Salvatore Greco (Mafioso, 1924)

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Organizational chart of the Greco family

Salvatore Greco (born May 12, 1924 ; † unknown), also known by the nickname "l'Ingegnere" (the engineer) or "Totò il Lungo" ( Totò the tall one ), was a high-ranking member of the Sicilian mafia . He came from a line of the Ciaculli faction of the Greco Mafia family , whose progenitor was Pietro Greco. Salvatore was one of four siblings, the other three of whom, unlike him, were in civilian professions.

Criminal career

Salvatore Greco was the son of Pietro Greco, who was killed in 1946 during a family feud between the Greco factions Ciaculli and Croceverde-Giardini . His cousin Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco " became one of the first chairmen of the Cupola .

Salvatore “the engineer” Greco was considered one of the most enigmatic mafiosi of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. He was described as the "gray eminence of the entire organization" who kept the strings in hand in the background. His job was to initiate the extermination of hostile Mafia families or to decide strategies for drug trafficking. He entered the Garibaldi Masonic Lodge in Palermo in 1946 . Judge Cesare Terranova , who investigated the criminal activities of the Grecos and charged them in the 1960s (when some members were already at large), described "the engineer" as a key figure in the international networks for cigarette and heroin smuggling . Salvatore Greco traveled frequently to Marseille , Tangier , Gibraltar , Malta , Milan and Genoa , all important hubs in the international trade cycle for drug smuggling in the Mediterranean area and the French Connection . In 1952, the name of "the engineer" was first associated with heroin when a load of six kilograms sent to him by Frank Coppola was intercepted in Alcamo . Greco maintained a fleet of secret boats, the names of which were constantly changing.

First Mafia War

The Greco cousins ​​were protagonists in the bloody Mafia War between rival clans in Palermo of the early 1960s - known as the First Mafia War, and the one that followed in the early 1980s to control the profitable business opportunities that arose from the rapid growth that the offered illegal heroin trafficking to North America. The conflict was sparked by a dispute over an underweight heroin shipment and, in December 1962, by the murder of Calcedonio Di Pisa , an ally of the Grecos. The Greco suspected the brothers Salvatore and Angelo La Barbera of having started the hostilities. On June 30, 1963, a car bomb exploded near “Ciaschiteddu” Greco's house in Ciaculli, killing seven policemen and soldiers who were dispatched to defuse after an anonymous phone call. The outrage over the Ciaculli massacre turned the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia. It sparked the state's first concerted anti-Mafia efforts in post-war Italy . The Sicilian Mafia Commission was disbanded and many of the mafiosi who escaped arrest fled abroad.

Escape

The chaos caused by the Ciaculli massacre severely disrupted the Sicilian heroin trade with the United States . Several mafiosi were persecuted, arrested and imprisoned. Control of the trade fell into the hands of Pietro Davì , Tommaso Buscetta and Gaetano Badalamenti . Salvatore was sentenced to ten years in the "Trial of 114" in 1968, but since he had been on the run since 1963, the sentence could not be carried out. Interpol believed he might be in Lebanon , where he controlled much of the international trade channels. Other sources alleged that he fled to Venezuela. Of the two cousins, according to Interpol and the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) , "the engineer" was considered to be the more accomplished and powerful. In 1973 another verdict was passed in the absence of the Greco cousins. Both were exiled to the remote island of Asinara (now a national park) for a maximum period of five years , but they had disappeared without a trace. The sister of the "engineer" Girolama Greco is married to Antonio Salamone "Il Furbo" (December 12, 1918 in San Giuseppe Jato - May 31, 1998 in São Paulo ) from a Mafia family in San Giuseppe Jato . According to Mafia boss Giuseppe Guttadauro, who was overheard by the police during a wiretapping, Greco was apparently still alive in 2001.

literature

  • Pino Arlacchi: Mafia from within: The life of Don Antonino Calderone . S. Fischer Verlag
  • Alfio Caruso: Da cosa nasce cosa. Storia della mafia from 1943 a oggi . Longanesi. Milan. 2000 ISBN 88-304-1620-7 .
  • John Dickie: Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia. London. Coronet. 2004. ISBN 0-340-82435-2 .
  • Alexander Stille: Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic. New York. Vintage 1995. ISBN 0-09-959491-9 .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Giuseppe Carlo Marino: La Sicilia delle Stragi. Newton Compton Editori. 2015. ISBN 978-8-854-18753-5 .
  2. ↑ Heinz Duthel: Illegal Drug Trade: The War on Drugs. Neobooks. 2018. ISBN 978-374-2-740380 .
  3. ^ Salvatore Lupo: History of the Mafia. Columbia University Press. 2011. ISBN 978-0231-1-31353 . P. 220
  4. ↑ Sicilian. "The smart one"
personal data
SURNAME Greco, Salvatore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Mafioso (Sicily)
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1924