Word: provenzano
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...Mafia by the Corleone faction in the early 1980s, had never made more than a passing (and indecipherable) allusion about the crime to the authorities since his arrest in Palermo a year after the Borsellino killing. His longtime partner in crime and successor as capo dei capi, Bernardo Provenzano, has also stayed mum since his capture near Corleone in 2006. Known as Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mob has long maintained power on the island (and beyond) with the help of omertà, a vow of silence and absolute refusal to cooperate with authorities. Most had expected Riina, 78, to take...
...Investigators say those taken into custody had been attempting to re-establish the authority of the Cupola to solidify the Mafia's power structure after a leadership vacuum had followed from the high-profile earlier arrests of Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Lo Piccolo. Leading anti-Mob magistrate Pietro Grasso said operations over the past few years have the Sicilian Mob, also known as Cosa Nostra, on its knees. Tuesday's roundup, Grasso said, "keeps it from getting...
...Beyond money, the Mafia is a study in power. Provenzano withstood conditions of abject poverty in order to reign over a vast criminal network from the heartland of the Italian island. (A boss who flees his home turf with a suitcase of cash is, on the other hand, considered a failure and possible traitor.) Of course, power and money feed off each other: Provenzano, for one, never stopped working to acquire wealth for Cosa Nostra, even if he couldn't spend it himself. Despite the blows to its leadership, the organization still generates billions of dollars of annual turnover...
...arrest in 2006 of Riina's successor, Provenzano, left a potential battle for control. After the boss in line to take over, Lo Piccolo, was nabbed last year, Cosa Nostra decided it was time to reconstitute the Cupola for the difficult work of rebuilding the organization, authorities...
...international ties have been expanded by other Italian crime syndicates, notably the 'Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Camorra in the Naples area. At the same time, however, the Cosa Nostra was assaulted again and again by major Italian police crackdowns in the 1990s. Police believe that Salvatore Lo Piccolo, Provenzano's successor as Boss of Bosses, was trying to revive the Sicilian mob's fortunes by linking back up with American mobsters through the old Inzerillo connection. Lo Piccolo's arrest in November is believed to have brought more of the "Old Bridge" operation to light...