Domenico "Mimmo" Raccuglia (; born October 27, 1964, in

Altofonte Altofonte (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Parcu'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about southwest of Palermo. Altofonte borders the following municipalities: Belmonte Mez ...

), nicknamed ("the veterinarian"), is a member of

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. He was a fugitive and included on Italy's

most wanted list A most wanted list is a list of criminals and alleged criminals who are believed to be at large and are identified as a law enforcement agency's highest priority for capture. The list can alert the public to be watchful, and generates publicity ...

since 1996, until his capture on November 15, 2009, near Trapani.Sicilian police arrest Mafia boss
BBC News, November 15, 2009

Biography

Mafia career

Raccuglia is the current boss of

Mafia family and the

mandamento Mandamento may refer to: * Mandamento (administrative district) * Mandamento (Sicilian Mafia) See also * Capomandamento Within Cosa Nostra a mandamento is traditionally a district of three geographically contiguous Mafia cosche (families contr ...

San Giuseppe Jato San Giuseppe Jato ( Sicilian: ''San Giuseppi''; Latin: ''Iaetia'') is a village in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, southern Italy. The village sits in a hilly region of Palermo's hinterland, from the Sicilian capital. History The ...

Partinico Partinico ( Sicilian: ''Partinicu'', Ancient Greek: ''Parthenikòn'', Παρθενικόν) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is from Palermo and from Trapani. Main sights *Church of ''S ...

, and is considered to be the heir of

Giovanni Brusca Giovanni Brusca (; born 20 February 1957) is an Italian mobster and former member of the Corleonesi clan of the Sicilian Mafia. He had a major role in the 1992 murders of Antimafia Commission prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and businessman Ignazio ...

. After the arrest of the Mafia's boss of bosses,

Bernardo Provenzano Bernardo Provenzano (; 31 January 1933 – 13 July 2016) was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and ''de facto'' the boss of bosses (''il capo ...

, his name was mentioned as one of the possible successors together with

Matteo Messina Denaro Matteo Messina Denaro (; born 26 April 1962), also known as ''Diabolik'', is a Sicilian Mafia boss. He got his nickname from the Italian comic book character of the same name. He is considered to be one of the new leaders of Cosa Nostra after t ...

and

Salvatore Lo Piccolo Salvatore Lo Piccolo (; born 20 July 1942), also known as "the Baron" (), is a Sicilian '' mafioso'' and one of the most powerful bosses of Palermo, Sicily. Lo Piccolo rose through the ranks of the Palermo mafia throughout the 1980s and he becam ...

.Mafia: i capi, dopo gli arresti
, Left, June 28, 2006
DNI Open Source Center, November 19, 2007 Raccuglia has received a life sentence for the murder of Girolamo La Barbera, the father of pentito

Gioacchino La Barbera Gioacchino La Barbera (born November 1959 in Altofonte) is a member of the Mafia who became a pentito. He was one of the key witnesses in the trial against the killers of Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone. La Barbera was born in Altofonte, in the ...

who was one of the key witnesses in the trial on the murder of

Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...

, in June 1994. (Giovanni Brusca received 13 years for ordering the killing). In 2004 he received another life sentence for a series of murders in the 1990s. The third life sentence, he received for his involvement with the kidnap and killing of the 11-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo – the son of the

pentito ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...

(a mafioso turned state witness)

Santino Di Matteo Santino Di Matteo (born 7 December 1954), also known as ''Mezzanasca'', is an Italian former member of the Sicilian Mafia from the town of Altofonte in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Di Matteo took part in the killing of Antimafia judge ...

.Vent'anni all'emergente Raccuglia
La Repubblica, November 14, 2007 The boy had been kidnapped on the orders of Giovanni Brusca in November 1993 to force Di Matteo to retract his testimony. The boy was killed in January 1996 after 779 days in captivity – his body was dissolved in a barrel of acid to destroy the evidence.

Power dispute in Partinico

According to the pentita

Giusy Vitale Giuseppa Vitale (born in Partinico, 1972), better known as Giusy, is the sister of Mafia bosses Leonardo, Michele and Vito Vitale from Partinico, Sicily. Giusy took over the command over the clan when her brothers were in prison or fugitives, desp ...

, sister of mafioso

Vito Vitale Salvatore "Vito" Vitale (; born June 20, 1959 in Partinico), also known as ''Fardazza'', is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. For a while he was considered the heir of Totò Riina and was closely connected to Leoluca Bagarella.

, in 1998 some “ young Turks’’ within Cosa Nostra wanted to set aside

. Next to Vitale they were

, Mimmo Raccuglia and Matteo Messina Denaro. The younger bosses wanted to take strategical decisions without prior consent of Provenzano."La nuova mafia era contro Provenzano"
La Sicilia, June 4, 2005 The mandamento of Partinico is disputed between the Vitale clan and the Lo Iacono clan. Raccuglia supports the Vitale family – historical allies of

Totò Riina Salvatore Riina (; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called (, Totò being the diminutive of Salvatore), was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s ...

– while Provenzano backed the other side until his arrest in April 2006. In October 2005, Vitale's rival

Maurizio Lo Iacono Maurizio is an Italian masculine given name, derived from the Roman name Mauritius. Mauritius is a derivative of Maurus, meaning ''dark-skinned, Moorish''. List of people with the given name Maurizio Art and music * Maurizio Arcieri (born 1945), ...

was shot in Partinico in his car by two men on a scooter with a sawn-off shotgun and a .38 pistol. Police speculate that the murder had been ordered by Mimmo Raccuglia.Delitti di Partinico, nuovi scenari
Giornale di Sicilia, October 5, 2005
La Repubblica, February 13, 2008

Leading Mafia boss

After the arrest of an older generation bosses of Cosa Nostra – such as Provenzano, Lo Piccolo and

Antonio Rotolo Antonino "Nino" Rotolo (born January 3, 1946) is a Sicilian Mafia boss from the Pagliarelli area in Palermo that traditionally was under the control of the Motisi Mafia family. Rotolo was the underboss of Matteo Motisi, but according to some penti ...

– in 2006 and 2007, Raccuglia chances of becoming one of the possible leading Mafia bosses improved.'Vincere Cosa nostra? Arresti e lavoro'. Intervista al magistrato De Lucia
, Ateneonline, November 20, 2007 However, according to the assistant prosecutor Francesco Del Bene, Raccuglia lacks the armed forces and economic power to really rise to the position of a leading boss of Cosa Nostra."Carisma, militari e piccioli": ecco l'identikit del capo di Cosa nostra
, Ateneonline, November 23, 2007 According to Antonio Ingroia, one of the prosecutors of the Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia (DDA) of Palermo, the main leading figures in Cosa Nostra at the moment,

Giovanni Riina Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

, Raccuglia,

Pietro Tagliavia Pietro Tagliavia (born in 1978) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age, he is considered to be one of the upcoming leading Mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo.Gianni Nicchi Giovanni "Gianni" Nicchi (; born 16 February 1981 in Turin) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age – he is nicknamed ("the little boy") – he is considered to be one of the leading mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo. He was on ...

, are still too young to be recognized as leading bosses of the organisation.Lo Piccolo, il fautore della strategia della “rimmersione”
, Intervista ad Antonio Ingroia, Antimafia Duemila n. 56, Anno VII° Numero 5 – 2007 Raccuglia was thought to hide in the area under his command, where he oversees his affairs and the ongoing dispute over Partinico. In April 2009, police raided a Byzantine monastery in Piana degli Albanesi in an effort to arrest Raccuglia, but he was nowhere to be found.Blitz al monastero sulle tracce del boss
La Repubblica, April 11, 2009 He was arrested on November 15, 2009, in

Calatafimi Calatafimi-Segesta, commonly known as simply Calatafimi, is a small town in the province of Trapani, in Sicily, southern Italy. The full name of the municipality was created in 1997 and is meant to highlight the presence within its territory of th ...

in the

Province of Trapani Trapani ( it, Provincia di Trapani, scn, Pruvincia di Tràpani; officially ''Libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it ...

, in Sicily, after 15 years of being a fugitive.Mafia, arrestato boss Raccuglia, uno degli eredi di Provenzano
La Repubblica, November 15, 2009 Onlookers applauded as he was paraded onto the street in Palermo by balaclava-clad police whose colleagues celebrated their by cheering from an upstairs window.Top Sicilian Mafia fugitive Domenico Raccuglia captured in Italy
The Times, November 16, 2009

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raccuglia, Domenico 1964 births Living people People from Altofonte Gangsters from the Province of Palermo Sicilian mafiosi sentenced to life imprisonment