Mariano Tullio Troia (;

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, September 3, 1933 –

Viterbo Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history. ...

, March 27, 2010) was a member of the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...

. He was on the "

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 ...

" of the Italian ministry of the Interior since 1992 until his arrest in Palermo in September 1998.Nuovo colpo alla mafia arrestato il boss Troia
La Repubblica, September 15, 1998

High ranking Mafia boss

Mariano Tullio Troia was the son of Mariano Troia, the powerful Mafia boss that controlled the San Lorenzo neighbourhood of Palermo. Mariano Troia had been, alongside his allies Antonino Matranga of Resuttana, Vincenzo Nicoletti of Pallavicino,

Pietro Torretta Pietro Torretta (ca. 1912 – October 3, 1975) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Uditore district in Palermo and one of the protagonists in the First Mafia War. He was initially considered to be the m ...

of Uditore and

Michele Cavataio Michele Cavataio (18 March 1929 – 10 December 1969), also known as ''Il cobra'' (The cobra) was an Italian mobster and powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Acquasanta mandamento in Palermo and was a member of the first S ...

from Acquasanta, one of the instigators of the

First Mafia War The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvato ...

which broke out in Palermo in the early 1960s. Troia fled to Milan in the subsequent police crackdown, where he later died of natural causes in 1967, shortly after turning himself in. Despite his father's involvement with that group, most of whom was killed off in subsequent reprisals by the Mafia, Mariano Tullio Troia was allowed to rise up the ranks in Cosa Nostra. For a long time Troia remained unknown to police investigators although he had reached a major role within the organization as head of 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 ...

of the neighbourhood of San Lorenzo. He was one of the most trusted lieutenants of the so-called

boss of bosses ''Boss of Bosses'' is a 2001 American made-for-TV movie about the life of former Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano directed by Dwight H. Little. It stars Chazz Palminteri as Paul Castellano, Patricia Mauceri as his wife Nina, Mark Margol ...

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 ...

. In the early 1990s his name emerged in statements of some collaborators of justice (

pentiti ''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 ...

), such as

Gaspare Mutolo Gaspare Mutolo (Palermo, February 5, 1940) is a Sicilian mafioso, also known as "Asparino".Giuseppe Marchese Giuseppe Marchese (born 12 December 1963) is a former member of the Sicily, Sicilian Sicilian Mafia, Mafia, who turned state witness (pentito). Giuseppe ''Pino'' Marchese was born in Palermo in a family with long-standing ties to the Mafia. His fat ...

. He substituted

Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino (Palermo, May 21, 1941 – Milan, November 30, 1996), also known as ''u tignusu'' (the bald one), was a member of the Mafia and head of the San Lorenzo mandamento. Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino was considered the deputy of To ...

who was jailed in 1986 as head of the San Lorenzo mandamento and on the

Sicilian Mafia Commission The Sicilian Mafia Commission (Italian: ''Commissione provinciale''), known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Sicilian Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicili ...

.Ordinanza di custodia cautelare in carcere
, Tribunale di Caltanissetta, Ufficio del giudice per le indagini preliminari, April 11, 1994 Police received detailed information from Alberto Lo Cicero, former driver and confidant of Troia. Lo Cicero said that some Commission members of Cosa Nostra, including Riina, met in Troia’s villa in San Lorenzo. Lo Cicero became a pentito in August 1992 after surviving an ambush on December 20, 1991, and the killing of Antimafia judges

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 ...

and

Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; scn, Pàulu Borsellino; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 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 t ...

in May and July 1992.Ville, terreni, azioni: scoperti i prestanome del "tesoro" di Riina
Corriere della Sera, March 13, 1993

Fugitive and arrest

In October 1992, he was indicted for the murder of

Christian Democrat Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

politician

Salvo Lima Salvatore Achille Ettore Lima (; 23 January 1928 – 12 March 1992) was an Italian politician from Sicily who was associated with, and murdered by, the Sicilian Mafia. He is often just referred to as Salvo Lima. According to the ''pentito'' ...

, the right hand man of Prime minister

Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...

. His name also appeared as backer of the killing of

Mario Prestifilippo Mario Prestifilippo (; – September 29, 1987) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was briefly the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia Family after Giuseppe Greco was murdered in 1985. He played a significant role in the Second Mafia War of the e ...

and Giovanni Fici, assassinated in 1987 and 1988 to prevent retaliation after the elimination of the Mafia killer Pino "Little Shoe" Greco. He was put on Italy’s most wanted list. Italian police claimed Troia had moved to South Africa where he was being harboured by Salvatore Morettino, a naturalised South African citizen living in

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada * Houghton Townshi ...

(a wealthy suburb of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

), according to Western Cape police intelligence in a March 1998 briefing.Palazzolo: The mobster from Burgersdorp
''Mail & Guardian'', November 19, 1999 He was also in contact with Vito Roberto Palazzolo, a Sicilian businessman with ties to the Mafia.Palermo Draft Judgement 5th July 2006
Presumed Guilty website (accessed March 19, 2011)Un "impero" sudafricano per il boss
Corriere della Sera, July 5, 1998 He was arrested in Palermo on September 15, 1998. At the time, he was considered to be the number 3 of the Sicilian Mafia. He was captured on the second floor of a house in the Tommaso Natale neighbourhood in bed with the lady of the house while the woman's husband was asleep in downstairs in a room with her daughters.Catturato il boss regista di 40 omicidi
Corriere della Sera, September 16, 1998

Death

Troia died on March 27, 2010, in the prison hospital of

.E' morto il boss Mariano Tullio Troia
Antimafia Duemila, April 7, 2010 He participated in or, as member of the Commission, was held responsible for some 40 murders.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Troia, Mariano Tullio 1933 births 2010 deaths Sicilian mafiosi Sicilian Mafia Commission