuela

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, June 21, 2009Italian mafia boss arrested in Venezuela
Reuters, June 21, 2009 He was apprehended as he left his house on Sunday, along with two other unnamed Italian suspects.Top Italian Mafia fugitive arrested in Caracas

The Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are distributed to its members, major ...

, June 21, 2009 Miceli, who had been on the run from authorities since 2001, had been under police surveillance for three days prior to his arrest.Mafia, arrestato in Venezuela: Il boss Salvatore Miceli
La Repubblica, June 21, 2009 The former head of Italy's Antimafia parliamentary commission, Giuseppe Lumia, suggested that Miceli's arrest would be a major blow to the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...

and their trans-Atlantic drug trafficking operations. Venezuela

extradited In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...

Miceli to Italy on 30 June 2009, to serve his prison term. He was convicted of drug trafficking and Mafia conspiracy in 2001.Il Venezuela estrada il boss Miceli
La Repubblica, June 30, 2009 Since then he again has been charged for cocaine trafficking between Colombia, Sicily and Calabria.Cosa Nostra e i narcos: la storia di Salvatore Miceli, il boss del narcotraffico
Antmafia Duemila, June 22, 2009

References

* Forgione, Francesco (2009).
Mafia export: Come ’Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra e Camorra hanno colonizzato il mondo
', Milan: Baldini Castoldi Dalai editore

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miceli, Salvatore 1946 births Living people Sicilian mafiosi Canadian gangsters Canadian people of Italian descent Italian emigrants to Canada People extradited from Venezuela People extradited to Italy Organized crime in Toronto