Les mafias

Contacté par la BBC, les informations de Mafias.fr ont aidé les journalistes à faire un portrait d’une boss de Cosa nostra sicilienne (cf. Italian mafias and international relationship)

In the Cosa Nostra heartland of UK Mafia boss Rancadore

By Christian Fraser BBC News, Palermo

Domenico Rancadore came to the UK in 1993

Clinging to the foothills of a steep-sided mountain on the outskirts of Palermo is Trabia, the quaintest of provincial fishing ports.

Outwardly it is a warm and welcoming place, popular at this time of year with the touring visitors.

But inside the walls there are watchful eyes. These are the winding narrow streets of the Cosa Nostra, and in the early 90s it was the boss Domenico Rancadore who ruled.

« He was the PE teacher, » said one man we stopped. « Married to the daughter of an Italian diplomat? I think he taught locally. Nice man. »

Though, of course, they know the truth. They all knew that Rancadore’s day job was merely the cover. And even today, 19 years on, the Omerta – the code of silence – prevails.

But the judge who has pursued Rancadore throughout these years did agree to meet us and share what he knows. We met at a secret mountain location, guarded by armed police, at the end of a rutted and forgotten lane.

Vittorio Teresi knows Rancadore personally. They grew up together in Trabia, though the two men would take distinctly different paths.

One was destined to become the Mafia gangster, the other the anti-Mafia prosecutor. La suite

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