An alleged Mafia boss who was caught on wiretaps purportedly discussing Cosa Nostra’s new hierarchy hanged himself in a Sicilian jail hours after his arrest, police said on Wednesday. State radio said he used his belt.
Authorities had arrested some 90 Mafia suspects in raids on Tuesday to prevent what they said were the Sicilian mob’s efforts to rebuild itself after the arrests of several top fugitives had left the syndicate’s leadership in disarray.
Carabinieri paramilitary police in Palermo said Gaetano Lo Presti, 52, hanged himself in his cell in a Palermo jail on Tuesday evening. Police said they couldn’t talk about the details because the suicide was under investigation and an autopsy was planned.
Investigators believe Lo Presti allegedly headed a Mafia clan in Palermo’s Porta Nuova district, Palermo police said.
The capture of top fugitives in recent years, some after years or decades on the run, has weakened Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mob. Also threatening its psychological and economic hold on the Mediterranean island has been a spreading rebellion of Sicilian businessmen who are refusing to pay “protection money” to Mafia henchmen.
Authorities say they ordered Tuesday’s raids to head off a bloody power struggle among rival mob bosses as the crime syndicate was being rebuilt. State TV reported that investigators believed Lo Presti was planning to kill off supporters of a rival who he didn’t want to see rise to the top of Cosa Nostra.
Top national anti-Mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso indicated that wiretapped conversations had helped investigators uncover Lo Presti’s strategy.
A Palermo police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because his commander was away on an investigation, confirmed that Lo Presti was overheard in intercepted conversations speaking about Cosa Nostra’s power struggle.
Italian news reports said Lo Presti, in the monitored conversations, had reportedly expressed views that contrasted with how the imprisoned “boss of bosses,” convicted Salvatore “Toto” Riina, envisioned the new hierarchy.
Grasso said that some of those arrested on Tuesday had been convicted two decades ago in Palermo’s “maxi-trial” of hundreds of mobsters, served long sentences and then resumed criminal activity when they were released.
Lo Presti himself had finished serving a 27-year prison sentence only a few years ago, state TV reported.
While Sicily’s Cosa Nostra has been reeling under blows in the last decade, organized crime syndicates on Italy’s mainland have grown increasingly powerful and violent.
Authorities say Cosa Nostra has been eclipsed in power and reach in international drug trafficking by the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, which is based in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula.
Camorra crime families based in the Naples area have been waging a terror spree for months, with some businessmen who have refused extortion demands among the victims of arson or killings.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
CONSPIRACIES: Kano suspended polio immunization in 2003 and 2004 following claims that polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She would have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano — a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment — the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long