Mafia

[jsmith]

yee joooraiii delam barash soookht....

[Rasputin]

FBI probes 'Mafia Bible' for code

Italian officials have handed to the FBI a Bible that belonged to suspected Mafia kingpin Bernardo Provenzano to see whether it contains a secret code.
Provenzano, 73, was captured in Sicily in April after 43 years on the run.

The Bible found in his isolated hut contained dots, arrows and notations and investigators want to know if it is a code that will unlock other messages.

Provenzano, who allegedly took over the Sicilian Mafia in 1993, is held in a top security prison in central Italy.

'Pizzini'

Italian prosecutor Piero Grasso said: "We need to do everything we can to see if Provenzano's Bible contains coded messages."



Prosecutors say Provenzano constantly refers to the book, found in the hut close to his birthplace in Corleone where he was caught.

The hideout contained paper notes known as "pizzini" which had numbers that Italian code-breakers said referred to Mafia contacts.

Mr Grasso said it was still to be proved whether a code existed. If there is one it could help police prevent the Mafia from reorganising.

Mr Grasso said Italian authorities had co-operated with the FBI over the Mafia "many times".

A US government official confirmed the FBI was "working with the [Italian] state police to determine whether there are any hidden messages in the Bible".

Any code-breaking will be done at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

Italian police say Provenzano took over as head of the Cosa Nostra in 1993 after then leader Toto Riina was captured.



Provenzano was given the nickname "Binu the tractor" for allegedly mowing down enemies as a hit man.

While on the run, he was sentenced in absentia for murder. A package of laundry sent by his wife led to his capture in April.

[donsaeid]

Che dorani bod mafia war to US...

ye filme ke hame bayad bebinan on filme Donnie Brasco hast. in film vaghean ghashange va kheili az vagheiathaye on roze mafia dar US ro neshon mide. makhsosan vaghti lefty akhare film hamechisho mizare khone, az zanesh khoda hafezi mikone va mire sare "meeting"!!!

[mike435]

i love mafia movies but unfortanatly i have seen alot of theme out there and cant fined any new ones do you guys have any sujjestions

offcourse i have see

g-d father 1-3
hoodlams
good fellas
un touchables
scarface

i love the old school italian mob movies

[Rasputin]

Naples arrests in Mafia crackdown

Italian police have arrested 30 people in Naples as part of a crackdown on the Mafia following a surge in violence.

The raid targeted the bosses and associates of two clans thought to be involved in extortion and international drug trafficking.

The Naples Mafia, known as the Camorra, has turned on itself recently.

After nine murders in the past two weeks some have called for the army to be sent to the city. The ninth died on Wednesday, ending several days of calm.

The victim was known to be a leading member of a local clan.

Police said the gunmen had fired on their victim from the back of a stolen ambulance. The vehicle was later torched in a street close to the murder scene.

It was part of an ongoing war between about groups believed to make up the Camorra.

Reinforcements

Critics blame the recent spate of violence on the release of about 2,500 men from over-crowded prisons in the region.


Wednesday's murder followed several days of relative calm

Some of the murders have involved people who have only recently been freed.

The killing has brought pressure on the Camorra.

The interior minister set out an emergency plan for the city on Friday which will include an extra 1,000 policemen.

On Wednesday several hundred policemen were involved in an operation in which 30 people were arrested in raids across the city.

Those arrested are accused of Camorra association, robbery, extortion and drug trafficking.

There have also been reports on state television that a year-long investigation is now looking closely at the Camorra's involvement in recent local elections.

[Rasputin]

The Big Question: How strong is the Mafia, and can anything be done to combat it?

Why are we asking the question now?

Naples, Italy's third-biggest city, has been racked by a spasm of gang violence, with seven people killed in the space of a week. The attention of the Italian public was galvanised by the spectacle of one of Italy's most splendid cities, in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, apparently sliding out of the state's control. Frequent and violent muggings, piles of rotting rubbish on the streets, the result of a dispute about rubbish disposal that has been going on for years, and an epidemic of Rolex-ripping have fed into the image of Naples as a city that is mad, bad and dangerous to visit.

Is the Mafia on the rise elsewhere?

They are certainly not going away. In Sicily, the original Mafia, also known as Casa Nostra, has yet to go back to the murderous ways it renounced in the early 1990s, after the arrest of the super-violent capo di capi Toto Riina. His successor, Bernardo Provenzano, is credited with persuading his underlings to give up the gun and use the charisma of the Mafia to obtain their desired results peaceably. The result: plummeting mob violence, but no indication that the Mafia has gone away. The occasional suspicious fire in a shop or office, an injection of super-glue into the lock of a shop's security shutters - that's all it takes to get the businesspeople of Palermo to bow to the Mafia's will.

A recent study revealed the majority of of businesses in Palermo, for example, pay pizzo, or protection money, to the Mafia. Experts say the absence of killing does not mean they are in decline - it indicates the Mafia is not fighting a civil war and can concentrate on its core business. It was predicted on the arrest of Provenzano in April (after 40 years on the run) the Sicilian Mafia would go back to their gun-happy ways. That has yet to happen.

What gives the Mafia their power?

The quantum leap for the Mafia was the arrival of the trade in hard drugs, which multiplied their earnings potential. That remains of huge importance. But they flourish because of the complicity with the gangsters of legitimate power elites, particularly politicians, and the resignation and weakness of civil society all over the south. The killing of a top politician in Calabria one year ago was seen as a flexing of muscles by the 'Ndrangheta, another of the most important southern Italian crime gangs. And though rooted in the south, the Mafias are not confined to it. In the rich northern city of Brescia, a family were tied up and killed one by one in the summer in a punishment killing that is believed to have been the work of one of the southern gangs.

Are the Mafias linked?

They do business together at the borders of their territory and across it, but control of territory is the essence of gang power. The Sicilian Mafia does not muscle in on the territory of the 'Ndrangheta or Camorra, and vice versa.

How do they make their money today?

The "protection" of Palermo's citrus groves was how the Mafia grew rich and powerful in Sicily in the 19th century, and protection money remains a core activity of all the gangs. Likewise, important for all the gangs are hard and soft drug dealing, prostitution, illegal gambling, control of illegal immigration, illegal disposal of rubbish. In Sicily, where the Mafia have worked for decades to infiltrate the structures of the state, they are believed to have a lock on public works bids, with Mafia front companies assured of winning contracts through intimidation or a disguised presence on the relevant town councils and committees. They are also very big in the public health service: a number of legitimate doctors are also mafiosi, and the mob is said to have cornered the huge market in hospital provision in Sicily. In Naples, a recent study claims that the Camorra have got into bed with Chinese immigrants to mass manufacture fake fashion-brand clothing.

[Rasputin]

What is distinctive about the Camorra?

Unlike the Sicilian Mafia, which has had a unified structure since the emergence of the Corleonesi clan as victors in the Mafia wars of the 1970s and 1980s, the Camorra, whose roots go back to the Middle Ages, is fragmented into many small, warring gangs.

In this sense, the lawlessness of the streets of Naples is claimed by some to be an unintended result of the success of the police and carabinieri in smashing the most powerful gang structures - allowing small time hoodlums, often very young, to dream of ruling the city. Many of those killing and dying in recent months have been in their early twenties.

What is the Italian government's involvement?

This delicate question is only ever answered in retrospect. The emergence of supergrasses from the 1980s onwards in the "Nazi trials" of Sicilian mafiosi, prompted by the determined prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, brought the first convincing testimony of involvement by top politicians. Giulio Andreotti, seven times Prime Minister, was tried for "Mafia association" and finally absolved on appeal - only because his proven involvement was too far in the past. Silvio Berlusconi has been dogged by allegations of connections with the Mafia and his closest associate Marcello Dell'Utri, co-founder of Berlusconi's party Forza Italia, is fighting a seven-year sentence for Mafia association.

What is the Italian government doing about the problem in Naples?

Prime minister Romano Prodi and Giuliano Amato, interior minister, visited after the recent spate of killings and Mr Amato announced a plan to crack down on the city's gangs and regain control of the streets involving the deployment of 1,000 extra officers, 235 new vehicles, a 50 per cent increase in patrols in the city, and the creation of a special squad with charge of protecting tourists.

Is it going to work?

It is not hard to find Neapolitans who are extremely pessimistic about the likelihood of it working. And some of them are policemen. The local head of one police organisation, Paolo Iodice, for example, told La Stampa newspaper the plan was "pure demagoguery, and manna from heaven for the criminals."

Amato's plan foresees the abolition of four police commissariats with responsibility for some of the most violent parts of the city and its suburbs, and their replacement by "super commissariats" with wider scope, with the idea of allowing hundreds of officers to get back on the beat. But Iodice is sceptical. "They tried it 15 years ago under a different name and then they dismantled it because it failed," he said. Investigations were duplicated and experts removed from the patches where they had local knowledge. Iodice and his men are threatening a sit-in if the reform goes ahead.

Can the Mafia be defeated?

Yes

* When civil society demonstrates its anger en masse;

* When Parliament passes tough laws, and judges enforce them;

* When Mafia-politician links are fearlessly exposed in the media.

No...

* When unemployment climbs to 50 per cent, as in parts of Naples;

* When the involvement of central government is limited to quick fixes and photo-ops;

* When the idea of a brave new solution is sending in the army.

[Rasputin]

Mafia Wars Yakuza Review

Digital Chocolate has found the cure for the mobile action game blues. The technical limitations of handsets have reduced many entries in the category to "stop and pop" experiences, and not the pleasing kind you find in Gears of War. Mobile "stop and pop," found even in DChoc' previous Mafia Wars installments, is where you actually have to stop moving to fire at an enemy, leaving you woefully exposed to AI-controlled bad guys with no such hindrances.

According to Digital Chocolate, finding a solution for this problem was tantamount to creating the third Mafia Wars game. Safe to say, they've nailed it. Your outcast Yakuza soldier has auto-fire, but it's activated only when enemies are within his cone of vision. And even better, once you've locked on to an enemy, you keep firing until it drops. The key to survival is movement. You keep firing as you circle enemies -- your torso turns independently of your legs, but it cannot twist inhumanly. This allows you to pull off strafing maneuvers you'd normally find in console action games -- and the game is designed around it. It's pure action, with bodies dropping and pachinko machines exploding; there are not supposed to be many quiet moments.

I expect this solution to be adopted by other mobile makers getting into the isometric action genre. And in many ways, I hope they do, because it stands to really put the lid on the complaints about mobile action games -- most of them quite legit.

Yakuza also addresses one of the chief problems with the first two Mafia Wars: level size. Digital Chocolate really sliced up the levels, creating smaller scenarios so there isn't much down time between gun battles. It's great for pacing and keeps this adventure moving along. The environments are also quite destructible, which is a carry-over from War Hero 1944, one of Digital Chocolate's previous action games that was based on the Mafia Wars engine.

Yakuza's storyline is also a strong point, which is part of a growing movement in mobile: Better writing. Yesterday, I reviewed Glu's Stranded, which spins a great yarn. Yakuza tells the story of a murdered oyabun (Yakuza family boss) and the vengeance of his adopted son. The plot ends without much surprise, but it's still a very good story that is tightly woven within the game -- no long periods of exposition.

Naturally, revenge is dispensed with bullets -- but your soldier also has a sword he can use for close-in Kill Bill-style attacks and special magic fireballs for group attacks. (Honestly, I could have done without the magic. The story and action is over-the-top, sure, but the addition of fantasy elements broke a bit of the spell. Maybe a grenade instead?) When you get in the middle of a huge fight and the walls are sprayed with hot lead, the game reaches a level of visceral excitement that I do not believe has a parallel in mobile right now. Things get thisclose to out-of-control... especially in the Tower of Destiny.

The Tower of Destiny is the second part of the Yakuza package -- a room-by-room theatre of destruction. Remember those dungeons you had to plow through in Onimusha to earn huge soul counts and get weapons? That's the Tower of Destiny. You keep moving up the tower, eliminating floor after floor of bad guys -- and if you manage to beat the Tower, no worries. DChoc is going to be uploading new levels on a regular basis. But there's even more to the Tower of Destiny for American audiences: If you join an online clan with friends, you pool points earned for defeating Tower floors. You can compares clan scores on a leaderboard. This represents an enormous value.

Yakuza looks great -- and I've got the screens here to prove it. The environments are detailed, the character sprites are large, and the game employs some cool effects. Even when the screen was full of Yazuka troops trying to blow me away, the game never chugged.


Closing Comments
Digital Chocolate has truly outdone themselves with Mafia Wars Yakuza -- it's simply the best action game available for mobile. I'm not handing this score out lightly; Yakuza earns every bit of it with an incredible new control dynamic that changes the way I'll look at other action games from here on out. And this new control scheme is helped by phenomenal pacing and scenario construction. This game cooks. Toss in a great story, good graphics, boss fights, as well as the Tower of Destiny challenge, and you have can't miss gaming at an excellent price.

[Rasputin]

Ecuador Correa Fends off Mafia

Ecuadorian President-elect Rafael Correa called for defending the Constituent Assembly on the streets before maneuvers of a new parliamentary group that wants to hold back changes in the country.

"We are not going to allow a dictatorship, because Ecuador lives in a democracy system that belongs to 13 million inhabitants and not to just a few political mafiosos," Correa highlighted directing to thousands of people gathered in Guayaquil city.

He said he will make use of article 104 of the Constitution and sign on January l5 decree 002, to call for voting on a Constituent Assembly.

Correa warned that in the case this Assembly is kidnapped and the vote called off, it will be necessary to take to the streets to defend the nation and reforms.

"The Electoral Supreme Court will have to obey, since Ecuadorian people won t let the imposition of any kind of dictatorship from the politic parties," he assured.
"As president-elect I will call for the consultation to establish Constituent National Assembly, since Magna Carta facilitates me such a right," he highlighted.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

ميدان "ملا خليل" در جنوب مهاباد را مردم محلی نزديک به يک سال است که با نام "ميدان اوپک" می شناسند.

در اين منطقه نه نشانی از سازمان کشورهای صادرکننده نفت هست و نه از فعالان ثروتمند بازار جهانی سوخت. آنچه هست، چهره مردمی رنج کشيده است و گالن های ۲۰ ليتری بنزين که پر يا خالی، در اطراف ميدان به صورت پراکنده به چشم می خورد.

انبوهی از جمعيت که ساعت پنج عصر در سرمای زير صفر درجه سانتيگراد، در ميدان اوپک جمع شده اند، آمده اند تا از "سفره نفت" بهره ای ببرند. بهره آنها از اين سفره به گنجايش گالنهايی محدود می شود که در دست گرفته اند و محتوای آن، سرانجام در آن طرف مرزها خالی خواهد شد.

شهرستان مهاباد، به دليل نزديکی به شهر های مرزی سردشت و پيرانشهر يکی از مناطق ورود و خروج انواع کالاهای قاچاق و به ويژه سوخت، در آذربايجان غربی ايران به شمار می رود.

بنزين در ايران
مصرف بنزين در ايران روزانه به نزديک 75 ميليون ليتر رسيده است.
سهم واردات بنزين در سالهای 1384 و 1385 به پنج ميليارد دلار رسيد.
ايران 40 درصد بنزين مصرفی خود را به علت کمبود ظرفيت توليد پالايشگاهی داخلی، وارد می*کند.
منبع آمارها: پايگاه خبری و تحليلی نفت ايران و جهاناز اوائل فروردين 1385 همزمان با سهميه بندی پيش از موعد سوخت برای استانهای غربی کشور و به ويژه مناطق کرد نشين، کالاهايی چون بنزين و گازوييل هم در سيستم ترانزيت قاچاق رايج تر شده اند.

در ماههای اخير، صفهای طويل در جايگاههای عرضه بنزين که طول آن در برخی از جايگاهها به 200 خودرو نيز می*رسد و فروش انبوه گالن های پلاستيکی در داخل و خارج شهرها، تصويری آشنا در استانهای غربی و جنوب شرقی ايران همچون کردستان، آذربايجان شرقی و غربی و همچنين سيستان و بلوچستان شده است.

ايران که 40 درصد بنزين مصرفی خود را وارد می کند، آن را با يارانه و بهايی نسبتا ارزان به بازار داخلی عرضه می کند. اما بخشی از اين سوخت وقتی به دست قاچاقچيان می رسد، با گذر از مرزها به بهايی گرانتر در کشورهای همسايه به فروش می رسد.

"پر درآمدتر از مشروب فروشی"

"قبلا کارگر ساختمان بودم، ولی با شروع فصل سرما کارم را از دست دادم. حدود دو ماهه که در اين ميدان بنزين ميفروشم." مرد سی ساله ای که گوشه ميدان ايستاده است، بدون آنکه نامش را فاش کند از قاچاق بنزين و درآمد آن می گويد: "۱۳ ليتر بنزين را در جايگاههای سوخت گيری ۲ هزار تومان تحويل می گيريم و در اين ميدان ۶ هزار تومان می فروشيم."

چهار هزار تومان فقط برای دست به دست کردن يک گالن، درآمد آسان و بی رنجی به نظر می آيد اما قاچاق، کم خطر هم نيست: "اگر بخواهی، گالنهای بنزين را تا مرز عراق قاچاق کنی، بايد سايپا باری، 2 اف و 3 اف (مدلهای تويوتا لندکروزر) داشته باشی. اما ريسک اين کار هم خيلی بالا است. در اين يک سالی که از قاچاق بنزين در شهر های کرد نشين می گذرد، دهها مورد آتش سوزی، دستگيری و تلفات جانی داشته ايم."

اما با وجود اين خطرات، مرد سی ساله که همچنان در سرمای ميدان اوپک می لرزد، با کمی مکث می گويد: "شکر خدا درآمد خوبی دارم و از آن راضی هستم. از مشروب فروشی پردرآمد تره!"

سهميه سوخت برای خودروهای سواری در مهاباد، هر سه روز 20 ليتر است. اما او مدعی است: "اگر کسی با مسئولين جايگاه سوخت گيری ارتباط داشته باشد، مشکلی با سهميه بندی پيدا نمی کند. آنها در يک روز، چند نوبت به قاچاقچيان سوخت می*دهند."

به گفته او، فقط از شهر مهاباد، هر روز بين ۲۰ تا ۶۰ ماشين باری، بنزين حمل می کنند. اين ماشينها هر ليتر بنزين را در جايگاههای سوخت گيری به قيمت حدودا ۱۵۰ تومان تحويل می گيرند و آن را در خط صفر مرزی، بيش از ۷۵۰ تومان می فروشند. به اين ترتيب، هر ماشين با فروش ۱۳ ليتر از سهميه خود، ۱۰ هزار تومان دريافت می کند.



"برکت الهی"

جوان ۲۲ ساله ای که به گفته خودش يکبار در شهر مرزی سردشت دستگير شده است، می گويد که بيکاری، جوانها را به خريد و فروش قاچاق بنزين سوق می دهد تا با اين "برکت الهی" به زندگی خود رونقی بدهند.

او تاکيد می کند که حرفهايش را پس از دستگيری به قاضی سردشتی هم گفته است: "جوانها همه بيکارند، مجبوريم اين شغل را داشته باشيم، دولت هيچ نوع فعاليت اشتغال زايی در اين منطقه ندارد و بخش خصوصی نيز برای کار با مشکلات فراوان روبروست. يا بايد به شغل های طاقت فرسا و کم درآمد مانند کار در کوره های آجر پزی روی بياوريم و يا شغل کاذب و بدون بهره داشته باشيم و يا اينکه از بيکاری افسرده شده و حتی ممکن است به اعتياد گرفتار شويم . اين يک "برکت الهی" است که نصيب مردم بدبخت اين منطقه شده."

اين جوان مهابادی، يکی از صدها نفری است که هر ماه با اميد بهره بردن از اين "برکت" راهی مرز می شوند اما سر از بازداشتگاه در می آورند.

طی 9 ماه گذشته، نيروی انتظامی بيش از هفتاد ميليون ليتر سوخت قاچاق را کشف کرده است.

رئيس پليس آگاهی، برآورد وزارت نفت درباره قاچاق روزانه 10 ميليون ليتر بنزين از کشور را "مبالغه آميز" می داند؛ سردار سيد اصغر جعفری احتمال می دهد که ميزان قاچاق بنزين فقط "حدود 5 ميليون ليتر" در روز باشد.

هر کدام از اين دو برآورد را که بپذيريم، همچنان ده ها هزار گالن 20 ليتری، هر روز در ايران از سوخت ارزان پر می شوند و آنسوی مرز به فروش می رسند. اما شايد کمترين سهم از اين جابه جايی را، مردم سرمازده ای ببرند که در "ميدان اوپک" و ميدانهای مشابه ايستاده اند.

[Rasputin]

Japanese Mayor Shot Dead

The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, a prominent anti-nuclear activist, was shot by a yakuza gangster on Tuesday, and news reports said he later died of his wounds.

Mayor Iccho Ito was shot twice late Tuesday outside the city's main train station by a gangster reportedly disgruntled over damage to his car at a public works site, according to Nagasaki prefectural (state) police official Rumi Tsujimoto.

Kyodo News agency and national broadcaster NHK said Ito died of his wounds early Wednesday.

Footage from the southwestern city of Nagasaki showed several officers wrestling a man to the ground and pushing him into a police car, and an ambulance leaving the scene as police shouted for bystanders to get out of the way.

Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest organized crime group, was arrested on the spot for attempted murder, police said.

Shiroo has admitted to shooting Ito with a handgun with the intent to kill, Nagasaki chief investigator Kazuki Umebayashi said in a televised news conference.

One of the bullets reached the heart of the 61-year-old mayor, who went into cardiac arrest, according to hospital official Kenzo Kusano. He underwent emergency surgery and was on life support, but reports said he later died.

It was the second attack in recent years against a mayor of Nagasaki, which was destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945 and whose leaders have actively campaigned against militarism and nuclear proliferation.

In 1990, former Nagasaki Mayor Hitoshi Motoshima was shot and seriously wounded after saying Japan's emperor, beloved by rightists, bore some responsibility for World War II.

Tuesday's attack appeared to involve a more trivial matter, however.

Shiroo reportedly clashed with Nagasaki city over a traffic accident in 2003, when his car was damaged after he drove into a hole in the ground at a public works construction site.

The gangster tried unsuccessfully to get compensation for the damage after his insurance policy refused to pay up, according to NHK.

Shiroo had also sent a letter to broadcaster TV Asahi to protest recent money scandals linked to Ito, including hidden accounts and public works contracts, according to Kyodo.

Ito, backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was campaigning for his fourth term. He was an active figure in the movement against nuclear proliferation, heading a coalition of Japanese cities calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Peace activists expressed shock.

"Mayor Ito had a strong and boundless passion for peace," said Sunao Tsuboi, leader of a survivors' group based in Hiroshima, a city also flattened by an atomic bomb in 1945.

"The authorities must conduct a rigorous investigation and get to the bottom of this," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a statement late Tuesday.

Commonly known as yakuza, Japan's organized crime groups are involved in real estate and construction kickback schemes, extortion, gambling, the sex industry, gunrunning and drug trafficking.

The yakuza are also behind most shootings in Japan, where handguns are strictly banned. Two-thirds of the country's 53 known shootings in 2006 were gang-related, according to the National Police Agency. Police estimate that there are about 84,500 gangsters across Japan.

The yakuza have had a long-standing political alliance with right-wing nationalists, though authorities gave no indication that Tuesday's attack was politically motivated.

Though attacks against politicians are uncommon in Japan, three have been killed since World War II, including socialist leader Inejiro Asanuma, who was stabbed to death by a right-wing activist at a rally in Tokyo.

Another opposition lawmaker was killed by a mentally unstable assailant in 1990, while a ruling party politician was fatally stabbed in 2002 in a dispute over political funds.

Last year, a right-wing extremist burned down the house of ruling party lawmaker Koichi Kato after the politician criticized a prime minister's pilgrimage to a controversial Tokyo war shrine.

[Rasputin]

Biography - Mafia Legends

Biography Presents Mafia Legends is an iffy grab bag of Biography profiles on three of organized crime's most notorious gangsters: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel. A bonus fourth disc, Mob Hitman comes from A&E's American Justice series. Quickly edited, with a nice selection of archival footage and stills, these glossy but essentially superficial bios certainly move well enough, and hit the highlights of these infamous mobsters. But there's a certain nagging sense of romanticism to two of the bios which makes this collection a questionable purchase.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review.php?ID=27725

[Rasputin]

Police in Sicily arrest nine alleged clan bosses in crackdown on Mafia

Police on Saturday arrested nine suspected Mafia bosses, who authorities feared were plotting to kill small-time thieves poaching on their territory in Sicily, local media reported.

Among those captured in the morning raids by paramilitary Carabinieri police was Tommaso Cannella, the reputed clan boss in the town of Prizzi, near Corleone, the Italian news agency ANSA and state TV reported from Palermo.

Intercepted phone conversations indicated the suspects were angered that criminals outside the Mafia were carrying out thefts on local businesses, Italian TV news reports said, citing investigators.

Businesses across Sicily pay "protection" money to the Cosa Nostra organized crime group - a lucrative extortion racket long established on the island.

In a separate development, ANSA and state TV reported that investigators found a code book to help them decipher combinations of letters and numbers that authorities believe longtime fugitive mob boss Bernardo Provenzano used to communicate with mobsters while he was on the run for more than 40 years.

When Provenzano was captured in a farmhouse outside Corleone in April 2006, investigators said they seized notes along with a typewriter Provenzano used to write the messages, which referred to fellow mobsters by code. Authorities suspect that Provenzano gave orders by written notes because he feared cell phone conversations would be monitored by police.

[Rasputin]

خرده فروشان ایتالیایی رشد اخاذی گروه های مافیایی که به گفته آنها اکنون شرکت های بزرگ را نیز در کنار شرکت های کوچک تحت تاثیر قرار داده است محکوم کرده اند.
یک گزارش تازه می گوید که مافیا با درآمدی بیش از 120 میلیارد دلار در سال به یکی از بزرگترین کسب و کارهای ایتالیا بدل شده است.

این گزارش که توسط اتحادیه اصلی خرده فروشان ایتالیا تهیه شده است نسبت به رشد نفوذ مافیا در جنوب هشدار می دهد.

این گزارش تخمین می زند که 7 درصد تولید ایتالیا مربوط به بخش جرایم سازمان یافته است.

اتحادیه خرده فروشان می گوید به شدت نگران گسترش گروه های اخاذی مافیا از کسب و کارهای کوچک تا بزرگ است.

در این گزارش از برخی از بزرگترین و معروف ترین شرکت های عمرانی به خاطر آنچه ادعا می شود اقدام عامدانه آنها در چشم پوشی از جرایم سازمان یافته است انتقاد شده است.

براساس این گزارش جرایم سازمان یافته در کلیه بخش های اقتصاد، از تولید مواد غذایی گرفته تا جهانگردی، حضور دارد.

گزارش می افزاید شرکت های بزرگ ترجیح می دهند طی مذاکره با مافیا به توافق برسند تا اینکه گروه های اخاذی را به پلیس معرفی کنند.

این مطالعه ادعا می کند که 20 درصد مغازه های ایتالیایی به طور منظم به مجرمان باج می دهند تا کسب و کار آنها مختل نشود.

این نسبت در جنوب ایتالیا بسیار بزرگتر است. بنابه این گزارش در سیسیلی، از هر 10 مغازه 8 عدد ماهانه مبلغ مشخصی به مافیا می پردازند.

مارکو مینیتی، معاون وزیر کشور ایتالیا، گفت که رشد جرایم مافیا هشداردهنده است.