Domenico Raccuglia
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...
in 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,...
. His nickname is " 'U vitirinariu" (the veterinarian). He was a fugitive and included on Italy's most wanted list since 1996, until his capture on November 15, 2009, near Trapani.
Mafia career
Raccuglia is the current boss of AltofonteAltofonte
Altofonte is a comune in the Province of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about 9 km southwest of Palermo....
Mafia family and 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 San Giuseppe Jato
San Giuseppe Jato
San Giuseppe Jato is a village in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, southern Italy.The village sits in a hilly region of Palermo's hinterland, 31 km from the Sicilian capital.-History:...
-Partinico
Partinico
Partinico is a town and comune in the province of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy...
, and is considered to be the heir of Giovanni Brusca
Giovanni Brusca
Giovanni Brusca is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia. He murdered the anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1992 and once stated that he had committed between 100 and 200 murders but was unable to remember the exact number...
. After the arrest of the Mafia’s boss of bosses, 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...
, his name was mentioned as one of the possible successors together with 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...
and 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...
.
Raccuglia has received a life sentence for the murder of Girolamo La Barbera, the father of pentito Gioacchino La Barbera
Gioacchino La Barbera
Gioacchino La Barbera is a member of the Mafia who became a pentito. He was one of the key witnesses in the trial against the killers of Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone....
who was one of the key witnesses in the trial on the murder of Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...
, in June 1994. (Giovanni Brusca received 13 years for ordering the killing). In 2004 he received another life sentence for a series of murders in the 1990s.
The third life sentence, he received for his involvement with the kidnap and killing of the 11-year old Giuseppe Di Matteo – the son of the pentito
Pentito
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...
(a mafioso turned state witness) Santo Di Matteo
Santo Di Matteo
Mario Santo Di Matteo , also known as Mezzanasca, is a member of the Mafia from the town of Altofonte in the province of Palermo, Sicily....
. The boy had been kidnapped on the orders of Giovanni Brusca in November 1993 to force Di Matteo to retract his testimony. The boy was killed in January 1996 after 779 days in captivity – his body was dissolved in a barrel of acid to destroy the evidence.
Power dispute in Partinico
According to the pentitaPentito
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...
Giusy Vitale
Giusy Vitale
Giuseppa Vitale better known as Giusy is the sister of Mafia bosses Leonardo, Michele and Vito Vitale from Partinico . Giusy took over the command over the clan when her brothers were in prison or fugitives, despite the formal Mafia rule that excludes the participation of women in the criminal...
, sister of mafioso Vito Vitale
Vito Vitale
Salvatore "Vito" Vitale also known as Fardazza is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. For a while he was considered the heir of Totò Riina and was closely connected to Leoluca Bagarella.-Mafia career:...
of Partinico
Partinico
Partinico is a town and comune in the province of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy...
, in 1998 some “young turks
Young Turks (disambiguation)
Young Turks was a reform movement in Turkey at the end of the Ottoman Empire.Young Turks or The Young Turks may also refer to:* The Young Turks , a political internet talk show and upcoming television series on Current TV...
’’ within Cosa Nostra wanted to set aside 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...
. Next to Vitale they were Giovanni Brusca
Giovanni Brusca
Giovanni Brusca is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia. He murdered the anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1992 and once stated that he had committed between 100 and 200 murders but was unable to remember the exact number...
, Mimmo Raccuglia and Matteo Messina Denaro. The younger bosses wanted to take strategical decisions without prior consent of Provenzano.
The mandamento of Partinico is disputed between the Vitale clan and the Lo Iacono clan. Raccuglia supports the Vitale family – historical allies of Totò Riina – while Provenzano backed the other side until his arrest in April 2006. In October 2005, Vitale's rival Maurizio Lo Iacono was shot in Partinico in his car by two men on a scooter with a sawn-off shotgun and a .38 pistol. Police speculate that the murder had been ordered by Mimmo Raccuglia.
Leading Mafia boss
After the arrest of an older generation bosses of Cosa Nostra – such as Provenzano, Lo Piccolo and Antonio RotoloAntonio Rotolo
Antonio "Nino" Rotolo is an Italian Mafia boss from the Pagliarelli area in Palermo that traditionally was under the control of the Motisi Mafia family. Rotolo was the underboss of Matteo Motisi, but according to some pentiti he was the de facto leader representing the mandamento on the Sicilian...
– in 2006 and 2007, Raccuglia chances of becoming one of the possible leading Mafia bosses improved. However, according to the assistant prosecutor Francesco Del Bene, Raccuglia lacks the armed forces and economic power to really rise to the position of a leading boss of Cosa Nostra.
According to Antonio Ingroia, one of the prosecutors of the Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia (DDA) of Palermo, the main leading figures in Cosa Nostra at the moment, 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...
, Giovanni Riina, Raccuglia, Pietro Tagliavia
Pietro Tagliavia
Pietro Tagliavia is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age, he is considered to be one of the upcoming leading Mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo.-Mafia heritage:...
and Gianni Nicchi
Gianni Nicchi
Giovanni "Gianni" Nicchi is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age – his nickname is U picciutteddu – he is considered to be one of the leading mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo...
, are still too young to be recognized as leading bosses of the organisation.
Raccuglia was thought to hide in the area under his command, where he oversees his affairs and the ongoing dispute over Partinico. In April 2009, police raided a Byzantine monastery in Piana degli Albanesi
Piana degli Albanesi
Piana degli Albanesi is a comune with 6,427 inhabitants in the Province of Palermo, Sicily.The town is the most important and populous Arbëreshë community in Sicily and it is the episcopal see of the Byzantine Catholic Church...
in an effort to arrest Raccuglia, but he was nowhere to be found.
He was arrested on November 15, 2009, in Calatafimi in the Province of Trapani
Province of Trapani
Trapani is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital is the city of Trapani.It has an area of 2,460 km², and a total population of 425,121...
, in Sicily, after 15 years of being a fugitive. Onlookers applauded as he was paraded onto the street in Palermo by balaclava-clad police whose colleagues celebrated their by cheering from an upstairs window.