Antonio Rotolo
Encyclopedia
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 Mafia Commission
. In 2006, the police deduced that Rotolo - number 25 in the numbered code of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano
- had become a key figure in Cosa Nostra's hierarchy.Police strike at heart of mafia averts bloody power struggle, by John Hooper, The Guardian, June 21, 2006.
of Totò Riina in the Second Mafia War
. According to the pentito Giuseppe Marchese
he was part of the hit team that killed Stefano Bontade
and he strangled Santo Inzerillo, the brother of Salvatore Inzerillo
, with his own hands on May 26, 1981, when Inzerillo came to a meeting to ask clarifications about the killing of his relatives.
Rotolo was actively involved in heroin trafficking in the 1980s. According to Tommaso Buscetta
, three Palermo Mafia families dominated heroin trafficking around 1980: the Porta Nuova family with Nunzio La Mattina as the main organizer; the Brancaccio with Giuseppe Savoca and the Pagliarelli family with Antonio Rotolo. Rotolo received morphine
base from the Turkish trafficker Yasar Avni Mussulullu who delivered the shipments close to the coast of Sicily on Rotolo's indications where they were picked by smaller fishing boats. The morphine base was refined into heroin at laboratories on Sicily and smuggled to the United States to feed the famous Pizza Connection
. One of Rotolo's heroin refiners was Francesco Marino Mannoia
after Bontade was killed. Rotolo was also managing the money flow of the proceeds through Swiss bank accounts.
On May 31, 1985, Rotolo was arrested together with Giuseppe Calò
in the latter's elegant villa near Rome. He was one of the defendants at the Maxi Trial
against Cosa Nostra that started in 1986. According to Francesco Marino Mannoia
, who became a pentito, Rotolo was one of the killers of Piersanti Mattarella
, the regional president of Sicily at the time. He was also a member of the hit team that killed the prefect of Palermo, general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
, according to the pentito Calogero Ganci.
on April 11, 2006, the pizzini (small slips of paper used to communicate with other mafiosi to avoid phone conversations) found at his hideout indicated that Provenzano's joint deputies in Palermo were Salvatore Lo Piccolo
and Antonio Rotolo. In a message referring to an important decision for Cosa Nostra, Provenzano told Rotolo: "It's up to you, me and Lo Piccolo to decide this thing."
Rotolo was involved in the Sicilian regional election
of May 2006, supporting the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro, UDC), the party of the incumbent president of the autonomous region of Sicily, Salvatore Cuffaro
. "We are ninety-nine per cent oriented towards the UDC", he was overheard saying. Cuffaro won the election, defeating Rita Borsellino
, the sister of judge Paolo Borsellino
who was killed by the Mafia in 1992.
). Among the other arrestees were Rotolo's right-hand men Antonino Cinà (who had been the personal physician of Salvatore Riina
and Provenzano) and the builder Francesco Bonura. The raids arose from reading Provenzano's notes in the light of evidence from the eavesdropping operation.
The surveillance operation showed that Rotolo had built a kind of federation within the Mafia, comprising 13 families grouped in four clans. The city of Palermo was ruled by a triumvirate of bosses headed by Rotolo, Cinà and Bonura, comprising 13 families that were grouped into 4 clans, thus replacing Palermo's Mafia Commission
.
Rotolo was under house arrest, obtained thanks to pills his doctors had given him to raise his blood pressure and enable him to feign illness. In this way, Rotolo was free to run his business, extracting protection money from Chinese shopkeepers in Palermo and persuading the owner of the Migliore
chain to pay up and even joining an anti-racket association. He used to meet with his fellow mafiosi in a cabin close to his luxurious suburban villa, along Viale Michelangelo. A football was placed at the door as a sign to the sentries when conferences began. Inside, there was a table, eight plastic chairs and anti-bugging devices which, the eavesdropped conversations revealed, Rotolo thought would make it impossible for police to listen in. However, the police had been able to install bugging devices and a video camera that revealed the Mafia dealings.
over a request from the Inzerillo family to be allowed to return to Palermo. The Inzerillo family had been one of the clans whose leaders – among them Salvatore Inzerillo
– were killed by the Corleonesi during the second Mafia War in the 1980s and which had been in exile in the United States. 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.
With the arrest of Rotolo and others, authorities claim they avoided the outbreak of a genuine war inside Cosa Nostra. Rotolo feared a vendetta. "If they start shooting, I'll be the first to get it and then it'll be your turn", he told Bonura. The pair did not trust Lo Piccolo either and sought authorisation from Provenzano to eliminate him. Rotolo had passed a death sentence on Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro – and had procured the barrels of acid that are used to dissolve the bodies of slain rivals. Rotolo's godson, Gianni Nicchi
, was ordered to search and kill the fugitive Lo Piccolo's.
According to the national Antimafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso, Nino Rotolo "was planning a series of murders to annihilate the family of Salvatore Lo Piccolo and become the undisputed boss of the clan in the city". Killing the Lo Piccolos would have propelled Sicily into another murderous conflict. "The police and the special anti-mafia prosecution service in Palermo have forestalled the outbreak of a genuine war inside Cosa Nostra", said centre-left MP and Mafia expert, Giuseppe Lumia
, vice-president of the Antimafia Commission
.
In February 2007, Rotolo's assets worth €30 million were seized. Most of the assets were in name of frontmen. On January 21, 2008, the Palermo Court sentenced Rotolo to 20 year in prison. Because Rotolo chose to be tried under a special short procedure, he gets a 1/3 reduction on his sentence, effectively shortening it to 13 years and 2 months. He was indicted on February 7, 2008, in Operation Old Bridge
against the Gambinos in New York and their connections in Palermo, involved in drug trafficking.
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...
boss from the Pagliarelli area 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...
that traditionally was under the control of the Motisi Mafia family
Motisi Mafia family
The Motisi Mafia clan is a historical Mafia clan from the Pagliarelli area in Palermo. The Mafia roots of the family go back to the late 19th century...
. Rotolo was the underboss of Matteo Motisi, but according to some pentiti
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...
he was the de facto leader representing 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....
on 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...
. In 2006, the police deduced that Rotolo - number 25 in the numbered code 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...
- had become a key figure in Cosa Nostra's hierarchy.Police strike at heart of mafia averts bloody power struggle, by John Hooper, The Guardian, June 21, 2006.
Ally of the Corleonesi
Rotolo was a loyal ally of the CorleonesiCorleonesi
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...
of Totò Riina in 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...
. According to the pentito Giuseppe Marchese
Giuseppe Marchese
Giuseppe Marchese was a member of the Sicilian Mafia, who turned state witness . Giuseppe Pino Marchese was born in Palermo. His father Vincenzo Marchese was a powerful Mafia boss and his uncle Filippo Marchese was the head of the Corso dei Mille Mafia family.-Early Mafia career:He learned the...
he was part of the hit team that killed 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...
and he strangled Santo Inzerillo, the brother of Salvatore Inzerillo
Salvatore Inzerillo
Salvatore Inzerillo was an Italian criminal, a member of the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Totuccio . He rose to be a powerful boss of Palermo's Passo di Rigano family...
, with his own hands on May 26, 1981, when Inzerillo came to a meeting to ask clarifications about the killing of his relatives.
Rotolo was actively involved in heroin trafficking in the 1980s. According to 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...
, three Palermo Mafia families dominated heroin trafficking around 1980: the Porta Nuova family with Nunzio La Mattina as the main organizer; the Brancaccio with Giuseppe Savoca and the Pagliarelli family with Antonio Rotolo. Rotolo received morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
base from the Turkish trafficker Yasar Avni Mussulullu who delivered the shipments close to the coast of Sicily on Rotolo's indications where they were picked by smaller fishing boats. The morphine base was refined into heroin at laboratories on Sicily and smuggled to the United States to feed the famous 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:...
. One of Rotolo's heroin refiners was Francesco Marino Mannoia
Francesco Marino Mannoia
Francesco Marino Mannoia is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who became a pentito in 1989. His nickname was Mozzarella. He is considered to be one of the most reliable government witnesses against the Mafia...
after Bontade was killed. Rotolo was also managing the money flow of the proceeds through Swiss bank accounts.
On May 31, 1985, Rotolo was arrested together with 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....
in the latter's elegant villa near Rome. He was one of the defendants at the Maxi Trial
Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial that took place in Sicily during the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of defendants on trial convicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimony given in as evidence from a former boss turned informant...
against Cosa Nostra that started in 1986. According to Francesco Marino Mannoia
Francesco Marino Mannoia
Francesco Marino Mannoia is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who became a pentito in 1989. His nickname was Mozzarella. He is considered to be one of the most reliable government witnesses against the Mafia...
, who became a pentito, Rotolo was one of the killers of Piersanti Mattarella
Piersanti Mattarella
Piersanti Mattarella was an Italian politician. He was assassinated by the Mafia while he held the position of President of the Regional Government of Sicily.-Background and early career:...
, the regional president of Sicily at the time. He was also a member of the hit team that killed the prefect of Palermo, general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was a general of the Italian carabinieri notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy, and later assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo.-Biography:...
, according to the pentito Calogero Ganci.
Deputy of Provenzano
After the arrest of Bernardo ProvenzanoBernardo 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...
on April 11, 2006, the pizzini (small slips of paper used to communicate with other mafiosi to avoid phone conversations) found at his hideout indicated that Provenzano's joint deputies in Palermo 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...
and Antonio Rotolo. In a message referring to an important decision for Cosa Nostra, Provenzano told Rotolo: "It's up to you, me and Lo Piccolo to decide this thing."
Rotolo was involved in the Sicilian regional election
Sicilian regional election, 2006
The Sicilian regional election of 2006 for the renewal of the Regional Assembly and the Presidency of Sicily was held on 28 May 2006.The election was competed by three competitors: Salvatore Cuffaro, incumbent President and House of Freedoms candidate; Rita Borsellino, candidate of The Union; and...
of May 2006, supporting the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro, UDC), the party of the incumbent president of the autonomous region of Sicily, Salvatore Cuffaro
Salvatore Cuffaro
Salvatore "Totò" Cuffaro is an Italian politician, former President of Sicily, currently serving a 7 years sentence for aiding the Mafia...
. "We are ninety-nine per cent oriented towards the UDC", he was overheard saying. Cuffaro won the election, defeating Rita Borsellino
Rita Borsellino
Rita Borsellino is an anti-Mafia activist, Sicilian politician, and sister of the late judge Paolo Borsellino, killed by the Corleonesi in 1992 by a car bomb...
, the sister of judge 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....
who was killed by the Mafia in 1992.
Operation Gotha
Rotolo was arrested again on June 20, 2006, two months after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano. The authorities issued 52 arrest warrants against the top echelon of Cosa Nostra in the city of Palermo (Operation GothaAlmanach 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...
). Among the other arrestees were Rotolo's right-hand men Antonino Cinà (who had been the personal physician of 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...
and Provenzano) and the builder Francesco Bonura. The raids arose from reading Provenzano's notes in the light of evidence from the eavesdropping operation.
The surveillance operation showed that Rotolo had built a kind of federation within the Mafia, comprising 13 families grouped in four clans. The city of Palermo was ruled by a triumvirate of bosses headed by Rotolo, Cinà and Bonura, comprising 13 families that were grouped into 4 clans, thus replacing Palermo's 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...
.
Rotolo was under house arrest, obtained thanks to pills his doctors had given him to raise his blood pressure and enable him to feign illness. In this way, Rotolo was free to run his business, extracting protection money from Chinese shopkeepers in Palermo and persuading the owner of the Migliore
Migliore
Migliore is the name of a chain of department stores in South Korea that specializes in selling clothing and fashion accessories. The first store opened in the Dongdaemun shopping district in Seoul in 1998, and another in Myeongdong, one of the premier shopping districts in Korea, in 2000...
chain to pay up and even joining an anti-racket association. He used to meet with his fellow mafiosi in a cabin close to his luxurious suburban villa, along Viale Michelangelo. A football was placed at the door as a sign to the sentries when conferences began. Inside, there was a table, eight plastic chairs and anti-bugging devices which, the eavesdropped conversations revealed, Rotolo thought would make it impossible for police to listen in. However, the police had been able to install bugging devices and a video camera that revealed the Mafia dealings.
Clash with Lo Piccolo
The police investigations indicated a clash between Rotolo and 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 family to be allowed to return to Palermo. The Inzerillo family had been one of the clans whose leaders – among them Salvatore Inzerillo
Salvatore Inzerillo
Salvatore Inzerillo was an Italian criminal, a member of the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Totuccio . He rose to be a powerful boss of Palermo's Passo di Rigano family...
– were killed by the Corleonesi during the second Mafia War in the 1980s and which had been in exile in the United States. 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.
With the arrest of Rotolo and others, authorities claim they avoided the outbreak of a genuine war inside Cosa Nostra. Rotolo feared a vendetta. "If they start shooting, I'll be the first to get it and then it'll be your turn", he told Bonura. The pair did not trust Lo Piccolo either and sought authorisation from Provenzano to eliminate him. Rotolo had passed a death sentence on Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro – and had procured the barrels of acid that are used to dissolve the bodies of slain rivals. Rotolo's godson, 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...
, was ordered to search and kill the fugitive Lo Piccolo's.
According to the national Antimafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso, Nino Rotolo "was planning a series of murders to annihilate the family of Salvatore Lo Piccolo and become the undisputed boss of the clan in the city". Killing the Lo Piccolos would have propelled Sicily into another murderous conflict. "The police and the special anti-mafia prosecution service in Palermo have forestalled the outbreak of a genuine war inside Cosa Nostra", said centre-left MP and Mafia expert, 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...
, vice-president of the 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”...
.
In February 2007, Rotolo's assets worth €30 million were seized. Most of the assets were in name of frontmen. On January 21, 2008, the Palermo Court sentenced Rotolo to 20 year in prison. Because Rotolo chose to be tried under a special short procedure, he gets a 1/3 reduction on his sentence, effectively shortening it to 13 years and 2 months. 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.
Sources
- Blumenthal, Ralph (1988). Last Days of the Sicilians, New York: Times Books ISBN 0812915941
- Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-515724-9
- Stajano, Corrado (1986). Mafia. L'atto d'accusa dei giudici di Palermo, Rome: Editori Riuniti