Sicilian mafia

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Italy to Take More Children From Mafia Families

Program places seized children in foster care to break criminal cycle

(Newser) - Italy has decided to broaden its effort to break the cycle of organized crime by intervening in a most drastic way: by seizing children without warning to place them in a life away from their mafia families. The program, which has been in use in the Calabria region since 2012,...

Cops Nab Fugitive Mafia Boss Thanks to Google Street View

Convicted killer Gioacchino Gammino had fled Italy for Spain

(Newser) - An Italian mafia boss and convicted murderer who escaped from prison in Rome 20 years ago has been arrested in Spain—thanks in part to a sighting on Google Street View. Authorities say they already believed 61-year-old Gioacchino Gammino to be hiding in Spain, though the sighting of him and...

Mafia Boss Look-Alike Seized at Gunpoint, Thrown in Prison

Attorney blames Italian authorities for mix-up in the Hague

(Newser) - An Englishman who traveled to the Netherlands to take in a Formula One race got more excitement than he bargained for when he was mistaken for an Italian Mafia boss, wanted for more than 50 murders. The 54-year-old, identified by his attorney as Mark L., was seized at gunpoint by...

Release of Mafia Killer Angers Victims' Families

Italian officials defend freeing boss who confessed to killing of top prosecutor, 100 others

(Newser) - After serving 25 years, a Sicilian Mafia boss who confessed to his involvement in more than 100 killings has been paroled from prison. "Giovanni Brusca, the man who destroyed my family, is free," said Tina Montinaro, per the BBC . Her husband was killed when Brusca set off a...

Sicilian Judge Killed By Mafia Moves a Step From Sainthood

Pope calls Rosario Livatino a 'martyr of justice'

(Newser) - A Sicilian judge who was called a martyr by Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis has moved to one step from sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. The beatification of Rosario Livatino took place Sunday at the cathedral in Agrigento, near the spot where the judge was shot to...

Ex-Mobster: I Have Secrets to Confess to the Pope

Vincenzo Calcara wants to meet with Pope Francis

(Newser) - In what could be one of history's more intriguing cases of a Catholic confessing his sins, a former mobster has asked for a meeting with Pope Francis so he can confess three "very important secrets." Vincenzo Calcara, described by the BBC as a "mafia turncoat" who...

$134B Bond Fraud May Be Mob Handiwork

US, Italian authorities blame organized crime for huge counterfeiting

(Newser) - The counterfeit bonds with a face value of $134 billion seized near the Swiss border are probably the work of the Mafia, say Italian and American secret services. The mystery surrounding the suitcase stuffed with fake US Treasury bonds deepened yesterday, after a blog revealed that police had released the...

Flush Mafia Invests Big in Recession Italy

It's buying up struggling companies

(Newser) - As banks spurn borrowers, Italian mafiosi are lending out their cash stockpiles to profit from the global recession, Bloomberg reports. Long invested in cash-intensive businesses like food distribution, the mafia is using its liquidity to take control of other legitimate businesses—and as a bonus, the three main mob outfits...

Sicilian Mafia Rebuilding US Family Ties

NY mob busts expose stronger links between Italians and Yanks

(Newser) - The Sicilian Mafia is sending people to the US to revitalize old family ties with its American cousins that faded in the '80s, according to a new report by the Italian government. The FBI nabbed more than 80 New York mobsters in a recent swoop code-named "Old Bridge,"...

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