Gianni Nicchi
Encyclopedia
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, February 16, 1981) is a member of the Sicilian
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,...
Mafia
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...
. Despite his young age – his nickname is U picciutteddu (the little boy) – he is considered to be one of the leading mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
. He was on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior since 2006, until his arrest on December 5, 2009.
Mafia heritage
Gianni Nicchi is the son of Luigi Nicchi, a mafioso who is jailed for life. He is considered to be the current "reggente" (regent) of the Pagliarelli mandamentoMandamento
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....
, after the arrest of his godfather Antonio Rotolo
Antonio 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...
on June 20, 2006, two months after the arrest of Mafia boss 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...
. Authorities issued 52 arrest warrants against the top echelon of Cosa Nostra in the city of Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
(Operation Gotha
Almanach de Gotha
The Almanach de Gotha was a respected directory of Europe's highest nobility and royalty. First published in 1763 by C.W. Ettinger in Gotha at the ducal court of Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, it was regarded as an authority in the classification of monarchies, princely and ducal...
). Nicchi escaped arrest.
"Gianni is my godson (Italian: figlioccio), but I tell you, for me it is as if he was my son," Rotolo was overheard saying to another mafioso. "From this day on, you have to know that when you talk to him it is as if you talk to me. It is the same." In other bugged conversations, police listened in how Rotolo instructed Nicchi how to kill a person. They also discussed how to extort Chinese shopkeepers in Palermo.
Despite his age, other mafiosi treated Nicchi with respect. 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...
Francesco Campanella recalled when he was introduced to Nicchi by Nicola Mandalà, Mafia boss of Villabate
Villabate
Villabate is a comune in the Province of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about 8 km southeast of Palermo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 19,441 and an area of 3.8 km²....
, in 2004. "He treated him with high esteem," Campanella noticed, and Mandalà told him: "you don’t realise who that is, even though they call him u picciutteddu." Campanella understood that the young man was already regarded as an important figure in Cosa Nostra.
Mission to the US
Rotolo was worried about the return of members of the Inzerillo family to Palermo and fell out with rival boss Salvatore Lo PiccoloSalvatore 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...
over a request from the Inzerillo’s to be allowed to return to Palermo. The Inzerillo family had been one of the clans that was decimated by the 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...
during the Second Mafia War
Second Mafia War
The Second Mafia War was a conflict within the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place in the early 1980s. As with any criminal organization, the history of the Sicilian Mafia is replete with conflicts and power struggles, and the violence that results from them, but these are generally localised and...
in the 1980s and had been forced into exile in the United States with their relatives in the New York City-based Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
. Rotolo had been part of the Mafia clans that had attacked the Inzerillo clan and had personally killed one of them. He was opposed to Lo Piccolo’s permission for the return of the Inzerillo’s, fearing revenge.
Several Sicilian Mafia clans established new ties with the Gambino family to profit from increased international drug trafficking and provide Palermo's Mafia factions an opportunity to launder their earnings in real estate in the United States. Rotolo sent Nicchi to the United States to check the links of Frank Cali
Frank Cali
Francesco Paolo Augusto Calì , known as "Frank" or "Franky Boy", is a reputed acting captain in the Staten Island faction of the Gambino crime family. Law enforcement considers Cali to be the Gambino "ambassador to Sicilian mobsters" and have linked him to the Inzerillo Mafia family from Palermo...
of the Gambino family, who is often seen with old heroin traffickers of the Pizza Connection
Pizza Connection Trial
The Pizza Connection Trial was one of the longest criminal jury trials on record in the district of Manhattan. It took place between October 24, 1985 and March 2, 1987-Scope of the trial:...
such as Pietro Inzerillo
Pietro Inzerillo
Pietro Inzerillo may refer to:*Pietro Inzarillo or Inzerillo , a New York underworld figure and a member of the Morello crime family*Pietro Inzerillo , a member of the Sicilian Mafia family from Palermo...
.
Clash with Lo Piccolo
Rotolo did not like what Nicchi reported back and did not believe the assurances of Calì, which he considered excuses to reinstate the Inzerillo's in Palermo. Rotolo passed a death sentence on Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro – and procured the barrels of acid that are used to dissolve the bodies of slain rivals. Nicchi was ordered to search and kill the fugitive father and son Lo Piccolo.When Rotolo was arrested on June 20, 2006, the Lo Piccolo's went after Nicchi. They ordered Francesco Franzese, boss of the Partanna Mondello Mafia family, to find and kill him. However, Franzese was arrested on August 2, 2007. In a pizzino
Pizzino
Pizzino is an Italian language word derived from Sicilian language equivalent pizzinu. Despite it generically meaning "small piece of paper", the word is now widely used to refer to small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia uses for high-level communications...
found at Franzese's house, Sandro Lo Piccolo, ordered the killing of 'Tiramisù', the name that was given to indicate Nicchi. Apparently, Nicchi had fled to Milan and escaped a hit team organized by Franzese.
New power in Cosa Nostra?
Nicchi fortunes changed after the arrest of Salvatore Lo PiccoloSalvatore 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 his son Sandro on November 5, 2007. Nicchi is considered as one of the new powers in Cosa Nostra in Palermo. Other youngsters on their way up are 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:...
, born in 1978, a scion from the Corso dei Mille Mafia family, and Salvo Riina, born in 1977 – the second-born son of boss of bosses Totò Riina – who was arrested in 2001 but released in 2007 when the Supreme Court annulled his sentence.
Palermo police chief Giuseppe Caruso described Nicchi as "a young man with grey matter and energy ... and ready to rise to the leadership of Cosa Nostra, at least in Palermo." His name is now among the candidate leaders of Cosa Nostra, along 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 Domenico Raccuglia
Domenico Raccuglia
Domenico Raccuglia , also known as Mimmo, is a member of the Mafia in Sicily. His nickname is " 'U vitirinariu"...
. According to prosecutor Francesco Del Bene, who coordinated the arrest of Lo Piccolo: "Gianni Nicchi is a killer, now he should be emerging, but he is the only one left from the Corleonesi faction."
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, Domenico Raccuglia
Domenico Raccuglia
Domenico Raccuglia , also known as Mimmo, is a member of the Mafia in Sicily. His nickname is " 'U vitirinariu"...
, 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 Nicchi, are still too young to be recognized as leading bosses of the organization.
On January 21, 2008, the Palermo Court convicted the fugitive Nicchi and sentenced him to 18 year in prison. Because he was tried under a special short procedure, he gets a 1/3 reduction on his sentence. He was indicted on February 7, 2008, in operation Old Bridge
Operation Old Bridge
Operation Old Bridge is the code name for the February 7, 2008 arrests in Italy and the United States that targeted the Gambino crime family. Among the indicted were the reputed acting bosses Jackie D'Amico, Nicholas Corozzo and Consigliere Joseph Corozzo of the Gambino crime family...
against the Gambinos in New York and their connections in Palermo, involved in drug trafficking.
Arrest
On December 5, 2009, Italian police arrested him in Palermo. He is incarcerated in the special security prison in L'AquilaL'Aquila
L'Aquila is a city and comune in central Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 73,150 inhabitants, but has a daily presence in the territory of 100,000 people for study, tertiary activities, jobs and tourism...
under the strict 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...
.
In September 2010 he held a hunger strike for two weeks demanding to see his two children who were born while he was a fugitive. He had not acknowledged the children while he was on the run so officially they are not his. He has started the process to officially acknowledge them.