Clash With Other Mafiosi
The ensuing power struggle, following Provenzano's arrest, led not only to increased violence in Sicily but also to likely renewed cooperation between the Sicilian mafia and the US-based Gambino crime family. Their growing relationship may open new possibilities for the Sicilian Mafia to launder money through US institutions.
On June 20, 2006, two months after Provenzano's arrest, authorities issued 52 arrest warrants against the top echelon of Cosa Nostra in the city of Palermo (Operation Gotha). Among the arrestees were Antonio Rotolo and his right-hand men Antonino Cinà (who had been the personal physician of Salvatore Riina and Provenzano) and the builder Francesco Bonura, as well as Gerlando Alberti, the ageing pioneer of heroin refineries. The investigations showed that Rotolo had built a kind of federation within the Mafia, comprising 13 families grouped in four clans. The city of Palermo was ruled by this triumvirate replacing the Palermo’s Mafia Commission whose members are all in jail.
The investigation also indicated that the position of Salvatore Lo Piccolo was not undisputed. A clash between Lo Piccolo and Rotolo had been developing over a request from the Inzerillo family to be allowed to return to Palermo. The Inzerillo family had been one of the clans whose leaders – among them Salvatore Inzerillo – were killed by the Corleonesi during the second Mafia War in the 1980s and which had been in exile in the United States. Rotolo had been part of the Mafia clans that had attacked the Inzerillo clan. He was opposed to Lo Piccolo’s permission for the return of the Inzerillo’s, fearing revenge.
With the arrest of Rotolo and others, authorities claim they avoided the outbreak of a genuine war inside Cosa Nostra. Rotolo had passed a death sentence on Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro, even before Provenzano's arrest – and had procured the barrels of acid that are used to dissolve the bodies of slain rivals. According to some observers, the arrest of the loyal Corleonesi triumvirate Rotolo, Cinà and Bonura, has given Lo Piccolo a free rein in Palermo.
Read more about this topic: Salvatore Lo Piccolo
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