Mafia, a real terrorism.

Six characteristics define a mafia:

• Structuring the organisation, which involves a mutual commitment of its members and a number of internal rules.

• Violence that is used to access wealth and protect the organization through intimidation.

• The mafia also has a social role. Mafiosi seek to have important roles in mediation activities on the political, social or economic level.

• A territorial anchor. Thus while having international activities, the mafias seek to keep links on their territories of origin.

• The coexistence between legal and illegal activities between all the resources of the organization. Only Italy, which has long been confronted with mafia phenomena, has defined the crime of mafia association

• The link with political classes and institutions, either regionally or nationally. Through this interpenetration, it is able to access certain resources, including public procurement.

The mafia operates on a parallel or underground economy model. It seeks to control markets and activities where money is plentiful, circulates in cash (cash) and is easy to hide from the tax authorities. Most of the usual commercial activities are used, whether as a deterrent to illegal activities or as a means of money laundering. These activities now cover the most varied areas:

«customs» control of goods and people entering and leaving a neighborhood, the voto di scambio (exchange vote): purchase of electoral consensus against the «favours» granted to a part of the electorate, the sale of weapons, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, human trafficking, organ trafficking, art trafficking, money laundering, gambling (betting, casinos, etc.), prostitution through pimping, pornography, cybercrime, real estate, racketeering, theft, illegal betting and betting, corruption, alcohol trafficking, antiquities, infiltration of the legal economy, luxury, fraud, money loans, currency trafficking, counterfeit money, protection, watch trafficking,of cigarettes, jewellery and stone, virtual bank accounts

Sicily is the cradle of the mafia.

The mafia is also linked to the notion of “godfather”. The sponsor is the head of the organization, the one who accumulates the most wealth and the one who makes all the decisions.Every man owes him “respect”; he who breaks this rule must die. Originally, the mafia was organized, it had a leader and executors; but the more poverty grew in Sicily at the end of the 19th century, the more the «mafias» prospered and organized, the more numerous they will be and will compete for control of territories and revenues.

The first real «godfather» of the mafia is Vito Cascio Ferro. He modernized the organization, imposed the pizzo (racket) on all merchants. He says he will “peck” at merchants like the sparrow stings his beak in a puddle to drink;hence the term “pizzo”. He is the godfather who oversees all the capos who themselves direct all the henchmen. Each capo has a consigliere(right arm). “Don Vito”, as he is called, will never fail, dotting his life with many deaths.

It is the legend that inspired the character of the film The Godfather lending his nickname and his first name to Don Vito Corleone (the name of Corleone being borrowed from the hardest mafioso village known in Sicily: Corleone, southwest of Palermo).

He was the one who exported the mafia to the United States at the end of the 19th century.

LP