VINE growers in Sicily are being coaxed by the Mafia to abandon their vineyards for a much more lucrative crop - cannabis, say local investigators. In a full-page report yesterday, the newspaper La Repubblica said an area stretching for "thousands of square kilometres" had been nicknamed il triangolo d'oro di marijuana. The capital of the "golden triangle" is Partinico, a Mafia heartland 12 miles from Palermo, where cannabis grows in greenhouses among the vineyards. During the most recent of 10 seizures at cannabis plantations in the area, paramilitary police arrested nine farmers, including Antonio Bonomo, son of Don Giuseppe Bonomo, the Mafia godfather of Partinico. [continues 146 words]
THE increasing popularity of British-style pubs is being blamed for Italian youngsters hitting the bottle. According to figures released by the Permanent Observatory on Young People and Alcohol in Rome, 12 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds now have a "serious drink problem". The trend, described as an alien drinking culture and a "worrying new phenomenon", is being blamed on the increasing availability of alcohol and youngsters' growing desire to get drunk. Roberto Montalto, the director of the National Association Against Alcoholism, called it the "the culture of getting wasted". He said: "Alcohol is a drug and is often the most readily available and affordable. Italian youngsters are treating it like ecstasy." [continues 275 words]
PRINCE Serge of Yugoslavia, a grandson of the last king of Italy, should stand trial on charges of drug dealing, say Turin prosecutors. The ruling is a fresh blow for Italy's troubled house of Savoy weeks after it was rocked by murder. The 36-year-old son of Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, daughter of King Umberto II, was allegedly caught by detectives last year buying cocaine in Turin, where, despite having an official Monte Carlo residence, he has a home and works as a design consultant. Magistrates say they have photographs to back their claims, together with evidence from witnesses. [continues 258 words]
ITALY'S institutions, and especially its police, yesterday gloated over the re-arrest of Pasquale Cuntrera, the Mafia drugs baron whose disappearance in a wheelchair triggered a political storm last week. Cuntrera, 63, was caught with his wife by Italian and local agents near Malaga in Spain, 18 days after vanishing from Italy. He disappeared after walking free on a technicality from Parma prison, days before a supreme court decision to uphold his 21-year sentence. News of his release on May 6 was faxed to Sicilian magistrates, who should have ordered his re-arrest pending the imminent court decision. But for five days the fax sat unseen on someone's desk. When it was finally noticed, Cuntrera, dubbed European's number one drugs boss, had already fled Italy. [continues 159 words]