MailOnline
reports that a female mobster suspected of being the mastermind behind a
reshuffle of the Sicilian Mafia following the death of 'boss of bosses' Toto
Riina has been arrested, Italian police said on Tuesday. Maria Angela Di
Trapani, the daughter of a fugitive, has already spent seven years in prison
for having passed the orders of her husband, a convicted mobster, from behind
bars to the clan on the outside. Her
husband, Salvino Madiona, is serving life for the 1991 murder of renowned
anti-Mafia businessman Libero Grassi, who was gunned down for attempting to
persuade Sicilians to stand up to the mob.
Maria
Angela Di Trapani, a female mobster suspected of being the mastermind behind a
reshuffle of the Sicilian Mafia following the death of "boss of
bosses" Toto Riina, is escorted by carabinieri during a police operation
today. Riina, who was nicknamed 'The
Beast' because of his cruelty, died last month and his presumed heir Matteo
Messina Denaro is on the run. Di
Trapani, who was freed in 2015, is suspected of having since scaled the rungs
of the crime group - nicknamed 'the octopus' for its tentacled reach into all
areas of society - from messenger to boss, according to wiretaps obtained by
the police.
'Once
released, she immediately returned to Cosa Nostra and took up a decisive role,'
prosecutor Salvo De Luca told a press conference. Police said jailed bosses had
appointed Di Trapani to head up the Madonia clan and tasked her with liaising
with other clans on the relaunch of Cosa Nostra following Riina's death. It is
further reported that 25, including Ignazio Calderone were arrested on Tuesday
in a sting involving over 200 policemen, helicopters and sniffer dogs. Those arrested are accused of mafia
association, extortion and shifting stolen goods. The arrests 'reveal how Cosa Nostra, though
weakened by investigations and trials, still has an enduring capability to use
intimidation to force businesses to pay (the mafia tax) pizzo', police said in
a statement.
The
'Addiopizzo' ('Goodbye Pizzo') association, which campaigns to end the payment
of protection money, on Tuesday urged Sicilian entrepreneurs and shopkeepers to
stand up for their rights and denounce extortionists. The woman mafia killed Riina
was serving 26 life sentences. Riina's
most high-profile ordered hits were the assassinations in 1992 of anti-mafia
judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who had worked fearlessly to
bring more than 300 mobsters to trial in 1987.
Di Trapani hit the headlines in 2000, when she conceived a child with
her husband despite the draconian detention conditions he was being held under.
In 2007, despite backing from a court, the prison refused to allow the couple
to have a second child by artificial insemination.
Interesting or
disgusting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
5th Dec 2017
