Rising Tensions
In August 2006, two hitmen gunned down 63-year-old Giuseppe D'Angelo in broad daylight in the Palermo district of Tommaso Natale. The crime may have been a provocation by a rival mafia faction against Lo Piccolo and concerns about a renewal of violence between competing mafia groups were mounting. In September 2006, Bartolomeo Spatola, the 72-year-old boss of the Sferracavallo district of Palermo, disappeared. The press suggested Salvatore Lo Piccolo's men kidnapped and killed Spatola because he had allegedly supported Nino Rotolo's plan to murder Lo Piccolo and his son Sandro.
In March 2007, police discovered a large arsenal of weapons in the countryside outside Palermo. The weapons "were ready to be used" and opined that the current absence of violence in Palermo "did not signify that the danger of a new mafia war had been averted."
On June 13, 2007, two hitmen killed 46-year-old mafia boss Nicola Ingarao – an ally of Nino Rotolo. Italy's domestic intelligence service SISDE, warned that the murder of Ingarao possibly marked a return to Mafia violence. An Antimafia prosecutor seconded this view stating that the murder "could be a sign of reorganization, stabilization, or potential war among gangs." Lo Piccolo allegedly ordered Ingarao's murder for two reasons: 1) Ingarao opposed the return of the Inzerillo family; and 2) the elimination of Ingarao would enable Lo Piccolo to secure control of the central Palermo district of Porta Nuova for factions not hostile to him. Gaspare Pulizzi, one of Lo Piccolo's right-hand men who later became a pentito, revealed that Lo Piccolo’s son Sandro was behind the murders of Spatola and Ingarao. Both murdered bosses allied with Rotolo.
In a July 2007 hearing before the Italian Senate, the director of Italian State Police, Antonio Manganelli, warned that the chain of recent murders in Palermo is in part due to the return of the "so-called fugitives (Inzerillo family)... who have now returned... If they are back, it means that someone has authorized their return. This is not appreciated by the other side," he added.
Read more about this topic: Salvatore Lo Piccolo
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