Italian police on Friday seized
assets worth some 150 million euros belonging to a front man for
late superboss Bernardo Provenzano and another currently jailed
top boss, Salvatore Lo Piccolo.
Police seized hundreds of properties in the provinces of
Trapani and Palermo that belonged to Andrea Impastato, 72, from
Cinisi, who was arrested in 2002.
Impastato is believed to acted as a front man for the two
bosses, police said.
Provenzano, who died in 2016, was a chief of the Sicilian
Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that
originated in the town of Corleone, and de facto il capo dei
capi (the boss of bosses).
His nickname was Binnu u tratturi (Sicilian for "Bernardo the
tractor") because, in the words of one informant, "he mows
people down."
Another nickname was il ragioniere ("the accountant") due to
his apparently subtle and low-key approach to running his crime
empire, at least in contrast to some of his more violent
predecessors and co-bosses like Salvatore 'The Beast' Riina.
Lo Piccolo, 78, also known as "the Baron" (il Barone), is one
of the most powerful bosses of Palermo.
Lo Piccolo rose through the ranks of the Palermo mafia
throughout the 1980s and he became the capomandamento of the San
Lorenzo district in the early 1990s, replacing Salvatore
Biondino who was sent to prison.
Lo Piccolo was a fugitive until 1983 and had been running his
Mafia affairs in hiding. With the capture of Provenzano on 11
April 2006, Lo Piccolo had been cementing his power and rise to
the top of the Palermo Mafia until his own arrest on 5 November
2007. It is believed that his family spread across Europe due to
rising tensions, settling in England, Portugal and southern
Spain.
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