The arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro and the effort to combat organised crime

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For a discussion of the reactions of politicians and other actors see P. Matteucci, ‘L’arresto di Matteo Messina Denaro. Meloni, «Italia fiera di magistrati e investigatori». Usa, congratulazioni a Italia, vittoria significativa su Mafia’, la Repubblica, 16 January 2023.

2. Non è l’arena , La7, episodes broadcast on 16 January 2023, 22 January 2023, 29 January 2023 and 05 February 2023; Atlantide , La7, episodes broadcast on 18 January 2023 and 1 March 2023.

3. A. Girardi, ‘Meloni: «Messina Denaro? Non abbiamo trattato, chi fa complottismo vuole attaccare il governo»’, www.fanpage.it, 16 January 2023.

4. F. Florio, ‘Arresto Messina Denaro, Nordio: «Grande successo del governo». È polemica. Per il M5s il ministro «offende le istituzioni»’, www.open.it, 17 January 2023; ‘Messina Denaro, Tajani: «Grandi boss sempre dentro con governi centrodestra»’, www.adnkronos.com, 23 January 2023.

5. For a review of the positions in the field, see the Relazione del ministro della Giustizia alla Camera dei deputati, 19 January 2023, available at https://www.camera.it/leg19/410?idSeduta=0039&tipo=stenografico#sed0039. Stenographic.tit00020.

6. ‘Il procuratore Maurizio De Lucia: «Un grave errore pensare che la mafia sia stata sconfitta»’, www.rainews.it, 16 January 2023; C. Sannino, ‘Il procuratore Melillo: «Intercettazioni fondamentali anche per i reati non di mafia»’, la Repubblica, 18 January 2023.

7. PD parliamentarians. Debora Serracchiani, Walter Verini, Silvio Lai and Andrea Orlando visited Alfredo Cospito in prison on 12 January 2023.

8. See note 2 for the in-depth TV programmes that have most developed these themes.

9. L. Sirignano, ‘Il procuratore di Palermo: «Cosa nostra è nei salotti buoni, sulle connivenze andremo a fondo»’, Corriere della Sera, 18 January 2023.

10. Relazione del ministro della Giustizia alla Camera dei deputati, 19 January 2023, cit.

11. See note 9.

12. For this interpretation of the grey area see 2014 and La Spina [(2016)]. Nando dalla Chiesa [(2014), 42] speaks of ‘circle theory’. In his case, however, the image of concentric circles ‘refers to the behaviours functional to mafia organizations according to the severity of punishment with which they are associated’.

13. This perspective was adopted in a series of research projects carried out by one of the authors of this article. See Sciarrone [(2011); (2017); (2019)] and Sciarrone and Storti [(2019)].

14. For the distinction between strong and weak ties, used by Mark Granovetter to analyse the systems of relationships sustained by mafia groups, see Sciarrone [(2009)].

15. Court of Palermo, Ordinanza misura cautelare, Gip, Proc. n. 1806/2023 RGNR, 15 March 2023.

16. Court of Palermo, Ordinanza applicazione misura cautelare, Gip, n. 1571/2023 RGNR, 7 February 2023.

17. Here the term ‘anti-mafia’ is used to refer to all the ideas, actions and actors that are aimed at countering the mafia on different levels, from civil society to the levels of politics and law enforcement.

18. The ‘Rognoni-La Torre’ law, passed in 1982, introduced the crime of associating with organized crime and provided for confiscation of the assets of those found guilty of membership of the mafia.

19. The so-called ‘maxi trial’, which lasted from 1986 to 1992, was the trial which, for the first time in Italy, led to recognition of the Sicilian mafia as a unitary criminal organization. The trial led to a large number of heavy sentences being imposed on those found guilty of membership of Cosa Nostra, especially its leaders, and marked a change of direction in efforts to repress the organization, which in previous decades had largely enjoyed impunity.

20. The expression ‘Palermo Spring’ refers to the period from 1985 to 1990, coinciding with the election of Leoluca Orlando as mayor of the city, which saw the emergence of a number of associations and initiatives aimed at spreading a culture of legality. The emergence of this cultural and political movement came in the wake of years of widespread violence by Cosa Nostra, which claimed hundreds of lives, including those of a number of public officials.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lorenzo Picarella

Lorenzo Picarella, Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Turin.

Rocco Sciarrone

Rocco Sciarrone, Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Turin.