Free Republic

Mafia boss Pasquale (Pat) Musitano, who struggled to push his Hamilton-based mob family to greater underworld power, was shot dead Friday in a parking lot four kilometres from where he will likely be buried alongside his kin. Musitano, 53, knew he was the target of determined enemies. A year ago, he was shot in a similar way, in a parking lot beside his hulking, armour-plated SUV. He was pierced by four bullets, then, including his head, but while people wondered if he was paralyzed or brain damaged, he was actually sitting up in a chair complaining of the hospital’s food...

The 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia has emerged as the world's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade in Europe, and it further has become entrenched in Australia, Canada and the United States with surprisingly little push back from law enforcement in those countries. Indeed, Nicola Gratteri, a top anti-Mafia prosecutor in Italy warns that "this mafia is quickly spreading in the United States, particularly in Florida and New York" as reported by Beatrice Borromeo for The Daily Beast: Gratteri's latest operations have led to the sentencing of 34 'Ndrangheta members and have uncovered a...