Police on Tuesday arrested
four people on suspicion of mafia crimes as part of a probe into
the activities of Sicily's Cosa Nostra in and around its
Corleone stronghold.
The suspects, who include presumed mobsters and their
associates, were arrested on charges of extortion against
entrepreneurs operating in the construction sector and
shopkeepers.
They were arrested following collaboration by victims who
investigators said abandoned the usual reticence that
characterises the business and retail community in Corleone for
the first time.
"It's an excellent signal," Monreale carabinieri police
commander Pierluigi Solazzo said.
"Retailers, who are already strangled by the crisis, are no
longer able to bear the pressure from the mafia as well."
"At last the wall of fear and silence in the fight against
the extortion racket has been broken in Corleone too," said
Democratic Party (PD) Senator Pd Giuseppe Lumia, a member of the
parliamentary antimafia committee.
"Rebellion by commercial operators is the main way of
freeing the area from mafia oppression."
Tuesday's blitz followed on from an earlier operation
targeting several presumed members of local mafia families last
September.
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