In the background is a large portrait of murdered magistrate Paolo Borsellino. Judicial pressure and the crisis it has caused in recent years is something that mafia bosses have never experienced in the organisation’s history.” “The Italian state has obtained unprecedented results. “It is very probable that today’s mafia is the weakest in its history,” says Salvatore Lupo, a professor of contemporary history at Palermo University and a renowned expert in the history of Italy’s Cosa Nostra.

Decimated by relentless arrests, weighed down by the recent economic crisis, short on cash and on foot soldiers, Cosa Nostra has become a paper tiger.ĭead? No, because it’s still embedded in Sicilian society but transformed, yes: reduced, according to many, to the level of a neighbourhood gang.

According to numerous experts, the organisation that crafted its own mythology – inspiring films, books and television series – has never been weaker. Today we can say that the mafia – the one capable of killing magistrates and attacking the state – has been defeated.” In a rare interview on TV with La7, Pignatone, who recently retired after working for the main Italian prosecution offices in the south of Italy, said: “Today the Sicilian mafia is way less dangerous than before.

Instal the new Mafia: Street Fight