NICOLA MANDAL IN NEW YORK BY FRANK CALI FOR A BARGAIN OF COCA. OPERATION "OLD BRIDGE" AND AMERICAN CUISINE WHAT OUR
Emanuele Minnella
Report on visit to the prison in Parma. Rome, August 11, 2006.
"In one of the special sections reserved for 41a, is Nicola Mandala. For a year and a half in solitary confinement at the time of weighing 90 kg, now weighs 60. In prison he been diagnosed with empty sella turcica syndrome, which causes constant headaches, stabbing, which had not before being arrested; Aulin type drugs have no effect. Awaits a visit from a doctor before taking the drugs that were prescribed by the Health Department of the prison. The visit, which was requested by two months, was allowed a few hours before our meeting ". So
Sergio D'Elia Maurizio and Turkish, both parliamentary La Rosa nel Pugno, describing the situation of Mandala, the aftermath of the pardon to Mastella.
hard to imagine the boss in these conditions. Just three years before he left for America, along with girlfriend and other characters far from unexpected.
Of those trips, we find some photos today that investigators seized at the house of an alleged supporter, close to the boss Pagliarelli, and wiretaps that leave no doubt about the real intentions of those trips.
Behind the scenes of the story have a name: "Old Bridge". As the operation on 7 February that led to the arrest of 90 men between Palermo and New York.
Old Bridge, then. The "old" here is synonymous with "escaped", the leaders of the Cosa Nostra in the United States after fleeing the Mafia war of the '80s. The bridge is, however, that all Sicilian gangs were planning to rebuild the families of Nova York. Dai Corleone
pro-Nino Rotolo, the loyalists Totuccio Lo Piccolo, ending with the men of Provenzano, each of them had sent a representative in America to appeal to a certain Frank Cali, New York boss linked to the Gambino and Inzerillo . And from Frank Cali
stopped Nicola Mandala, in his first trip overseas. That of 26 November 2003.
Far from Sicily, the boss must have felt safe. He could not imagine that the State Police, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to spy on them. Together with
Mandalà had left Gianni Nicchi well at the time fugitive godson Antonino Rotolo, the boss of Pagliarelli arrested as part of Gotha in 2006.
The two have remained in New York until December 7, 2003. Upon returning, Mandala, intercepted the phone, he said to his girlfriend: "I had two kilos of coca ... deadly. "
discovered the motive of the trip: five hundred kilos of cocaine to be sold, according to a statement of regret Mario Cusimano and Maurizio Di Gati.
According to investigators, in fact, what our farmers intend to return to illicit drug trafficking. This deal is in the justification of the relations with the American mafia and the return to Sicily, from 2000, the so-called escaped the Inzerillo.
Endorsed the "returnees" Little Totuccio: to confirm there would be a series of pizzini that the boss had sent to Provenzano, in which it is clear his desire to "secure for them."
a different view, however, Antonino Rotolo that the Americans did not trust. This explains the fact that in a second trip, Roll, refuses to send his kid again, Nicchi.
is March 18, 2004. This time, Mandala is accompanied by Ezio Fontana and Nicola Notaro. The last of the three, apparently the cleanest, with Frank Cali was a business partner. Haskell had in fact formed the International Trading, a company which had won the exclusive rights to distribute Nestle in America one of the most renowned Italian brands in the food industry. The reasons for the visit to appear the same.
Investigators discovered them. Remains doubtful the hypothesis that sees Mandalà act in complete independence from Provenzano. Recall that at the time, they ran the inaction of the godfather. What is certain is that the boss villabatese, before leaving, had separate and individual contacts with mafia bosses to Passo di Rigano, Boccadifalco and Roccella. This shows, therefore, an agreement between the various Mafia families in the capital, for the achievement of the deal. Provenzano was unaware that the story seems, at this point, unlikely. Indeed ...