Right outta the movies: Italy's mafia in North America

[Hoi Polloi]

It even includes their most powerful leader, ironically enough, owning a laundromat. Imagine washing your clothes and coming across these folks.

Italy Sends Soldiers to South to Combat New Mafia

Italy is sending soldiers to Calabria in the south to fight a secretive and dangerous Italian crime network that's overtaken the fabled Cosa Nostra by expanding into cocaine trafficking around the world – with strong ties in Canada.

But the group is both feared and hard to prosecute because of a tightly knit, intricate family structure that discourages breaking the code of omerta, or silence -- a code that wasn't strong enough to protect more traditional Mafia families.

"There is a massive number of their people in North America, especially in Canada and Toronto," Alberto Cisterna, director of the Anti-Mafia Directorate, told the National Post.

[jimlongley]

When I was in Italy, in the Navy 40 years ago plus, I was often asked if I was a "paisan" (which could mean peasant, but in the vernacular meant native) and not having an known Italian in my background, I usually denied it. I had a very olive complexion and working in the sun a lot enhanced the appearance.

One evening a friend who was quite obviously a paisan and I were sitting in a trattoria in Naples and this older lady, the epitome of strega, kept insisting that I was the spit and image of her cousin in Sicily, born in the shadow of Etna on a full moon, etc, etc.

Knowing a little about the geography of the area, I finally got rid of her by telling her that I was "no Siciliano, but a Calabrian" and she stormed out.

[ELB]

When I was stationed with NATO AWACS, it had a Forward Operating Base at Trapani, Sicily (main base was in Germany). I was told that early in the program (would be the early 1980s), when the bases were being set up, an airport fire truck was shipped (literally) from northern Italy to Sicily. The ship made a non-stop voyage from the northern port to Trapani. But somehow, the fire truck disappeared en route. Never found, I was told. Most perplexing.