Plans to attack Palermo
magistrates framed by Cosa Nostra leader Matteo Messina Denaro
had a "superior entity" behind them, Palermo chief prosecutor
Roberto Scarpinato told the parliamentary anti-mafia commission
Wednesday in a hearing on suspected links between the mafia and
freemasons in southern Italy.
On March 1 the anti-mafia commission ordered police to seize
the membership lists, from 1990 to today, of freemasons
belonging to lodges in Calabria and Sicily.
The lodges involved are: Grande Oriente d'Italia; Gran Loggia
Regolare d'Italia; Serenissima Gran Loggia d'Italia; Gran Loggia
d'Italia degli Antichi Liberi Accettati Muratori.
There have been a few recent cases in which some masons have
been linked to mafia activities in the two southern Italian
regions.
The freemasons' lodges have denied having anything to do with
Italy's mafias: Cosa Nostra in Sicily, 'Ndrangheta in Calabria
and the Camorra in Campania.
photo: Scarpinato
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