Sicilian Mafia, also called Cosa Nostra (Italian: Our Thing) or black hand, hierarchically structured organization of criminals in Sicily, Italy. The Sicilian Mafia is made up of a coalition of criminal organizations called “families” or “clans” in English and cosche (singular, cosca) in Italian which engage in extortion, smuggling, gambling, and the mediation of disagreements between other criminals. The term Mafia has become synonymous in English with organized crime, but technically Mafia refers only to the Sicilian organization and its Sicilian American counterpart in the United States. In 1984 former Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta became a government witness and revealed to authorities
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Rome: The biggest mafia trial in more than 30 years is beginning this week when more than 350 alleged mobsters and their collaborators face justice in a huge, purpose-built courtroom in southern Italy.
On trial will be members of the Ndrangheta, a network of clans based in Calabria, in the toe of the Italian boot.
It is regarded as the most powerful of Italy s mafia organisations, having surpassed the more famous Cosa Nostra of Sicily.
The Ndrangheta mafia, based in Calabria, are considered much more powerful than the Cosa Nostra.
Credit:AP It s the most dangerous and it is present in every continent, said Nicola Gratteri, a leading prosecutor in the trial who has lived under police protection for 30 years. And it is the richest because it has a virtual monopoly on the importation of cocaine into Europe, he said, while guarded by three plain-clothes police officers wearing black balaclavas to hide their identity.