Salvatore Lo Piccolo
Encyclopedia
Salvatore Lo Piccolo also known as the Baron (il Barone), 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 Salvatore Biondino who was sent to prison. Lo Piccolo was a fugitive since 1983 and had been running his Mafia affairs in hiding. With the capture of Bernardo Provenzano
on April 11, 2006 Lo Piccolo had been cementing his power and rise to the top of the Palermo Mafia until his own arrest on November 5, 2007.
Lo Piccolo is also known as "u vascu," Sicilian dialect for "il vecchio," which translates into English as "the old one" or "elder." In clandestine correspondence with former mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano
, Salvatore Lo Piccolo used to identify himself by the number 30. Lo Piccolo's fortune came from the international cocaine trafficking, the extortion of businesses, and the theft of money allocated for public works projects. He invested much of his earnings in real estate. Lo Piccolo long supported Provenzano's policy of not directing violence toward the state and preferred arbitration as means to settle conflict between rival mafia factions.
Lo Piccolo was born in the neighbourhood Partanna Mondello in Palermo. He was the driver of the local Mafia boss Rosario Riccobono
, who was killed in the Second Mafia War
. Lo Piccolo changed sides and became an ally of the Corleonesi
. Bosses like Pippo Calò
and Nino Rotolo pleaded to save the life of Lo Piccolo. Nearly 25 years later Rotolo would regret his appeal when a conflict arose between the two. Rotolo was overheard on bugs installed by the police saying: "One who should have died. He was the ‘godson’ of Saro Riccobono and should have gone."
Having survived the Second Mafia War, Lo Piccolo gradually extended his influence in the area in and around Palermo in the 1980s and 1990s. His influence in Palermo extended to Capaci
, Isola delle Femmine
, Carini
, Villagrazia di Carini, Sferracavallo and Partanna-Mondello. According to Italian DIA (Direzione Investigativa Antimafia), Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro Lo Piccolo, were in charge of most of the urban territory of Palermo. Their area of influence encompassed the "mandamenti" of San Lorenzo, Passo di Rigano and Gangi, including the coastal area up to Cefalù
, and part of the territory of Messina, including the towns of Mistretta
and Tortorici
. Lo Piccolo allegedly made his fortune with drug trafficking and skimming
off public contracts. He forced the residents of the low-income housing projects in the ZEN area of Palermo to pay him to keep the building corridors lit. He allegedly has strong links with the American Cosa Nostra.
In March 2005, the Lo Piccolo clan was subject of a police operation known as the "Notte di San Lorenzo". Eighty-four arrest warrants were issued. Nonetheless, Salvatore and his son Sandro Lo Piccolo remained at large.
were thought to be the new leaders of Cosa Nostra. However, the pizzini (small slips of paper used to communicate with other mafiosi to avoid phone conversations) found at Provenzano's hide-out indicated that Provenzano’s joint deputies in Palermo were Salvatore Lo Piccolo and Antonio Rotolo
, capo mandamento of Pagliarelli, a Corleonesi loyalist in the days of Totò Riina. 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."
Anti-Mafia prosecutor Antonio Ingroia of the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) of Palermo said that it was unlikely that there would be an all-out war over who would fill Provenzano's shoes. "Right now I don't think that's probable," he said. Of the two possible successors, Ingroia thought Lo Piccolo was the more likely heir to the Mafia throne. "He's from Palermo, and that's still the most powerful Mafia stronghold," Ingroia said.
A 'pax mafiosa' initially had settled in after Provenzano's arrest because neither Lo Piccolo nor Matteo Messina Denaro
appeared to have sufficient forces to seek control of Cosa Nostra, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. Subsequent investigation revealed that Lo Piccolo and Messina Denaro had reached an accommodation and that the real threat to Lo Piccolo came from Rotolo who was arrested in June 2006.
According to ANSA, "police were concerned by a couple of top-level hits they feared might spark a full-blown war of succession. Police said Lo Piccolo had the upper hand because he had been Provenzano's right-hand man in Palermo and his greater experience won him the respect of the older generation of bosses as they pursued Provenzano's policy of keeping as low as possible while strengthening their power network. These bosses had been reined in by Provenzano when he put an end to the Riina
-driven war against the state that claimed the lives of Mafia crusaders Giovanni Falcone
and Paolo Borsellino
in 1992."
. Their growing relationship may open new possibilities for the Sicilian Mafia to launder money through US institutions.
On June 20, 2006, two months after Provenzano's arrest, authorities issued 52 arrest warrants against the top echelon of Cosa Nostra in the city of Palermo (Operation Gotha
). Among the arrestees were Antonio Rotolo
and his right-hand men Antonino Cinà (who had been the personal physician of Salvatore Riina
and Provenzano) and the builder Francesco Bonura, as well as Gerlando Alberti
, the ageing pioneer of heroin refineries. The investigations 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 this triumvirate replacing the Palermo’s Mafia Commission
whose members are all in jail.
The investigation also indicated that the position of Salvatore Lo Piccolo was not undisputed. A clash between Lo Piccolo and Rotolo had been developing 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. 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 had passed a death sentence on Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro, even before Provenzano's arrest – and had procured the barrels of acid that are used to dissolve the bodies of slain rivals. According to some observers, the arrest of the loyal Corleonesi
triumvirate Rotolo, Cinà and Bonura, has given Lo Piccolo a free rein in Palermo
.
in broad daylight in the Palermo district of Tommaso Natale. The crime may have been a provocation by a rival mafia faction against Lo Piccolo and concerns about a renewal of violence between competing mafia groups were mounting. In September 2006, Bartolomeo Spatola, the 72-year-old boss of the Sferracavallo district of Palermo, disappeared. The press suggested Salvatore Lo Piccolo's men kidnapped and killed Spatola because he had allegedly supported Nino Rotolo's plan to murder Lo Piccolo and his son Sandro.
In March 2007, police discovered a large arsenal of weapons in the countryside outside Palermo. The weapons "were ready to be used" and opined that the current absence of violence in Palermo "did not signify that the danger of a new mafia war had been averted."
On June 13, 2007, two hitmen killed 46-year-old mafia boss Nicola Ingarao – an ally of Nino Rotolo
. Italy's domestic intelligence service SISDE
, warned that the murder of Ingarao possibly marked a return to Mafia violence. An Antimafia prosecutor seconded this view stating that the murder "could be a sign of reorganization, stabilization, or potential war among gangs." Lo Piccolo allegedly ordered Ingarao's murder for two reasons: 1) Ingarao opposed the return of the Inzerillo family; and 2) the elimination of Ingarao would enable Lo Piccolo to secure control of the central Palermo district of Porta Nuova for factions not hostile to him. Gaspare Pulizzi
, one of Lo Piccolo's right-hand men who later became a pentito, revealed that Lo Piccolo’s son Sandro was behind the murders of Spatola and Ingarao. Both murdered bosses allied with Rotolo.
In a July 2007 hearing before the Italian Senate, the director of Italian State Police
, Antonio Manganelli, warned that the chain of recent murders in Palermo is in part due to the return of the "so-called fugitives (Inzerillo family)... who have now returned... If they are back, it means that someone has authorized their return. This is not appreciated by the other side," he added.
and Andrea Adamo, were arrested in a villa in Giardinello
, between Cinisi
and Terrasini
. Police fired several warning shots in the air as they moved in against the mafiosi, who were all armed but apparently did not put up a fight. Sandro Lo Piccolo, in tears, shouted "I love you dad!" several times as he was being handcuffed. The four were put into a police helicopter and flown towards Palermo's main police station. The operation was made possible by information provided by Francesco Franzese, who was arrested on August 2, 2007, who masterminded the Lo Piccolo clan's protection racket. His family has been moved to a secret hideout to prevent reprisals.
Officers remarked that Lo Piccolo’s face was entirely different from the identikit photo of him (see images on this page). Lo Piccolo did not say a word and just smiled when prosecutors noted that he did not resemble the photofit released earlier this year. The elder Lo Piccolo was in fact betrayed by his son of whom police did have a recent photograph.
At the hideout of Lo Piccolo a code of behaviour for Mafia members was found. The so-called "Ten Commandments" include prohibitions such as frequenting bars and looking at friends' wives, while members are urged to treat their own wives with respect. The Mafia Decalogue has been drawn up as a "guide to being a good mafioso". Other activities apparently beyond the pale for Mafiosi are being friends with the police, being late for appointments and "appropriating money if it belongs to other Mafia members or to other families".
When father and son Lo Piccolo – incarcerated under the strict 41-bis prison regime
in the Opera prison in Milan – appeared on a videoscreen at the trial in Palermo against some of their henchmen, they rose to their feet as a sign of respect for the arrested bosses.
Lo Piccolo’s other son Calogero Lo Piccolo succeeded his father and his brother, according to several pentiti
. However, he was arrested on January 16, 2008, during Operation Addio Pizzo against Lo Piccolo’s operators who were in charge of collecting the pizzo
– protection money from local businesses – 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...
, 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,...
. 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 Salvatore Biondino who was sent to prison. Lo Piccolo was a fugitive since 1983 and had been running his Mafia affairs in hiding. With the capture of 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...
on April 11, 2006 Lo Piccolo had been cementing his power and rise to the top of the Palermo Mafia until his own arrest on November 5, 2007.
Lo Piccolo is also known as "u vascu," Sicilian dialect for "il vecchio," which translates into English as "the old one" or "elder." In clandestine correspondence with former 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...
, Salvatore Lo Piccolo used to identify himself by the number 30. Lo Piccolo's fortune came from the international cocaine trafficking, the extortion of businesses, and the theft of money allocated for public works projects. He invested much of his earnings in real estate. Lo Piccolo long supported Provenzano's policy of not directing violence toward the state and preferred arbitration as means to settle conflict between rival mafia factions.
Mafia background
Rosario Riccobono
Rosario Riccobono was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of Partanna Mondello, a suburb of Palermo, his native city...
, who was killed 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...
. Lo Piccolo changed sides and became an ally of 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...
. Bosses like Pippo 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....
and Nino Rotolo pleaded to save the life of Lo Piccolo. Nearly 25 years later Rotolo would regret his appeal when a conflict arose between the two. Rotolo was overheard on bugs installed by the police saying: "One who should have died. He was the ‘godson’ of Saro Riccobono and should have gone."
Having survived the Second Mafia War, Lo Piccolo gradually extended his influence in the area in and around Palermo in the 1980s and 1990s. His influence in Palermo extended to Capaci
Capaci
Capaci is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy.In 2004 the commune was inhabited by 10,129 people, with the density of 1,688.2 people per square kilometer....
, Isola delle Femmine
Isola delle Femmine
Isola delle Femmine is an Italian town in North-Western Sicily, administratively part of the province of Palermo...
, Carini
Carini
Carini is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo, Sicily, 13 miles by rail WNW of Palermo. It has a population of 25,752....
, Villagrazia di Carini, Sferracavallo and Partanna-Mondello. According to Italian DIA (Direzione Investigativa Antimafia), Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro Lo Piccolo, were in charge of most of the urban territory of Palermo. Their area of influence encompassed the "mandamenti" of San Lorenzo, Passo di Rigano and Gangi, including the coastal area up to Cefalù
Cefalù
Cefalù is a city and comune in the province of Palermo, located on the northern coast of Sicily, Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea about 70 km east from the provincial capital and 185 km west of Messina...
, and part of the territory of Messina, including the towns of Mistretta
Mistretta
Mistretta is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 90 km east of Palermo and about 110 km west of Messina...
and Tortorici
Tortorici
Tortorici is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 130 km east of Palermo and about 70 km west of Messina....
. Lo Piccolo allegedly made his fortune with drug trafficking and skimming
Skimming (fraud)
A form of white-collar crime, skimming is a slang termhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/skim that refers to taking cash "off the top" of the daily receipts of a business and officially reporting a lower total.- Examples :* A skimming crime may be simple tax evasion: the owner of a business...
off public contracts. He forced the residents of the low-income housing projects in the ZEN area of Palermo to pay him to keep the building corridors lit. He allegedly has strong links with the American Cosa Nostra.
In March 2005, the Lo Piccolo clan was subject of a police operation known as the "Notte di San Lorenzo". Eighty-four arrest warrants were issued. Nonetheless, Salvatore and his son Sandro Lo Piccolo remained at large.
Successor of Provenzano?
After the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano on April 11, 2006, Salvatore Lo Piccolo and Matteo Messina DenaroMatteo 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...
were thought to be the new leaders of Cosa Nostra. However, the pizzini (small slips of paper used to communicate with other mafiosi to avoid phone conversations) found at Provenzano's hide-out indicated that Provenzano’s joint deputies in Palermo were Salvatore Lo Piccolo and 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...
, capo mandamento of Pagliarelli, a Corleonesi loyalist in the days of Totò Riina. 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."
Anti-Mafia prosecutor Antonio Ingroia of the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) of Palermo said that it was unlikely that there would be an all-out war over who would fill Provenzano's shoes. "Right now I don't think that's probable," he said. Of the two possible successors, Ingroia thought Lo Piccolo was the more likely heir to the Mafia throne. "He's from Palermo, and that's still the most powerful Mafia stronghold," Ingroia said.
A 'pax mafiosa' initially had settled in after Provenzano's arrest because neither Lo Piccolo nor 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...
appeared to have sufficient forces to seek control of Cosa Nostra, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. Subsequent investigation revealed that Lo Piccolo and Messina Denaro had reached an accommodation and that the real threat to Lo Piccolo came from Rotolo who was arrested in June 2006.
According to ANSA, "police were concerned by a couple of top-level hits they feared might spark a full-blown war of succession. Police said Lo Piccolo had the upper hand because he had been Provenzano's right-hand man in Palermo and his greater experience won him the respect of the older generation of bosses as they pursued Provenzano's policy of keeping as low as possible while strengthening their power network. These bosses had been reined in by Provenzano when he put an end to the 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...
-driven war against the state that claimed the lives of Mafia crusaders 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 1992."
Clash with other mafiosi
The ensuing power struggle, following Provenzano's arrest, led not only to increased violence in Sicily but also to likely renewed cooperation between the Sicilian mafia and the US-based Gambino crime familyGambino 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...
. Their growing relationship may open new possibilities for the Sicilian Mafia to launder money through US institutions.
On June 20, 2006, two months after Provenzano's arrest, authorities issued 52 arrest warrants against the top echelon of Cosa Nostra in the city of Palermo (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...
). Among the arrestees were 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...
and his 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, as well as Gerlando Alberti
Gerlando Alberti
Gerlando Alberti , also known as "U Paccarè" is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He belongs to the Porta Nuova family in Palermo headed by Giuseppe Calò...
, the ageing pioneer of heroin refineries. The investigations 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 this triumvirate replacing the 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...
whose members are all in jail.
The investigation also indicated that the position of Salvatore Lo Piccolo was not undisputed. A clash between Lo Piccolo and Rotolo had been developing 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. 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 had passed a death sentence on Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro, even before Provenzano's arrest – and had procured the barrels of acid that are used to dissolve the bodies of slain rivals. According to some observers, the arrest of the loyal 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...
triumvirate Rotolo, Cinà and Bonura, has given Lo Piccolo a free rein 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...
.
Rising tensions
In August 2006, two hitmen gunned down 63-year-old Giuseppe D'AngeloGiuseppe D'Angelo
Giuseppe D'Angelo is an Italian slalom canoer who competed in the early 1970s. He finished 18th in the K-1 event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.-References:*...
in broad daylight in the Palermo district of Tommaso Natale. The crime may have been a provocation by a rival mafia faction against Lo Piccolo and concerns about a renewal of violence between competing mafia groups were mounting. In September 2006, Bartolomeo Spatola, the 72-year-old boss of the Sferracavallo district of Palermo, disappeared. The press suggested Salvatore Lo Piccolo's men kidnapped and killed Spatola because he had allegedly supported Nino Rotolo's plan to murder Lo Piccolo and his son Sandro.
In March 2007, police discovered a large arsenal of weapons in the countryside outside Palermo. The weapons "were ready to be used" and opined that the current absence of violence in Palermo "did not signify that the danger of a new mafia war had been averted."
On June 13, 2007, two hitmen killed 46-year-old mafia boss Nicola Ingarao – an ally of Nino 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...
. Italy's domestic intelligence service SISDE
SISDE
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica , was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy.With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISDE was replaced by AISI....
, warned that the murder of Ingarao possibly marked a return to Mafia violence. An Antimafia prosecutor seconded this view stating that the murder "could be a sign of reorganization, stabilization, or potential war among gangs." Lo Piccolo allegedly ordered Ingarao's murder for two reasons: 1) Ingarao opposed the return of the Inzerillo family; and 2) the elimination of Ingarao would enable Lo Piccolo to secure control of the central Palermo district of Porta Nuova for factions not hostile to him. Gaspare Pulizzi
Gaspare Pulizzi
Gaspare Pulizzi is a member of the Sicilian Mafia from Carini near Palermo. Pulizzi was one of the right-hand men of Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the capo mandamento of the San Lorenzo area in Palermo.-Mafia career:...
, one of Lo Piccolo's right-hand men who later became a pentito, revealed that Lo Piccolo’s son Sandro was behind the murders of Spatola and Ingarao. Both murdered bosses allied with Rotolo.
In a July 2007 hearing before the Italian Senate, the director of Italian State Police
Polizia di Stato
The Polizia di Stato is one of the national police forces of Italy.It is the main police force for providing police duties and it is also responsible for patrolling motorways , railways , airports , customs as well as certain waterways, and assisting the local police...
, Antonio Manganelli, warned that the chain of recent murders in Palermo is in part due to the return of the "so-called fugitives (Inzerillo family)... who have now returned... If they are back, it means that someone has authorized their return. This is not appreciated by the other side," he added.
Arrest
On November 5, 2007, Lo Piccolo and his son Sandro, as well as two other top mafiosi, Gaspare PulizziGaspare Pulizzi
Gaspare Pulizzi is a member of the Sicilian Mafia from Carini near Palermo. Pulizzi was one of the right-hand men of Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the capo mandamento of the San Lorenzo area in Palermo.-Mafia career:...
and Andrea Adamo, were arrested in a villa in Giardinello
Giardinello
Giardinello is a comune in the Province of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about 20 km west of Palermo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,001 and an area of 12.5 km²....
, between Cinisi
Cinisi
Cinisi is a town and a comune in the province of Palermo in Sicily. As of 2007 it had an estimated population of 12,100.-Geography:The town is part of the Palermo metropolitan area, borders with the municipalities of Carini and Terrasini and count the civil parish of Punta Raisi, seat of Palermo...
and Terrasini
Terrasini
Terrasini is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo on the island of Sicily in Italy.-Data:Terrasini is located west of Palermo at the motorway between Palermo and Trapani, between the mountains and the Gulf of Castellammare near the Palermo International Airport.Terrasini's population works...
. Police fired several warning shots in the air as they moved in against the mafiosi, who were all armed but apparently did not put up a fight. Sandro Lo Piccolo, in tears, shouted "I love you dad!" several times as he was being handcuffed. The four were put into a police helicopter and flown towards Palermo's main police station. The operation was made possible by information provided by Francesco Franzese, who was arrested on August 2, 2007, who masterminded the Lo Piccolo clan's protection racket. His family has been moved to a secret hideout to prevent reprisals.
Officers remarked that Lo Piccolo’s face was entirely different from the identikit photo of him (see images on this page). Lo Piccolo did not say a word and just smiled when prosecutors noted that he did not resemble the photofit released earlier this year. The elder Lo Piccolo was in fact betrayed by his son of whom police did have a recent photograph.
At the hideout of Lo Piccolo a code of behaviour for Mafia members was found. The so-called "Ten Commandments" include prohibitions such as frequenting bars and looking at friends' wives, while members are urged to treat their own wives with respect. The Mafia Decalogue has been drawn up as a "guide to being a good mafioso". Other activities apparently beyond the pale for Mafiosi are being friends with the police, being late for appointments and "appropriating money if it belongs to other Mafia members or to other families".
When father and son Lo Piccolo – 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...
in the Opera prison in Milan – appeared on a videoscreen at the trial in Palermo against some of their henchmen, they rose to their feet as a sign of respect for the arrested bosses.
Lo Piccolo’s other son Calogero Lo Piccolo succeeded his father and his brother, according to several 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...
. However, he was arrested on January 16, 2008, during Operation Addio Pizzo against Lo Piccolo’s operators who were in charge of collecting the pizzo
Pizzo (extortion)
In Southern Italy, the pizzo is protection money paid by a business to the Mafia, usually coerced and constituting extortion. The term is derived from the Sicilian pizzu . To wet someone's beak is to pay protection money...
– protection money from local businesses – in Palermo.