Pizza Connection Trial - Consequences and Aftermath

Consequences and Aftermath

The prosecution in the United States was led by Louis J. Freeh and Richard A. Martin. Mr. Freeh, who later became a federal judge and Director of the FBI, was named the lead investigator during the two-year investigation that led to the arrests. At trial, Mr. Martin, who later became Special Representative of the U.S. Attorney General based in Rome, Italy, was designated lead counsel. He and Mr. Freeh shared responsibilities for the prosecution and were assisted by Robert C. Stewart of the Department of Justice, Robert B. Bucknam and Andrew C. McCarthy, both Assistant United States Attorneys in the Southern District of New York. For their efforts, each member of the prosecution team received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.

Rudy Giuliani, who later became Mayor of New York City, was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York during the investigation and trial of the case, and provided critical support and assistance to the prosecution.

Giovanni Falcone was a Sicilian-born Italian prosecutor who uncovered the Italian side of the Pizza Connection. Falcone’s tireless efforts to pursue the Sicilian mafia included the use of Sicilian mafia cooperators T. Buscetta and S. Contorno and others which culminated in the conviction of more than 350 mafia members in the historic “Maxi-Trial”. After those convictions were affirmed by Italy’s highest court, Falcone was murdered on May 23, 1992 when a sophisticated mafia plan succeeded in blowing up a section of highway where Falcone and his wife were driving. Falcone’s efforts are recounted in the book Excellent Cadavers, by Alexander Stille.

Paolo Borsellino, also Sicilian-born and a colleague of Giovanni Falcone, pursued the Maxi-Trial with him. After Falcone’s murder in May of 1992, Borsellino immediately began to investigate the killing, but was also murdered by mafia members on July 19, 1992, when a bomb was detonated as he approached his mother’s apartment in Palermo.

Gianni De Gennaro, a leading investigator for the Italian National Police, De Gennaro worked closely with Falcone and Borsellino to secure evidence of heroin trafficking by the Sicilian mafia, and coordinated the cooperation of T. Buscetta, S. Contorno and many Sicilian mafia members who testified in the Maxi-Processo. It was De Gennaro who brought Buscetta back from Brazil, saved him from his suicide attempt and persuaded him to testify against his former mafia partners. De Gennaro later became Chief of the Italian National Police and is currently Undersecretary of State for National Security.

Carla Del Ponte and Paolo Bernasconi were prosecutors in the Ticino region of Switzerland, where members of the Pizza Connection used bank accounts to launder narcotics proceeds. Relying on the U.S./Swiss Treaty for Mutual Legal Assistance, Del Ponte and her colleague Paolo Bernasconi authorized the delivery of those bank records to the U.S. authorities, and later supervised the prosecution of the 4 defendants arrested in Switzerland. Paolo Bernasconi was promoted to the position of Attorney General of Switzerland, and Ms. Del Ponte succeeded him in that position when he returned to the private practice of law. In 1999 Ms. Del Ponte joined the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) where she served as the chief prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (“ICTR”). She has been Switzerland's Ambassador to Argentina since January 2008.