Mafia: Axis between Palermo and the USA, five convictions

Palermo, 10 Feb. (Adnkronos) – Five convictions in Palermo against members of clans from three towns in the province of Palermo, involved in a trial on a Sicily-United States axis under the banner of mafia, drugs and extortion. Salvatore Prestigiacomo was sentenced to 16 years; Giovan Battista Badalamenti to 8 years (but is free in the USA, after the review court of the Sicilian capital had annulled the order of precautionary custody). For Salvatore Prestigiacomo, 55 years old, namesake of the first, sentenced to 6 years and 4 months and for Isacco Urso 5 years 6 months; for Maria Caruso 4 years. Francesco Rappa and Giacomo Palazzolo went to ordinary prison. The trial involved the mafia families of Partinico (Palermo), Borgetto (Palermo) and Torretta (Palermo), the town of origin, in the 80s, of many housewives who brought refined heroin to the United States by plane, hiding it in their parts and underwear. It was a part of the Pizza Connection investigation, coordinated by the then investigating judge Giovanni Falcone, in which the relationships between the Sicilian and Italian-American mafias were reunited. Among those involved were members of the Gambino families, the successors of Frank Cali', murdered in 2019 in front of his home in Staten Island, Francesco Rappa from Borgetto (Palermo), arrested in the XNUMXs in New York. The investigation, conducted in conjunction with the Italian police and the FBI, had led to the reconstruction of dozens of extortions to construction companies in New York.