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The Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan is a Mafia clan (in English called "Crime family") of Cosa Nostra and held a key position in the illicit drug trade and money laundering for Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and 1990s. The Italian press baptized the clan as 'The Rothschilds of the Mafia' or 'the bankers of Cosa Nostra'.〔''(The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba )'', Transnational Organized Crime, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 1997〕 Italian prosecutors described the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan as an ''"international holding ... a holding which secures certain services for the Sicilian Cosa Nostra as a whole: drug-trafficking routes and channels for money laundering."'' The clan is ''"a very tight knit family group of men-of-honour, not only joined by Mafia bonds, but also by ties of blood."''〔''(The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba )''〕 According to the Italian Antimafia Commission the Cuntrera-Caruana clan played a central role in international drug trafficking, extending their interests from Italy to Canada and Venezuela.〔 Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul fenomeno della criminalità organizzata mafiosa o similare, (Relazone annuale ), July 2003, p. 53-54〕 Prominent members of the clan are the brothers Liborio Cuntrera, Pasquale Cuntrera,〔 (Pasquale Cuntrera, il re della droga ), La Repubblica, May 19, 1998〕 Gaspare Cuntrera and Paolo Cuntrera. At the Caruana side there are Giuseppe Caruana, Carmelo Caruana and his son Alfonso Caruana, and Leonardo Caruana. ==Origins== The Cuntrera and Caruana families originated from Siculiana, a small village on the south coast of Sicily in the province of Agrigento. They are relatives; they inter-married to strengthen their criminal alliance.〔 Mafia tradition is old in Siculiana. On a map, made in 1900 by one of the first Mafia researchers Antonio Cutrera, a former officer of public security, Siculiana is mentioned as ‘high density’ Mafia territory.〔 Antonio Cutrera, ''La mafia e i mafiosi'', Reber, Palermo: 1900, reprinted by Arnaldo Forni Editore, Sala Bolognese 1984, ISBN 88-271-2487-X〕 The province of Agrigento is, and has been so for the last century, the poorest and most backward region of Italy.〔 The Cuntrera-Caruana clan used to be armed guards for the local baron Agnello, who owned most of the village and the surrounding land.〔 (È la coca che fa il ponte. È la mafia che lo gestirà ), Diario, March 11, 2005〕 Everybody in the village depended on the baron for work and income. When land reform started in the 1950s the baron had to give up most of his holdings. The Mafia brokered the sale of the holdings. The power of the Mafia in those years was unchallenged, they entered the town council, and at one time the mayor was a noted mafioso.〔 In the 1950s the Mafia was not the multi-million dollar business it is now. In 1952 Pasquale Cuntrera and his brother-in-law Leonardo Caruana were indicted for a double murder, the theft of four cows and arson. Both were acquitted in 1953 ''per non aver commesso il fatto'' - not having committed the act - an almost ritual verdict where Mafia crimes were concerned in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s. A 1966 police report concluded Siculiana had been ruled by mafiosi for years. Giuseppe Caruana, his brother Leonardo Caruana and Pasquale Cuntrera exploited every economic activity in the village and its surrounding communities. They had created an atmosphere of omertà: through violence and intimidation they made sure that nobody dared to denounce them. The Agrigento Court decided to ban them from the village.〔 Some returned; however in the 1970s Leonardo Caruana became capo mandamento - after he was expelled from Canada - of the area under the leadership of the Mafia boss of the province Agrigento, Giuseppe Settecasi. The power base of the clan reached into politics. The influential politician Calogero Mannino of the Christian Democrat party (DC - Democrazia Cristiana) was a witness at the marriage of Leonardo Caruana's son Gerlando in 1977 in Siculiana.〔〔〔 (La mafia in TV: Quei politici amici dei mafiosi ), La Repubblica, September 28, 1991〕 Leonardo Caruana was murdered in 1981 in front of his house in Palermo on the day his other son Gaspare Caruana married. The killing occurred at the height of a second Mafia war, and stayed unavenged.〔 Few members of the Cuntrera-Caruana family have remained in Siculiana. Leonardo Caruana’s son, Gerlando Caruana, is considered to be the head of the family in Siculiana according to the Italian DIA (Direzione Investigativa Antimafia). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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