SC judge sparks fresh interest in Sicilian Mafia

KARACHI: A lot of interest was generated in a shadowy Italian organisation after a Supreme Court judge referenced it during proceedings on Thursday.

Best known to many through its appearances on the silver screen, the Sicilian Mafia is one of the world’s most famous and feared organised crime networks. It is also the parent of America’s Italian Mafia – the one Hollywood made famous.

Originating on the island of Sicily, the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Cosa Nostra, was born in the 19^th century, before Italian unification. After Italy annexed Sicily, land was redistributed among peasants, and disputes over ownership followed. With only a handful of government officials including policemen to resolve disputes, many people turned to ‘extrajudicial protectors’. These protectors eventually organised themselves as Mafiosi – members of the Mafia.



Initially, their main business remained protection, especially for small farmers whose cattle or crops may be at risk. But later, they also moved into extortion and sale of contraband goods, among other criminal activities. Their methods and lack of fear or respect for the police, however, led authorities to try to crush them. But Omerta – their code of silence – got in the way of that as well.

Although the fascists ran most of them out of the island and across to America in World War II, after the war, the remaining few were able to seize political power, and soon, their interests turned to transnational crimes, especially the heroin trade.

After the murders of judges in the early 1990s, the Italian government finally began a crackdown which led to the jailing of many Mafia bosses. But the organisation still survived, moving underground and refocusing their core trades to drugs, government bid rigging, loan sharking, and extortion. Today, they are believed to be working hand-in-hand with the brutal gangs of Mexico in the international drug trade.