The families of those brutally slaughtered by the Sicilian mafia fear that more than 20 mob bosses released over the last three months may now unleash a new wave of violence in their neighbourhoods.
Nine bosses linked to the infamous Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro were released in October on furlough or for good behaviour by the Palermo court of appeals.
Among those released are Raffaele Galatolo, 74, a mafia boss from the Acquasanta neighbourhood of Palermo, after a court called him a ‘model detainee’ and let him go for good behaviour.
Galatolo and his late brother Vincenzo were the masters behind the so-called ‘death chamber’, a room where mafia victims would be strangled under the orders of the then-boss of the Sicilian mafia Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina.
Giuseppe Corona, who had been in custody awaiting trial since 2018, was also released in October after he served the maximum period allowed before his trial.
Salvatore Borsellino, whose brother Paolo – an anti-mafia judge – was killed by the Cosa Nostra gang in 1992, told The Guardian: ‘the release from prison of mobsters who have always refused to collaborate with justice is always extremely dangerous.
‘It’s a fatal blow to the fight against the mafia.’
Borsellino’s comments come as chief prosecutor of Palermo, Maurizio de Lucia, recently issued an appeal in order to keep focus on the clamp down against the mafia.
Raffaele Galatolo, 74, a mafia boss from the Acquasanta neighbourhood of Palermo, was released in October for good behaviour
Giuseppe Corona, who had been in custody awaiting trial since 2018, was also released in October after he served the maximum period allowed before his trial
Nino Morana Agostino, whose police officer uncle Nino Agostino was shot dead in 1989 alongside his pregnant wife Ida, told Italian newspaper la Repubblica: ‘We cannot afford to lower our guard in the fight against the mafia or to underestimate it.
‘The mafiosi who had been sentenced to life imprisonment and who are now returning to freedom with parole still hold heavy secrets on unsolved mafia murders that they have refused to confess.
‘That’s why their release sends a bad signal.’
The concerns from prosecutors and family members come from the fact that several mob bosses who have been recently released have refused to cooperate with authorities in the past.
Meanwhile police fear that the Cosa Nostra mafia, which has been in decline for several years, could make a comeback.
Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the Godfather movies, is made up of a coalition of criminal organisations – called ‘families’ or ‘clans’.
They engage in extortion, smuggling, gambling, and the mediation of disagreements between other criminals.
One of their most infamous and ruthless mafia bosses, Matteo Messina Denaro, died of colon cancer last year, aged 61 just eight month after he was captured by police after having spent 30 years on the run.
Judge Paolo Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in Via D’Amelio, Palermo, Italy by the Sicilian mafia in 1992. His brother Salvatore has raised his concerns over the release of 20 mafia bosses
Matteo Messina Denaro of the Cosa Nostra mafia was one of the most ruthless and infamous mafia bosses. Several of those mafia members released had ties to Denaro, who died of colon cancer last year
Anti-mafia protesters gather in Palermo in 2023 after Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested after being on the run for 30 years
Denaro, who was dubbed the ‘last godfather’ of the Cosa Nostra, spent 30 years on the run for murdering 50, including a boy dissolved in acid.
He once boasted that he could fill a cemetery with the people he had killed.
The mafioso had been forced into hiding after he ordered a series of deadly attacks, including the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Borsellino, as well as a series of car bombs in Florence, Milan and Rome that left 10 people dead and 93 injured in 1993.
And children were not off limits for Messina Denaro.
In the same year, ‘The Devil’ helped organise the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo, in an attempt to dissuade his father from giving evidence against the mafia, prosecutors say.
The boy was held in captivity for two years before he was brutally strangled to death and his body dissolved in acid.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
