Seven suspected ‘rising-star mobsters’ have been arrested in Italy as anti-mafia police are dealing with resurgent Cosa Nostra.
The raids follow a swoop against the mafia in December when a jeweller was captured just before being appointed ‘boss of the bosses’ of the reconvened Mafia Commission or Cupola.
Two of the people rounded up last month revealed secret information about clan leaders who were allegedly part of the Cupola.
Leandro Greco, grandson of renowned mobster Michele Greco, blows a kiss as he leaves the police’s headquarter after his arrest today
Calogero Lo Piccolo, son of a powerful boss known as ‘The Baron’, was also arrested today
‘Like never before, within a month (of the December arrests) we had two new state witnesses.
‘And not any old members, but two from the upper echelons,’ Palermo’s chief prosecutor chief Francesco Lo Voi told journalists.
‘Both confirm that (the new Commission) was not a ‘half Cupola’ or ‘small Cupola’, it was not a case of some old has-been getting back into the game, but the rebirth of the Commission with experienced individuals,’ he said.
Anti-mafia police arrested Leandro Greco, grandson of renowned mobster Michele Greco, dubbed ‘The Pope’, and Calogero Lo Piccolo, the son of a powerful boss nicknamed ‘The Baron’.
‘They come from a family with a strong Mafia lineage.
The arrests by anti-mafia police followed a major swoop against the resurgent Sicilian mafia
Leandro Greco, 29, was called ‘Michele’ by his fellow mobsters after his grandfather, according to the Italian newspaper Giornale di Sicilia
‘These are men of high standing, young men, which confirms our theory of a renewal which is rooted in historical and familial tradition,’ Lo Voi said.
The prosecutor added that the decision by the two informants to break their silence shows ‘there is no future, something that those who still belong to Cosa Nostra should understand’.
The latest arrests include Giovanni Sirchia, who was accused of ferrying both mobsters and secret messages back and forth, as well as four others accused of mafia extortion.
Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini thanked the anti-mafia police for ‘further weakening the new Cupola’.
‘Blood ties, tradition and family continue to be the principles that inspires Cosa Nostra,’ police commander Antonio Di Stasio said.
Mafia hunters heard that at a summit in May The Cupola had agreed on a return to the old rules and had appointed spokespeople for the various clan to improve communication.
The former ‘boss of bosses’ Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina, known as ‘The Beast’, died in 2017
Riina died aged 87 after serving 26 life sentences and is thought to have ordered more than 150 murders
According to the Italian newspaper Giornale di Sicilia, 29-year-old Leandro Greco was called ‘Michele’ by his fellow mobsters after his grandfather.
He was determined to live up to the name of his grandfather, after his father Giuseppe rejected the family business to become a film director instead.
Greco, who became head of the clan at the age of 23, was described by one of the informants as having ‘an old man’s mind in a young person’s body,’ police said.
After the former ‘boss of bosses’ Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina, known as ‘The Beast’ because of his cruelty, died in 2017, the crime group’s attempt to appoint a new leader appear to have failed.
Riina’s presumed heir, Matteo Messina Denaro, is on the run, and other potential successors have been arrested.