Vito Badalamenti
Vito Badalamenti (Cinisi, April 29, 1957) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior since 1995.
Mafia heritage
Vito Badalamenti was born in Cinisi, Sicily. He is the eldest son of Mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti, one-time boss of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and a notorious heroin trafficker who was the principal defendant in the Pizza Connection Trial in the mid-1980s in New York.
In 1981, at the start of the Second Mafia War, Vito followed his father in voluntary exile after Badalamenti was expelled from Cosa Nostra by the rival faction of the Corleonesi headed by Totò Riina. They moved to Brazil and later to Spain.
Pizza Connection
Vito Badalamenti was involved in the heroin trafficking activities of his father, known as the Pizza Connection. After extensive surveillance, the Spanish police arrested Vito and Gaetano Badalamenti in Madrid on April 8, 1984, capping a four-year undercover investigation by Italian and US law enforcement agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. The arrest set off a series of raids by the Federal Bureau of Investigation throughout the United States.[1]
Both were extradited to the United States on November 15, 1984. They were unable to post multimillion-dollar bails and remained in jail throughout the trial. On June 22, 1987, Vito was the only one acquitted at the Pizza Connection Trial, while his father was sentenced to 45 years in prison. In Italy, Vito Badalamenti received a six-year sentence in the Maxi Trial.[2]
Fugitive
Vito Badalamenti was a fugitive since 1995. In 2000, the Italian police issued an international arrest warrant. He is alleged to be either in Australia or Brazil.[2][3] He has not lost his contacts with Sicily, Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo was in contact with Badalamenti before Lo Piccolo was arrested in November 2007.[3]
References
- ↑ Acquitted in 'Pizza Connection' Trial, Man Remains in Prison, The New York Times, July 28, 1988
- 1 2 (Italian) Palermo, in aula l'eredità di "don Tano", La Sicilia, February 14, 2007
- 1 2 (Italian) Lo Piccolo. Asse Sicilia-USA. I rapporti tra il Boss ed i cugini italoamericani, America Oggi, November 6, 2007
- Blumenthal, Ralph (1988). Last Days of the Sicilians, New York: Times Books: New York ISBN 0-8129-1594-1
External links
- (Italian) Most wanted list of the Italian ministry of the Interior Vito Badalamenti
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