A total of 183 people were arrested on Tuesday in Palermo, the capital of Sicily (Italy), in a significant security forces operation that dismantled a new attempt to rebuild the Cosa Nostra dome, the Sicilian mafia, in this province, reports Efe.
The detainees in the major operation, in which 1,200 carabinieri participated, are accused of mafia-type criminal association, attempted murder, aggravated extortion with mafia methods, drug trafficking, use and possession of weapons, as reported by the militarized police.
The investigation carried out by the carabinieri, and coordinated by prosecutors Maurizio de Lucia and Marzia Sabella, has shown yet another attempt to organize a Cosa Nostra dome in Palermo and the increasingly close alliances between the Sicilian mafia and the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia (south).
The protagonists of the latest reorganization are once again the bosses released after years in prison, such as Tommaso Lo Presti, Nunzio Serio, Guglielmo Rubino, and Cristian Cinà, among others.
Investigations located the presence of encrypted mobile phones in prisons, where the detained mafia bosses, thanks to highly sophisticated devices, could communicate with the outside world and even organize summits via video calls.
Thanks to mobile phones, the godfathers were able to create real group chats with other mafiosi, some free, others in prison, to calmly discuss their businesses, according to local media.
The investigation revealed that a mafia boss from Porta Nuova who is in prison, Calogero Lo Presti, even went as far as ordering through a mobile phone to beat someone up and then witnessed the ambush via a video call.
The investigation documents also mention the nostalgia of the new godfathers for the mafia and the bosses of the past Cosa Nostra: "The level is low, today they arrest one and he regrets it, but what are we talking about?" says the boss of the Brancaccio neighborhood, Giancarlo Romano, unaware that he was being intercepted.
Likewise, the investigation reveals the imposition of widespread extortion, as in the case of one of the released mafia bosses who imposed his fish products in the restaurants of the coastal towns of Sferracavallo and Mondello.