Antonino Giuffrè
Encyclopedia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
from Caccamo
Caccamo
Caccamo is a town and comune located on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily in the Province of Palermo.-History:The official founding of Caccamo was not until 1093, when the Normans began building the castle on a rocky spur overlooking a cliff. The castle itself is actually now being slowly converted...
in the Province of Palermo
Province of Palermo
The Province of Palermo is a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Palermo. The Province of Palermo has 82 comuni , 1,239,272 inhabitants, and is 4,992 km² .-External links:...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. He became one of the most important Mafia turncoats after his arrest in April 2002.
Giuffrè was known in mafia circles as Manuzza (the Hand), because his right hand was crippled by polio. Other sources claim he lost his hand in a hunting accident. Giuffrè was trained as an agricultural sciences specialist. His rise in the Mafia ran parallel to the ascension of the Corleonesi clan headed by Salvatore Riina
Salvatore Riina
Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...
. He became the head of the mandamento
Mandamento
Historically a mandamento was the part of Italian territory under the jurisdiction of a "pretore" which is a kind of magistrate. These divisions were abolished in 1923....
of Caccamo and is a nephew of American Mob Boss John Stanfa
John Stanfa
Giovanni "John the Dour Don" Stanfa is a former acting boss of the Scarfo crime family. Convicted of multiple charges in 1995, Stanfa is currently serving five consecutive life sentences.-Early life and Mafia member:...
from Philadelphia.
Pentito
Antonino Giuffrè was arrested on April 16, 2002. He started feeding investigators information even before he agreed to turn state' witness (or pentitoPentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
) in June, 2002. He is one of the most important mafia turncoats since Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
in 1984. His collaboration has updated investigators' knowledge and provided a new interpretation for the sensitive issue of Cosa Nostra's relations with politics in the early 1990s. "It's very simple: we are the fish and politics is the water," Giuffrè said.
Giuffrè has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Cosa Nostra's affairs over the past two decades, partly from having played host to Michele Greco
Michele Greco
Michele Greco was a member of the Sicilian Mafia, previously incarcerated for multiple murders. His nickname was "il Papa" because of his ability to mediate between different Mafia families...
'the Pope' in the 1980s, when the supreme mafia boss was on the run and took refuge near Caccamo, Giuffrè's home town. Subsequently he became one of the right-hand man of Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006.His nickname is Binnu u tratturi...
who became the Mafia’s reference point when Salvatore Riina
Salvatore Riina
Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...
was arrested in January 1993.
Giuffrè became part of the "directorate" that was established by Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006.His nickname is Binnu u tratturi...
. This group "of about four to seven people who met very infrequently, only when necessary, when there were strategic decisions to make." Among the other members of the directorate were Salvatore Lo Piccolo
Salvatore Lo Piccolo
Salvatore Lo Piccolo , also known as the Baron , is a Sicilian mafioso and one of the most powerful bosses of Palermo, Sicily. Lo Piccolo rose through the ranks of the Palermo mafia throughout the 1980s and he became the capo-mandamento of the San Lorenzo district in the early 1990s, replacing...
from Palermo; Benedetto Spera
Benedetto Spera
Benedetto Spera is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and the boss of the Belmonte Mezzagno Mafia family and the mandamento of Misilmeri in the province of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy...
from Belmonte Mezzagno; Salvatore Rinella from Trabia
Trabia
Trabia is a comune in the Province of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about 30 km southeast of Palermo.The municipality of Trabia contains the frazione San Nicola l'Arena....
; Giuseppe Balsano from Monreale
Monreale
Monreale is a town and comune in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, Italy, on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called "La Conca d'oro" , famed for its orange, olive and almond trees, the produce of which is exported in large quantities...
; Matteo Messina Denaro
Matteo Messina Denaro
Matteo Messina Denaro , also known as Diabolik, is a Sicilian mafioso. He got his nickname from the Italian comic book character of the same name. He is considered to be one of the new leaders of Cosa Nostra after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano on April 11, 2006...
from Castelvetrano
Castelvetrano
Castelvetrano is a town and comune in the province of Trapani, Sicily, Italy. The archeological site of Selinunte is located within the territory of the comune. It was the birthplace of Giovanni Gentile, the key philosopher of the Fascist movement in Italy.The town is predominantly a farming town,...
; Vincenzo Virga
Vincenzo Virga
Vincenzo Virga is the boss of the Trapani Mafia family and mandamento since 1982, when the previous boss, Salvatore Minore, was murdered....
from Trapani
Trapani
Trapani is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands.-History:...
; and Andrea Manciaracina
Andrea Manciaracina
Andrea Manciaracina is a member of Sicilian Mafia. His name is sometimes spelled as Mangiaracina.Manciaracina was born in Mazara del Vallo in the province of Trapani. He was initiated in Cosa Nostra in 1985 or 1986...
from Mazara del Vallo
Mazara del Vallo
Mazara del Vallo is a town and comune in southwestern Sicily, Italy, which lies mainly on the left bank at the mouth of the Mazaro river, administratively part of the province of Trapani....
.
Division within Cosa Nostra
Giuffrè supported Provenzano in his new strategy of moderation accompanied by the steady infiltration of public institutions instead of the head-on attacks of the past under Riina. He was practically unknown to investigators until the pentitoPentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
Balduccio Di Maggio revealed in 1993 who Giuffrè really was. The same day the police raided his house in Caccamo, but Giuffrè managed to escape through the backdoor. He had been a fugitive since then.
In 2002 a rift within Cosa Nostra became clear. On the one hand there are the hardline Corleonesi
Corleonesi
The Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...
in jail – led by Totò Riina
Salvatore Riina
Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...
and Leoluca Bagarella
Leoluca Bagarella
Leoluca Bagarella is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone and was a member of the Corleonesi.-Biography:...
– and the more moderate "Palermitani" – led by Provenzano and Giuffrè, Salvatore Lo Piccolo
Salvatore Lo Piccolo
Salvatore Lo Piccolo , also known as the Baron , is a Sicilian mafioso and one of the most powerful bosses of Palermo, Sicily. Lo Piccolo rose through the ranks of the Palermo mafia throughout the 1980s and he became the capo-mandamento of the San Lorenzo district in the early 1990s, replacing...
and Matteo Messina Denaro
Matteo Messina Denaro
Matteo Messina Denaro , also known as Diabolik, is a Sicilian mafioso. He got his nickname from the Italian comic book character of the same name. He is considered to be one of the new leaders of Cosa Nostra after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano on April 11, 2006...
. Apparently the arrest of Giuffrè was made possible by an anonymous phone call that seems to have been made by loyalists to the Mafia hardliners Riina and Bagarella. The purpose was to send a message to Provenzano. The incarcerated bosses want something to be done about the harsh prison conditions (in particular the relaxation of the article 41-bis prison regime
Article 41-bis prison regime
In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations...
) – and were believed to orchestrate a return to violence while serving multiple life sentences.
Mafia and Forza Italia
According to Giuffrè the Mafia turned to Berlusconi's Forza ItaliaForza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
party to look after the Mafia's interests, after the decline in the early 1990s of the ruling Christian Democrat party (DC - Democrazia Cristiana) — whose leaders in Sicily looked after the Mafia's interests in Rome. The Mafia’s fall out with the Christian Democrats became clear when the DC strong man in Sicily, Salvo Lima, was killed in March, 1992. "The Lima murder marked the end of an era," Giuffrè told the court. "A new era opened with a new political force on the horizon which provided the guarantees that the Christian Democrats were no longer able to deliver. To be clear, that party was Forza Italia."
According to Giuffrè, Marcello Dell'Utri
Marcello Dell'Utri
Marcello Dell'Utri is an influential Italian politician and senior advisor to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi...
— Berlusconi’s right-hand man and the man who invented Forza Italia — was the go-between on a range of legislative efforts to ease pressure on mobsters in exchange for electoral support. Giuffrè said that Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006.His nickname is Binnu u tratturi...
told him that they "were in good hands" with Dell'Utri, who was a "serious and trustworthy person" and was close to Berlusconi. "Dell'Utri was very close to Cosa Nostra and a very good contact point for Berlusconi," Giuffrè said. Provenzano said that the Mafia's judicial problems would be resolved within 10 years after 1992, thanks to the undertakings given by Forza Italia.
Giuffrè said that Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
himself used to be in touch with Stefano Bontade
Stefano Bontade
Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...
, a top Mafia boss, in the mid 1970s. At the time Berlusconi still was just a wealthy real estate developer and started his private television empire (Berlusconi became prime minister in 1994 and again from 2001 to 2006). Bontade visited Berlusconi's villa in Arcore
Arcore
Arcore is a comune in the Province of Monza and Brianza in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan.Arcore borders the following municipalities: Usmate Velate, Camparada, Lesmo, Biassono, Vimercate, Villasanta, Concorezzo.A notable resident is Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime...
. Bontade’s contact at Berlusconi's villa was the late Vittorio Mangano
Vittorio Mangano
Vittorio Mangano was a member of the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra. He was well known as the stable keeper at the villa of Silvio Berlusconi in Arcore in the 1970s and as such Mangano is known as "lo stalliere di Arcore"...
, a convicted mafioso who has been alleged to work there as a stableman. Giuffrè declared that other Mafia representatives who were in contact with Berlusconi included the Palermo bosses Filippo Graviano and Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He is currently serving several life sentences....
— arrested in 1994 and jailed for life ordering the murder of Anti-mafia priest Pino Puglisi
Pino Puglisi
Giuseppe 'Pino' Puglisi was a Roman Catholic priest in the rough Palermo neighbourhood of Brancaccio. He openly challenged the Mafia who controlled the neighbourhood, and was killed by them on his 56th birthday...
in their territory Brancaccio
Brancaccio
Brancaccio is a neighbourhood of Palermo, Sicily. It is a semi-traditional area of the working class. It was important in the history of the Cosa Nostra....
.
The alleged pact with the Mafia fell apart in 2002. Cosa Nostra had achieved nothing. There were no revisions of Mafia trials, no changes in the law of asset seizures and no changes in the harsh prison laws (41 bis).
Andreotti and Calvi
Antonio Giuffrè has been a state witness in many important trials. He told an Italian court that former prime minister Giulio AndreottiGiulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
was a key Mafia contact during his long political career. Giuffrè said Mafia bosses had asked Andreotti to shield them from magistrates.
Giuffrè is also giving testimony in the Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. A native of Milan, Calvi was Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals...
murder trial. He claims that Mafia bosses had been angry at the way Calvi had mishandled their money and ordered the hit. He named Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe 'Pippo' Calò is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering....
as the man who organised the crime. "Within Cosa Nostra, we had some big laughs when we read in the newspapers that Calvi had committed suicide," Giuffrè said. "Cosa Nostra's problems get resolved in only one way: by elimination."
According to Giuffrè, the Mafia plotted to kill Giuseppe Lumia
Giuseppe Lumia
Giuseppe Lumia is an Italian politician of the Democratic Party of the Left and its successor, the Democrats of the Left . He belongs to the group of Social Christians in the Party.Lumia was born in Termini Imerese, in Sicily...
while he was the president of the Parliamentary Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
(2000–2001). The plan to kill Lumia was decided at the very highest level of Cosa Nostra and had been approved by Provenzano. It was not carried out, however.