Giovanni Brusca - Assets Confiscated

Assets Confiscated

The Brusca family land was seized by the government and in 2000, handed over to an organization called the Consortium for Legal Development. It restores property confiscated from imprisoned mafiosi and gives them back to the community. The small stone farmhouse at San Giuseppe Jato some 40 minutes from Palermo was renovated in 2004. It is Sicily’s first anti-mafia agriturismo – or farmstay. Tourists can enjoy organic pasta milled from wheat grown on Brusca’s land and organic wine made from his vineyards by the Placido Rizzotto cooperative, named after the union leader from Corleone, who was shot by the mafia in 1948.

According to Lucio Guarino, the organization’s director, returning the properties sends a powerful message: "The Brusca family controlled the fortunes of this territory for nearly thirty years. So it’s an incredible symbol. Here land equals power. And this project shows that with the will of the people, it’s possible to confiscate and restore mafia land". It has not been easy reclaiming confiscated mafia land for the community. The first year after the cooperative had just sowed their crops, a flock of sheep came from nowhere to destroy them. The day before the project's first grain harvest, every combine harvester in the area mysteriously disappeared.