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“Cosa Nostra Diamonds” - Sicilian mafia – Louis Liebenberg - Part 6
https://mafiainafrica.investigativecenters.org/2015/04/16/cosa-nostra-diamonds.html
Apr 16, 2015
Below are excerpts
That family is flying
--The Ferrante seem unafraid of the North Gauteng High Court of Pretoria, and Liebenberg’s lawsuit. The family ‘s business keeps going, becoming more stable and more profitable than ever.--
Zimbabwe, DRC, Angola, South Africa, Ghana: the Ferrante are spread all over Africa’s most important diamond centres.
The Ferrante must also feel safe in regards to the Italian Justice. Antonino is jailed, awaiting trail, but they cannot be labelled as mafiosi, they have never been investigated for that, and South Africa does not recognise such a crime.
Italian history teaches the Mafia grew stronger because it learned how to go global, how to become a capitalist venture while not losing its cultural roots and its criminal strongholds. The Cosa Nostra is ruthless at home, controlling the Island of Sicily through extortion, corruption and violence and yet makes wide use of white-collars abroad, from the Italian peninsula to New York, from Germany to Africa. Its power comes from an army of people serving the aim, and because family ties are mostly regarded as sacred. Even if set apart from continents and years of silence, a Sicilian family might always be called upon for assistance. Whether to provide it, is a matter of choice. And the Ferrante’s decision to embark on a venture with Antonino Messicati Vitale, a convicted mafia boss, raises questions. Both Pina and Salvatore Ferrante refused answering to IRPI questions, which were exploring the issue. Pina only commented “I am not in the diamond industry”.
Antonino’s money is filthy, earned through drugs, extortion and violence but thanks to his family ties he can ensure Cosa Nostra’s hand in the diamond trade remains firmly clenched. For him, the family connection means he can exploit Africa’s resources following a new type of colonialism. Gangster capitalism is fascinating and profitable to others because of the ease and speed in which capital can be injected, laundered, and tripled in an endless circuit.
--Unfortunately, the entry of Mafioso, directly or indirectly, into the regions still emerging from apartheid, civil war and poverty far-reaching and unhappy consequences. For every already rich Liebenberg allegedly swindled out of his wealth, there are thousands of ordinary people who do not benefit from the properly taxed and distributed wealth their countries offer the world.--
The majority of the documents used for this story have been uploaded by IRPI-ANCIR and can be now read on sourceAFRICA, https://sourceafrica.net/public/search/tag:%20%22mafiaafrica%22.