Mafia triggers fresh spate of killings

Press, 30 December 1982, Page 6

Mafia triggers fresh spate of killings

NZPA Palermo The Mafia has struck fear once more into the Mediterranean island of Sicily by slaying seven men within 36 hours, making a total of 147 brutal murders this year in a fierce war between rival dons over control of the multi-million dollar narcotics racket.

Italy’s efficient anti-terror-ist chief. General Alberto Dalia Chiesa. was transferred to Sicily earlier this year to smash the Mafia. But he and his wife and their bodyguard were shot down in a Palermo Street on September 3. Since then there has been a reign of terror, reaching a crescendo last week-end when Mafia killers went beserk.

Two killers walked up to Gaspare Saccone, aged 34, as he sat in his parked car and shot him at point-blank range.

Giuseppe Genova, aged 38, who is related to a Mafia boss in Brazil, was shot dead in his Palermo restaurant together with two waiters,

Antonio Amico, aged 17, and his brother Onofrio, aged 20. Yesterday Gaspare Ficano, a 50-year-old local man and his son, Michael, aged 26, were shot in their home. The seventh victim was Massimo Pagano, aged 23. who was shot in Naples for refusing to pay protection money to the Mafia. There can be no doubt that 1982 will go down in the records of the Mafia as one of its most bloody years. The police said that they did not know why the seven men were killed, but they were well aware that a merciless war was being fought between two leading Mafia “families.”

The victorious family, so far at least, is led by the three Grecos — the cousins Salvatore “The Engineer." Michele “The Pope” and Salvatore “The Senator” — who lived in eastern Palermo.

They are backed by the Marchese clan's Gerlando Ablerti, in jail for the past two years, the heirs of jailed gang boss Luciano Liggio and the Riccobonno clan in western Palermo.

The losing family, so far at least, is headed by Tommaso Buscetta, the father-in-law of Giuseppe Genova, who has fled to Brazil, Gaetano Badalamenti, a former powerful head of the “Mafia court” which handed out death penalties, and the Inzerillo and Bontade clans, whose bosses were slain with the same Kalashnikov submachine gun used to kill General Dalia Chiesa.

The police assert that the slaying of the general was opposed by the Grecos and the Marcheses, for the killing of such an admired personality brought the full fury of the church down on the Mafia, as well as increased police pressure. This comes at a time when the Mafia rivals are desperately struggling to dominate the “American connection" which funnels to the United States narcotics valued at hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

The Italian Internal Affairs Minister, Mr Virginio Rognoni, has flown to Sicily for talks on the outbreak of gang warfare.