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A court in the southern Italian city of Potenza ordered the
arrest of Francesco Palmeri, 61, and seven others for trying to
extort 1 million euros ($1.23 million) from an Italian
businessman, according to the arrest warrant seen by Reuters.
Italian mafia groups like the Sicilian Cosa Nostra or the
Calabrian 'Ndrangheta have traditionally worked actively with
their American cousins but arrests have slowed since the heyday
of trans-Atlantic mob cooperation in the 1980s.
"This demonstrates the international reach of the 'Ndrangheta
and Cosa Nostra and their still-strong ties with the historic
New York mob families," Andrea Grassi, an investigator for SCO,
an Italian anti-mafia police unit, told Reuters.
U.S. enforcement collaborated with the SCO in the trans-Atlantic
sting. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of
New York issued an arrest warrant to allow Italy to seek his
extradition, an Italian official said. He confirmed on Thursday
the arrest had taken place overnight.
Sicilian-born Palmeri is considered a leading member of one of
New York's most powerful mob families, the Gambinos, the arrest
warrant says, citing the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The rare case of attempted international extortion emerged
during a separate investigation into a trans-Atlantic drug
smuggling and money laundering ring that involved members of the
'Ndrangheta and the Gambinos.
Palmeri made two separate trips to Italy in 2013 to put pressure
on the owner of a southern Italian company that plans and
installs electrical systems for oil platforms. The business
owner also received a series of letters from "friends in
Brooklyn" asking him for money, according to the warrant.
The Italian businessman was strong-armed about a loan he was
given in the 1980s, the warrant says, which police said likely
came from international drug traffickers connected to deceased
New York mobster Cesare Bonventre, who was born in the same
Sicilian town as Palmeri, Castellamare del Golfo.
Bonventre, known as "The Tall Guy", was a high-ranking member of
another New York crime family, the Bonannos, before being
murdered during an internal power struggle in 1984.
The maximum sentence for criminal conspiracy to commit
international extortion aggravated by mafia membership is about
20 years, investigators said.
(Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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