Sicilian Mafia

The Sicilian Mafia is a network of criminal groups rooted in Sicily, organized around local territories and sustained by extortion, violence, political influence, and omertà.

Cosa Nostra: The name commonly used for the Sicilian Mafia organization, especially in accounts of its structure and operations. This name identifies the network whose local groups enforce authority across Sicilian territories.
Sicily: The largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy. The Mafia originated in Sicily and developed through the island’s local power structures.
Giovanni Falcone: An Italian magistrate who prosecuted Mafia organizations and helped develop methods for investigating their financial and organizational links. His investigations and trial work struck at the network’s structures and financial power.
Maxi Trial: A mass trial of hundreds of defendants linked to Cosa Nostra, held in Palermo from 1986 to 1992. The prosecution converted years of investigation into convictions against a broad network of Mafia members.
Omertà: A code of silence that discourages cooperation with authorities and protects criminal groups from investigation. Silence obstructs police investigations and reinforces the Mafia’s control over communities.
Unification of Italy: The nineteenth-century political process that united the Italian states into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The new state’s uneven authority in Sicily shaped conditions in which Mafia groups expanded.
Paolo Borsellino: An Italian magistrate who prosecuted the Mafia and was assassinated in Palermo in 1992. His work against Sicilian Mafia groups made him a target of their campaign of violence.
Anti-Mafia Pool: A group of Palermo magistrates who coordinated investigations into the Sicilian Mafia during the 1980s. Coordinated investigations helped make the Maxi Trial possible despite intense pressure and danger.
Protection racket: A criminal scheme that demands payment in exchange for protection, often against threats created by the perpetrators themselves. Extortion payments are framed as protection and help establish Mafia authority over local businesses.
Latifundium: A large landed estate, especially one worked by tenants or laborers under concentrated ownership. Concentrated landownership created a setting for private intermediaries to enforce control and collect rents.

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