Vincenzo Virga (; born 11 September 1936 in
Erice
Erice (; ) is a (municipality) contiguous with the provincial capital Trapani, in western Sicily. Its historic core occupies the site of the ancient city of Eryx, one of the most significant archaeological and religious centres in pre-Roman w ...
,
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 ...
) has been the boss of the
Trapani
Trapani ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') with 54,887 inhabitants, on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the mai ...
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 ...
family and ''
mandamento'' since 1982, when the previous boss,
Salvatore Minore, was murdered. Virga is currently in prison, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the
Pizzolungo bombing among other crimes.
Biography
Virga was one of the trusted men of
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano (; 31 January 1933 – 13 July 2016) was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and ''de facto'' the boss of bosses ("''il ...
and considered to be his financial brain.
[ He was one of the members of the directorate that ruled Cosa Nostra, which was established by Provenzano after the arrest of ]Totò Riina
Salvatore Riina (; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called Totò ( sicilian diminutive of Salvatore), was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with ...
. It consisted of about four to seven people who met infrequently, only when necessary, when there were strategic decisions to be made. Among the other members were Salvatore Lo Piccolo; Antonino Giuffrè
Antonino "Nino" Giuffrè (; born 21 July 1945) is an Italian former mafioso who later became a justice collaborator. The head of the mandamento of Caccamo, he was the second-highest ranked member of Cosa Nostra. He became one of the most importa ...
from Caccamo
Caccamo ( Sicilian: ''Càccamu'') is a town and ''comune'' located on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily in the Metropolitan City of Palermo.
History
The official founding of Caccamo was not until 1093, when the Normans started to build the castle ...
; Benedetto Spera
Benedetto Spera (; born 1 July 1934) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and the boss of the Belmonte Mezzagno Mafia family and the '' mandamento'' of Belmonte Mezzagno in the province of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. He was convicted ''in abs ...
from Belmonte Mezzagno; Salvatore Rinella from Trabia; Giuseppe Balsano
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
The feminine form of the name is Giuseppa or Giuseppina.
People with the given name include:
:''Note ...
from Monreale
Monreale (; ; Sicilian: ''Murriali'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily, Southern Italy. It is located on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called ''"La Conca d'oro"'' (the Golde ...
; 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 ...
from 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 ...
; and Andrea Manciaracina
Andrea Manciaracina (; born 7 April 1962), sometimes spelt Mangiaracina, is a member of Sicilian Mafia.
He was born in Mazara del Vallo in the province of Trapani. He was initiated in Cosa Nostra in 1985 or 1986. In 1992, after the arrest of Ma ...
from 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 ...
.[ Oliva & Palazzolo, ]
L’altra mafia
''
From 1994 Virga was on the run and wanted for the murders of the judge Alberto Giacomelli and the journalist Mauro Rostagno.[Virga, boss miliardario con pensione Inps]
La Repubblica, February 21, 2001
CNN, February 21, 2001 Virga's real skill was in masterminding the intricate financial dealings of the Mafia. His strong political and social support made it hard to arrest him.[
On 21 February 2001, Virga was arrested in a remote cottage near Trapani while watching a video documentary about the 1992 assassinations of the two Antimafia judges ]Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
and Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...
and surrounded by documents detailing the award of public works contracts to firms he controlled.[Preso Vincenzo Virga, luogotenente di Provenzano]
La Repubblica, February 21, 2001[Sicilian swoop on Mafia boss]
BBC News, February 22, 2001[Sicily's magistrates protest over reduced protection]
Daily Telegraph, November 24, 2001
"He is a magician in piloting contracts. We have caught the business brain of Bernardo Provenzano," said police chief Giuseppe Linares when Virga was arrested. Under Virga's direction, the apparently sleepy, non-descript town of Trapani, with more banks than Italian cities five times its size, became a magnet for hundreds of millions of mafia revenue, which was recycled by investing in land developments and waste disposal.
The Guardian, Thursday February 22, 2001
On 15 May 2007, the Appeal Court in Milan sentenced the Forza Italia
(FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...
Senator and Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...
’s right-hand man Marcello Dell'Utri
Marcello Dell'Utri (born 11 September 1941) is a former Italian politician. He is best known for being a senior advisor to former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, of whom he became a secretary in his early 20s and since the 1970s had worked for ...
and Virga to two years each for attempted extortion of Trapani Basket Ball team by Publitalia, the Fininvest
Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A., also known as Fininvest, is an Italian holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi.
Structure
The Fininvest group is com ...
concessionaire.[ Four years later, the Appeal Court in Milan nullified the sentence and absolved Dell'Utri and Virga because there is no substance to the fact.][Tentata estorsione, Dell'Utri assolto]
La Repubblica, May 20, 2011
References
* Oliva, Ernesto & Salvo Palazzolo (2001).
', Soveria Mannelli (CZ): Rubbettino Editore.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virga, Vincenzo
1936 births
Living people
People from Erice
Sicilian mafiosi
Italian crime bosses