[gatagato]

The Sicilian Mafia became infamous for aggressive assaults on Italian law enforcement officials during the reign of Toto Riina. In Sicily the term "Excellent Cadaver" is used to distinguish the assassination of prominent government officials from the common criminals and ordinary citizens killed by the Mafia. Some of their high ranking victims include police commissioners, mayors, judges, police colonels and generals, and Parliament members.

On May 23, 1992, the Sicilian Mafia struck Italian law enforcement. At approximately 6:00 p.m., Italian Magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three police body guards were killed by a massive bomb. Falcone, Director of Prosecutions (roughly, District Attorney) and for the court of Palermo and head of the special anti-Mafia investigative squad, had become the organization's most formidable enemy. His team was moving to prepare cases against most of the Mafia leadership. The bomb made a crater 30 feet in diameter in the road Falcone's caravan was traveling.

Giovanni Falcone, Gold medal for civil value, killed by 35,000 ounces of TNT 20 years ago

Mafia had to kill Falcone because he created a super-team of prosecutors investigating on mafia and introduced an innovative investigative technique in the investigation, following "the money trail": he estabilished working relationships with colleagues from other countries, especially from US and France, starting from a previous investigation on heroin-trafficking network of the Spatola-Inzerillo(ITA) and Gambino (USA) clans.
At this point it's better to say what happened before:
On May 5, 1980 Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile, was killed by mafia hitmen, shot repeatedly in the back whilst he carried his four-year-old daughter, who fortunately was unhurt in the shooting: what mafia didn't know was that the same day, in the morning, he gave to prosecuting judge Gaetano Costa a dossier containing the results of his investigations. The day after, Gaetano Costa signed 55 arrest warrants against the heroin-trafficking network of the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino clan.
Needless to say, Gaetano Costa was killed on August 6, 1980 and needless to say again, he was shot in the back.

Gaetano Costa, killed because he signed the indictments after virtually all of the other prosecutors in his office had declined to do so a fact that leaked out of the office and eventually cost him his life.

Back to the story, Falcone learned that the chemists of the French Connection had moved clandestine labs for refining heroin from Marseilles to Sicily. At the end of 1980 he visited the United States and started to work with the U.S. Justice Department which would result in some of the biggest international law enforcement operations in history such as the Pizza Connection. The inquiries extended to Turkey, an important stopover on the route of morphine base; to Switzerland, where bank secrecy laws facilitated money laundering; and to Naples where cigarette smuggling rings were being reconfigured as heroin operations. At the end of 1981, he finalized the Spatola case for trial, which enabled the prosecution to win 74 convictions, based on Falcone’s “web of solid evidence, bank and travel records, seized heroin shipments, fingerprint and handwriting analyses, wiretapped conversations and firsthand testimony” that proved that “Sicily had replaced France as the principal gateway for refining and exporting heroin to the United States”.
With names, dates, circumstances and all the rest;
Too much for mafia, that was a candle to be extinguished at any cost.
well they took his life, but his ideas survived.
Today, FBI is Remembering Giovanni Falcone

On May 23, 1992, Mafia hit men detonated a roadside bomb that killed Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three bodyguards as they drove near Palermo, Italy. The assassination was payback for all the organized criminals Falcone had put behind bars as a prosecutor and judge.

To mark the 20th anniversary of his murder, a tribute was held at FBI Headquarters to remember Falcone as a courageous opponent of the Mafia—and one of the earliest advocates of international cooperation in the fight against organized crime.

Director Robert S. Mueller, who was joined by two former FBI directors and several Italian dignitaries in paying tribute to Falcone, noted, “Long before ‘globalization’ became part of our vernacular, Judge Falcone recognized that no one department or country could fight crime alone. He went to great lengths to cultivate strong relationships—friendships—with partners here in the United States and around the world.”

Some people value other things even greater than their own lives: Falcone was one of them.

[Faline]

Thanks

[Pelle]

Great post!

[wujuan]

[carkees]

Interesting!

[kaydeechio]

No gore? QQ

jk!

great post

[Rille]

I remeber the Falcone Blast. It was a MF of a bomb. But they sure wanted him dead...This time they succeeded.

[1Monster666]

wtf

[Spiffyfable]

Follow the money => get the bad guys

[kilyurselph]

I hate how the Mafia is portrayed in the American media. They're idolized, and portrayed in a way that makes a lot of people, especially young men want to emulate those scum bags.