Is The Mafia The Real Pioneers In Using Drones For Lethal Attacks

How Sicily’s Mafia Plotted To Conduct Hits With Drones -- National Post

A Mafia turncoat has revealed that Sicily’s Cosa Nostra was a pioneer in the use of killer drones, testing bomb-loaded remote-controlled aircraft in the early 1990s.

Two decades before the U.S. began using Reaper drones to strike terrorist targets in the Middle East, mobsters in Palermo were testing ways to kill rivals from the sky, Gaspare Spatuzza, a former mafioso, told a court Wednesday. Spatuzza said he was ordered by one of the Graviano brothers — two Palermo bosses in the 1990s — to buy and test radio-controlled aircraft with explosives attached.

“Graviano ordered me to buy a radio-controlled aircraft,” he said. “He said others had already bought them and we needed to carry out tests for transforming them into flying bombs by loading them with explosives.”

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My Comment:  I guess they wanted something like this. Talk about being ahead of your time.

Italy's Mafia Thrives In Global Financial Meltdown

People march in remembrance of the victims of organized crime in Naples. An alleged boss of the Camorra mafia based in the Italian city of Naples has been arrested by police at an upmarket apartment in Rome, Italian press said. (AFP/File/Mario Laporta)

From Yahoo News/AP:

NAPLES, Italy – While businesses around the world are hunkering down for survival, the Italian mob is living a golden moment.

Italy's various organized crime syndicates — often lumped together colloquially as Mafia Inc. — are gobbling up gas stations, muscling in on supermarket franchises, making loans to cash-starved businesses, taking over trattorias and acquiring buildings in swank neighborhoods in Rome and Milan, investigators say.

These mobsters have lots of what is in short supply for many businesses these days — liquidity — as well as centuries-honed expertise in preying on the vulnerable, whose ranks are swelling in the current financial crisis.

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My Comment: Criminal enterprises and organizations are responsible for much of the world's conflicts and suffering. From Drug Cartels to criminal organizations that exploit people's weaknesses, this part of mankind has always been with us .... and probably always will be.