ROME (AP) — Sicilian Mafia infighting is surging as the crime gang struggles to find new leaders following arrests of top mobsters, Italy's intelligence officials said Friday.
The separate arrests of top boss Bernardo Provenzano in 2006 and possible successor Salvatore Lo Piccolo last year have disrupted the crime syndicate's activities and increased infighting, according to an annual report by intelligence agencies.
Lo Piccolo was vying to replace Provenzano at the top of Cosa Nostra when he was apprehended.
The Mafia appears "to suffer the lack of suitable successors because its surviving cadres are second-raters," said the report, which looked at evidence from last year.
Some mobsters tend to focus on petty crime more than in the past, a possible sign of the lower level, the report said. Businesses have started refusing to pay the extortion fees, a traditional main source of income.
"In Sicily there's a progressive disarticulation of the mob phenomenon," Gen. Giuseppe Cucchi, a top intelligence official, told a news conference to present the report.
The officials said that while the Sicilian mob is in crisis, the gang known as 'ndrangheta is on the rise — confirming a trend that has long been emphasized by investigators.
The 'ndrangheta — based in Calabria, a southern region opposite Sicily — has largely taken over drug trafficking. The group's international reach came into the spotlight last summer with the killing of six Italians outside a pizzeria in Germany.
The report looks at security threats in Italy and abroad, concerning both domestic crime syndicates as international terror groups.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jT102Objw1UH9o-MRg3xjhuuwdAgD8V4DBU82
