Bribing Pentiti
Maria Licciardi sought to control the possible impact of the testimonies of many pentiti in order to protect the clan. For instance, Italian police discovered that a few days after his escape from his protected location, pentito Constantino Saro met Licciardi in order to ask for money in return for retracting statement's on the clan's activities. The Secondigliano Alliance was divided over this issue. Some wanted to pay him, others wanted to pay him, and then murder him and his family.
On January, 1998, Maria Licciardi was stopped in a car with her sister, Assunta, and her sister-in-law with around 300 million lire, which the prosecutors believe was her purported payment to him. She refused to disclose as to what the money was for and she faded into obscurity immediately after lawyers secured her release.
Read more about this topic: Maria Licciardi
Famous quotes containing the word bribing:
“A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule, must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.”
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)