Italy: Corleone government to expel son of mafia boss to protect town from 'reputational damage'

The government of Corleone in Sicily has called for the removal of a convicted mafioso and son of Italy’s most feared mobster, in order to protect the town from its bad reputation in the past. The convict named, Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, also known as Salvuccio returned to his home town last April. He is the third-born of the Sicilian mafia’s boss, Salvatore “Toto” Riina, nicknamed the Beast.

The Italian town of Corleone has been immortalised as a mafia stronghold by The Godfather book and film trilogy.
Salvuccio had been convicted and imprisoned for nearly nine years on charges of extortion, money laundering and mafia association in the past, and was released from prison recently.

A few weeks after his homecoming, the local government of Corleone voted in favour of a resolution demanding that Riina Jr leave the town as the community seeks t escape its mobster past.

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“We want to send a loud and clear message once again: Corleone wants to leave behind its mafia past [behind], even by pushing away unwelcome fellow citizens, such as Salvuccio Riina who has never distanced himself from the despicable crimes of his father, Totò,” reads the resolution. “The reputational damage that the Riina family has caused to the city is serious and difficult to recover.”

After forwarding the resolution to law enforcement officers, the ultimate decision to remove Salvuccio now rests with magistrates in the Sicilian capital, Palermo.

Toto Riina rose to power in the mid-1970s, when he became the de facto leader of the Corleone crime family. By then, Sicily had already become a hub for the heroin trade into the US following the Vietnam War, and Riina took advantage of the situation to control the inflows of narcodollars to his rivals in Palermo.

His rise resulted in plunged violence in the town, not only did he assassinate his criminal rivals on an unprecedented scale in the 1980s and 90s, but also targeted the prosecutors, journalists and judges who sought to stand in his way. He is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, including a 13-year-old boy who was kidnapped, strangled and dissolved in acid.

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Riina remained the undisputed boss of the Sicilian mafia until the day he died in prison in November 2017. The late mafia had four children, Maria Concetta, Giovanni Francesco, Giuseppe Salvatore and Lucia.

His son Giovanni was only 19 years old when his father ordered him to strangle a kidnapped businesswoman in the countryside. It was an important task for Giovanni as it would mark his formal entry into the Sicilian mafia, the Costa Nostra, He was sentenced to life in prison in 1996.

Salvuccio, convicted of mafia membership in 2004, lived in the north of Italy until his return last month.

In 2016, he wrote a book entitled Riina Family Life, which sparked controversy in the country. Following its publication, signs appeared in store windows from Sicily to Milan advising customers that the book would not be found on the shelves inside.

(With inputs from agencies)

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