Cocaine trafficking breeds violence in ZeroZeroZero
About 10 cartel assassins armed with AK-47s and grenade launchers stormed the deputy police chief’s house at 5 a.m., snuffed out him, his police officer wife and their seven-year-old son, then lit the house on fire, killing three daughters. This incident, which occurred in Mexico in July 2009 and is detailed in Italian journalist Roberto Saviano’s book ZeroZeroZero, is one example among many of the grim toll occurring today in global drug trafficking. During one especially deadly nine-month period in 2011, drug violence resulted in 12,903 people being killed in Mexico, according to the country’s prosecutor general. This year, in only ...
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One hundred years ago: Murder of ‘Big Jim’ Colosimo spawned one of the most powerful crime syndicates in American history – the Chicago Outfit
Three weeks after his marriage to the beautiful singer Dale Winter, James Colosimo remained giddy, and nervous. Known as “Big…
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Citing coronavirus risks, Italy releases four imprisoned Mob bosses
During the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s prisons are among the hotspots for the disease. Inmates living in close proximity create…
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Mexican cartels deliver care packages to citizens amid pandemic
From mobster Al Capone’s Chicago soup kitchen that served three meals a day during the Great Depression to Colombian cocaine…
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Who bombed Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal’s car?
Flames two or three inches high emerged from the defroster vent as he sat in his car with takeout food…
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The Camorra and the garbage racket in the ‘Land of Fires’
This is a condensed version of a longer case study, “Organized Crime and Environmental Issues in Naples, Italy,” that will…
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DEA attacks top Mexican drug cartel with 600 arrests across U.S.
The operation was named “Project Python,” presumably reflecting an effort by federal law enforcement to squeeze the life out of…
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From shoe-leather reporter to Mob movie screenwriter, Nick Pileggi remembers it well
Author and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi is enjoying a couple of major career milestones this year. Two groundbreaking Mob movies he…
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