Mariano Agate is a member of the Sicilian 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...

. He is the boss of 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....

 Mafia family since the 1970s when he replaced the old boss Mariano Licari. He also was the boss 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 Mazara, including the Mafia families of Marsala

Marsala

Marsala is a seaport city located in the Province of Trapani on the island of Sicily in Italy. The low coast on which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island...

, Salemi

Salemi

Salemi is a town and comune in South-Western Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. It is located in the Belice Valley.-History:...

 and Vita

Vita, Italy

Vita is a town and comune in inland South-Western Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. It is the smallest municipality area of the province of Trapani...

. Agate was a member of "Iside", one of the most powerful local Masonic lodges.

In the 1980s Agate supported 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...

 faction 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...

 and became the most important ally of Totò Riina 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...

. He also became a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission

Sicilian Mafia Commission

The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...

.

Agate was arrested in 1982 for heroin trafficking. In 1985 he was sentenced to life for several murders, including those of judge Giacomo Ciaccio Montalto and the mayor of 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,...

, Vito Lipari. Agate was arrested again in 1992, after his release the year before. He has been sentenced for life for the murders of the Antimafia judges 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...

 and Paolo Borsellino

Paolo Borsellino

Paolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....

.

In the 1990s, members of his clan worked together with the 'Ndrangheta clan headed by Giuseppe Morabito

Giuseppe Morabito

Giuseppe Morabito , nicknamed u tiradrittu , is an Italian criminal and a historical boss of the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type organisation in the region of Calabria . He hails from Africo in the Locride...

 from Africo

Africo

Africo is a comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, in the Southern Italian region of Calabria at 74 km from Reggio Calabria.Africo consists of two main centers. The first, Africo Vecchio , is located some 15 km in the mainland at the feet of the Aspromonte. The old town was destroyed...

 to import hashish

Hashish

Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...

 from Morocco and cocaine from Latin America.

Despite being jailed, in 2004 he was accused of running an international cocaine trafficking ring with several 'Ndrangheta clans (the Marando, Trimboli and Barbaro

Barbaro 'ndrina

The Barbaro 'ndrina is a clan of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. The 'ndrina is currently based in Platì...

 clans from Platì

Platì

Platì is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Calabria, southern Italy. It rises 300 metres above the sea level on the slope of the Aspromonte mountains and is located next to the Aspromonte National Park...

 in particular), supported by his son Epifanio Agate and Salvatore Miceli

Salvatore Miceli

Salvatore Miceli is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was on the "Most wanted list" of the Italian Ministry of the Interior from 2001 until his arrest in Venezuela in June 2009.-Biography:...

, a fugitive in Colombia. Although incarcerated under the strict 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...

he instructed his son on how to run the business.