Gaetano Fidanzati
Gaetano Fidanzati | |
|---|---|
 Mugshot of Fidanzati | |
| Born | 6 September 1935 |
| Died | 5 October 2013 (aged 78) |
Gaetano Fidanzati (Italian pronunciation: [ɡaeˈtaːno fidanˈtsaːti]; 6 September 1935 – 5 October 2013)[1] was a boss of the Resuttana mandamento of the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo. He was on the Italian Ministry of the Interior's most wanted list from 2008 till his arrest on 5 December 2009.[2]
Drug trafficking
Fidanzati and his four brothers hailed from Palermo's Arenella neighborhood. They formed a Mafia clan, said to be among the most heavily involved in international drug trafficking.[3] He reportedly innovated the practice of exchanging heroin for cocaine to avoid money trails. The exchange rate with the American Mafia – particularly the Gambinos – was one kilogram of heroin for three kilograms of cocaine.[4]
In Milan
In the 1960s, the clan moved north to Milan and allied with Mafia boss Gerlando Alberti's gang. In 1968, Fidanzatti, along with most of 113 other alleged top Mafia members, was acquitted of multiple charges at 1960s Sicilian Mafia trials#The Trial of the 114. He was internally banished, and was moved to Naples, where he met Michele Zaza of the Camorra, with whom he arranged to smuggle cigarettes and, later, heroin.[5]
In 1987, at the Maxi Trial against the Mafia in Palermo, Fidanzati was sentenced to twelve years in prison for drug trafficking, but was soon free on a procedural technicality and fled.[3]
The pentito (turncoat) Gaspare Mutolo recalled Fidanzati approaching him during the Maxi Trial in 1986, asking if he could find more Thai heroin and proposing "we'll send it to Canada, to Cuntrera and Caruana, everything you want, either a 100 or 200 kilos, every amount you can send them in Canada, because they control everything over there."[6]
Arrest and extradition
On 22 February 1990 Fidanzati was arrested in Buenos Aires, and extradited to Italy in April 1993.[3][4] Over the next years, he was in and out of prison on drug trafficking charges.[7]
In December 2008, after a nine-month investigation dubbed "Operation Perseus" (after the Greek mythological hero who beheaded Medusa), police indicted 94 Mafiosi, including Fidanzati, to prevent them from reconstituting a new governing board for the Mafia, known as the Sicilian Mafia Commission. At the time, he was released from prison on health grounds and serving his sentence under house arrest. As head of the Resuttana mandamento, he would have been a member of the Commission.[8]
Milan Flying Squad chief Alessandro Giuliano (son of Boris) arrested Fidanzati in the city on 5 December 2009.[2][9]
Death
On 5 October 2013 Fidanzati died at age 78.[1] A cause of death has not been released.
References
- ^ a b È morto il boss Gaetano Fidanzati
- ^ a b (in Italian) Mafia, presi due superlatitanti, La Repubblica, December 5, 2009
- ^ a b c Mafia godfather back in jail, The Independent, April 20, 1993
- ^ a b (in Italian) Fidanzati, spacciatore dei due mondi, Corriere della Sera, April 19, 1993
- ^ Sterling, Octopus, pp. 165-67
- ^ The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba, Transnational Organized Crime, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 1997
- ^ (in Italian) Mafia, torna in carcere il boss Gaetano Fidanzati, Atenonline, January 27, 2004
- ^ (in Italian) Mafia, maxi blitz in Sicilia: "Volevano rifondare la Cupola", La Repubblica, December 16, 2008
- ^ Don Vito and the Mafia: Living with My Father's Secrets by Massimo Ciancimino, Francesco La Licata, N.S. Thompson (ISBN 9780857382153) P 316
- Sterling, Claire (1990). Octopus. How the long reach of the Sicilian Mafia controls the global narcotics trade, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-73402-4