ARRIVEDERCI, BABY! A decade on Twitter has made me appreciate that life’s too short to spend it online. Thanks to those who’ve followed my wayward adventures, bought my book, and engaged with me. And plaudits to Italy’s best hope: anti-Mafia activists, journalists, and officials.
DIVERSIFY OR DIE. Italian and German police arrested 32 people in a crackdown targeting the ’Ndrangheta’s illicit trade in real estate, catering, livestock, produce, video gambling, and drugs. https://t.co/voLgQFlNhg
#Ndrangheta#Mafia#Calabria#Stuttgard#truecrime#antimafia
SWISS REMISS. European countries fighting Mafia infiltration demand that Switzerland step up enforcement. It’s ideal for criminal organizations “not just as a place to hide out, but also as a hub for drug, arms and human trafficking.” https://t.co/14kQoOybkv
#Ndrangheta#Mafia
TOXIC SHOCK. Decades of illegal waste-dumping by the Camorra—and government inaction—have created cancer clusters in Italy’s “Land of Fires.” Some officials still deny a link. https://t.co/x40YlQEqtl
@GiuliaParavicin#Camorra#Mafia#Naples#truecrime
BIGGER BROTHER. Italy will expand expand the use of court-ordered phone bugs, said chief anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo: “I do not know of any unnecessary wiretaps.” But Justice Minister Carlo Nordio announced coming changes to increase privacy.
https://t.co/6KsTtXeLXv
BAD SHOTS CAUGHT. Two men in their thirties are charged in connection with a failed drive-by killing of Leonardo Rizzuto. The son of late Montreal mob boss Vito was wounded in the attempted hit last March. https://t.co/JAaqpfezoO
@DanielJRowe42#Rizzuto#Mafia#truecrime
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE. Imprisoned drug kingpin-turned-informer Raffaele Imperiale will likely help Irish cops catch his former partner, Daniel Kinahan. But @AnnaSergi warns, “You can take one guy out but that does not take the network out.” https://t.co/wLxeu06ZgC
#Mafia
PARTY’S OVER. The death of Italy’s three-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi occasions a look at his Mafia links and scandals. Good obit from @Michael2Day, biographer of Mr. Bunga Bunga, who “will mostly be remembered for all the wrong reasons.” https://t.co/S3sOQQsVBW
COWED IN FEAR. Three Sicilian sisters who claim to be victims of a “cattle mafia” have lost a case against men they say threatened them. Despite intimidation that included cattle carcasses left at their home, the ranchers are “without justice and alone.” https://t.co/8TIO80Hhhe
CHIT OUT OF LUCK. Montreal tough-guy mobster Francesco “Chit” Del Balso was gunned down outside a gym yesterday. Years after the death of boss Vito Rizzuto, “this murder confirms that the Montreal war is not yet over.” https://t.co/fQsBJuZwwL
#Mafia#Montreal#truecrime
BATTLE OF THE BELGE. A second round of arrests in Belgium’s crackdown on the ’Ndrangheta netted eight suspects today. They’re initially charged with drug trafficking and membership in a criminal organization. https://t.co/S7m0kNlTge
#Ndrangheta#Mafia#truecrime#antimafia
SILK ROADBLOCK. Italian police arrested 40 suspected drug traffickers in the latest ’Ndrangheta crackdown yesterday. A shadow network of Chinese money brokers is believed to facilitate the importation of Latin American cocaine and hash into Europe. https://t.co/hP6gxgoTQk
#Mafia
ART OF WAR. Hundreds of people gathered in Florence to pay tribute to the victims of the Georgofili Massacre on its 30th anniversary. Five were killed when a bomb exploded near the Uffizi Gallery as part of a wave of Mafia attacks on the state in 1993. https://t.co/i4dbRu4v9T
GREEN SLIME. Sicily’s “Lord of the Wind” faces ten years of prison per the Palermo prosecutor’s request. Renewable-energy baron Vito Nicastri is charged with Mafia association and linked to several crime families. https://t.co/o4AjmfXUjZ
#Mafia#Sicily#truecrime#antimafia
R.I.P. KENNETH ANGER, trailblazing underground filmmaker, dead at 96. I had the honor of interviewing him at a time when he was considered combative to journalists. Well, he was a real pussycat.
#KennethAnger#HollywoodBabylon#RIP
R.I.P. GIOVANNI FALCONE, Sicilian magistrate and prosecutor assassinated 31 years ago. The fearless judge, his wife, and bodyguards were blown up by TNT detonated beneath a freeway. Betrayed in life from within the state, Falcone’s death ignited the modern anti-Mafia movement.
SEIZE THE DAY. Italy’s policy of redistributing assets confiscated from the Mafia is being adopted by other EU countries. “Increasingly there is a move to reuse land and property, and to put it to use in the public good.” https://t.co/WepW9kNJj1
@Ptr_Yeung#Mafia#antimafia
MOBTREAL FEMICIDE. Claudia Iacono, daughter-in-law of murdered Mafia boss Moreno Gallo, was shot dead in her car in Montreal. “For a woman to be targeted, it’s definitely rare,” said an expert, who thinks it may have been the result of a personal vendetta. https://t.co/wULxQsJAcn
MELTING LOVE. A Naples man was lured to a quarry, shot dead, then dissolved in acid as an “honor killing.” Police say the victim was romancing the daughter-in-law of Camorra boss Gennaro “the Monkey” Licciardi. Three were arrested in the decade-old crime. https://t.co/ECZ9tIpvhS