Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia Clan - Arrests and Convictions

Arrests and Convictions

Just before he was killed by the Mafia, judge Giovanni Falcone warned of the international connections of Cosa Nostra. He initiated extradition requests for the Cuntrera-Caruana members in Venezuela. After the killing of the judges Falcone and Paolo Borsellino the Italian authorities stepped up prosecution. Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera were arrested in September 1992 on Fiumicino airport (Rome), after they had been expelled from Venezuela. Their explusion was ordered by a commission of the Venezuelan Senate headed by Senator Cristobal Fernandez Dalo and his money laundering investigator, Thor Halvorssen Hellum.

In 1993 the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that the Cuntrera-Caruana clan owned 60 per cent of the Caribbean island Aruba, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The first independent mafia state was born, according to the newspaper. That claim proved to be exaggerated, however.

In January 1996 Pasquale Cuntrera and Alfonso Caruana were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for 'associazione mafioso' (mafia conspiracy) and drug trafficking. Gaspare and Paolo Cuntrera both received 13 years. The Italian prosecution office describe the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan as "a close wicker-work of blood-relations composed of family-nucleuses in different countries all over the world, joined with an equal wicker-work of economical and industrial connections, intended to improve their networks for international traffic in narcotics and money-laundering."

In May 1998 the sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court: Pasquale, Cuntrera and Alfonso Caruana were convicted to 21 years in prison, Gaspare en Paolo Cuntrera to 15 years. However, due to an error in communication about expiration of provisional incarceration terms, Pasquale Cuntrera had been able to leave prison two weeks before. When Cuntrera’s getaway was reported in the news media, the opposition asked for the resignation of the minister Justice, Giovanni Maria Flick, and the minister of Internal Affairs, Giorgio Napolitano. Flick offered his resignation but that was refused by Prime minister Romano Prodi.

Pasquale Cuntrera was arrested some days later near Malaga in Spain, while he was waiting for arrangements to travel to Venezuela. The police picked up phone conversations while investigating Caruana’s cocaine trafficking network. Pasquale Cuntrera was expelled to Italy. In November 2004, a Canadian court ordered that Alfonso Caruana be sent back to Italy to face jail time. In Italy, Caruana, faces a sentence of almost 22 years, likely to be served in solitary confinement. The sentence stems from a 1996 trial in Palermo and subsequent appeals. In June 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Caruana to be sent back to Italy to face jail time. On December 20, 2007, Caruana's efforts to appeal were dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada. He was extradited to Italy on January 29, 2008.