Organized crime has taken a beating, says the FBI, which Thursday 20 January rounded up 110 suspected members of the mob in the New York area, the largest single sweep according to federal authorities. Charges have been pressed against a total of 127 people for extortion, murder and narcotics. The haul includes leaders of some of the best-known mafia families in the US: the Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno, Colombo and DeCavalcante clans.
Links to other sites: BBC, FBI press release (first of a series), NPR, US Dept. of Justice
Domenico Raccuglia, reputed to be the number two man in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, or mafia, was arrested in an apartment in the Trapani region of western Sicily, Sunday 15 November. He had been on the run for 15 years but fathered a child with his wife, despite her being under constant surveillance. Raccuglia was sentenced in absentia to three life terms for murder, notably for killing the son of a Mafia whistleblower. The Italian interior minister, Roberto Maroni, said the capture was an important blow to the Sicilian Mafia. Corriere della Sera (Ita), Telegraph, TdG
Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – More than CHF1 billion laundered in Switzerland, the profits from contraband cigarettes that went from Switzerlnd to Italy via Montenegro in Switzerland: the trial opens 1 April of 10 people charged with money laundering, the largest organized crime trial in Switzerland.
Tens of thousands of people, according to Al Jazeera wire service, marched in Naples 21 March to demand an end to organized crime and violence attributed to the Mafia, as well as to commemorate some 900 Mafia victims.
Some of these stories, like that of the Russian woman who killed her drunken husband by closing their folding couch, do make it to the front pages:
A woman who returned three hours later to check on her unusually quiet husband discovered that she had in fact killed him when, angered by his drunken state, she closed their Murphy bed sofa into the wall with the man inside. Reuters
Dubai is cancelling New Year’s celebrations in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, bombarded by Israeli forces. International Herald Tribune
Facebook is having a bad week in terms of pleasing the public, with Italians upset at the growing number of Mafia bosses’ pages fans, reports the New York Times based on an article in Italy’s La Republicca, while in the US but also elsewhere there is growing anger at the social network’s decision to remove some breastfeeding images, saying they don’t meed decency standards. Independent, UK
Nasa, the US space agency, has issued its final report on Columbia, the space shuttle that exploded in February 2003, killing the seven astronauts aboard, noting that they knew for about 40 seconds that they had lost control. CNN
A theft victim in New York offered to take his robber out to dinner in a new twist on giving the shirt off your own back to someone poorer. NPR
Hey, it’s 2009 in New Zealand as we hit the “publish” button here in Switzerland. New Year’s Eve is a very short night in New Zealand – check out the balmy weather there and forget about Swiss snow for a minute. New Zealand Herald
