5 Passports: The Mob

During our 10 short days in Sicily, it was amazing how often the mafia came up in conversation. Of course some of it was just Angie and I talking, but other times it was shop owners or stories all over the news. We started to wonder how big of a problem the mafia still is and found out that about 2 billion dollars goes into mafia pockets in Sicily each year. About 80% of the businesses here still pay protection money each month; from about $300 for a small bar to around $1,400 for a large hotel. So whether we like it or not, Angie and I have been paying the mob indirectly all week.

A lot of the big action happens in Palermo, and since no major industry exists here, public money is the main target. Since World War II, public funds to rebuild the historical center have been diverted to lucrative building projects for the mob. The corrupt mayors literally sell permits to the mafia front men with no questions asked. Other than construction, the mob is also said to control other business sectors including transportation, hotel, and banking.

An hour south of Palermo is Corleone, another mafia hot bed. At one time this town had the highest murder rate in the world with 153 violent deaths in the late 40's. It is also the home to several notorious crime bosses, thus inspiring American novelist Mario Puzo to borrow the town’s name for his fictional crime family in The Godfather. It’s notoriety has only grown since then with not only the success of the films, but also the fact that one of it’s bosses, Salvatore “The Beast” Riina, rose to become the “boss of bosses”. While you certainly have a better chance of being run down by a Vespa than the mafia, traveling through towns like this can definitely get the heart pumping. I can almost guarantee that we were the only tourists in Corleone that day as this town is not exactly on any tour itineraries.

Most Italians believe that their elected officials are thieves motivated by greed, but nowhere is it more prevalent than Sicily. Everything has a price and most people can be bought. But it’s not just the mafia anymore. The mafia-mentality of bribes and kickbacks has become a way of everyday life here. Sicilians we’re told, “view wealth as an end in itself, and the methods to obtain it are of little importance as long as the deed goes unpunished”. It’s no secret that the criminal justice system in Italy does not work very well; and where there is no law, there is no sin.

During our travels we came across a couple of sights featured in The Godfather. Bar Vitelli was the Sicilian business owned by Michael Corleone's father-in-law and actually exists in Savoca, a small hill town a few miles north of our apartment in Taormina.