For the life of me, I cannot understand why visitors to Sicily so often choose to steer clear of Palermo, or at best relegate it to a scurried day trip.

Of course, this beautiful island has an abundance of competing attractions, but why would anyone turn their back on one of the most vibrant, enticing and rewarding of Italian cities?

Some 3,000 years under the rule of great civilisations, from Phoenician, Greek and Roman to Arab and Norman, have provided Palermo with an astonishingly rich artistic and architectural legacy, not to mention a splendidly varied cuisine.

True, it can be a challenging place for the timorous: hot, noisy, crumbling and borderline anarchic. (Forget about driving here unless you enjoy blood sports.)

Like Naples, its turbulent neighbour across the Tyrrhenian Sea, Palermo does not really do half measures. And if the people come across, on first acquaintance, as rather prickly, blame it on the endless jibes about the mafia by Italians from the more prosperous and orderly north. “If I never hear another of their crappy Godfather jokes again, it’ll still be too soon,” a weary organised-crime prosecutor once told me.

Yet throughout the terrible years of the mid-1990s, when I was reporting on bloody turf wars and the assassination of anti-mafia judges, Palermo’s spirit was never broken. One evening, I accompanied the recently elected mayor, Leoluca Orlando — proud Palermitan and outspoken enemy of cosa nostra — on a high-speed tour of the city in his armoured Alfa Romeo, gun-toting bodyguards in tow. He spoke movingly of his conviction that the traditional Sicilian values of “family, friendship and personal honour” would eventually restore Palermo to its rightful status as a great European metropolis.

Returning after an absence of several years, I was delighted to find the city’s renaissance well under way, with ambitious renovation projects gradually transforming areas where the wreckage of buildings bombed by the allies during the second world war had been left to rot for decades. Further damage was later inflicted by the so-called Sack of Palermo, when the mafia and corrupt local politicians conspired to raze many magnificent old buildings in the historic centre and concrete over public parks to make way for drab new blocks of flats.

Thanks in large part to Orlando, who kick-started the process by extracting hefty grants from the European Union, some of Palermo’s finest buildings, monuments and public spaces have already been lovingly restored. Don’t miss the opera house, Teatro Massimo, among the finest in Europe when it opened in 1897. After falling into disrepair in the mid-1970s, it closed for repairs that, thanks to inefficiency and corruption, took more than 20 years to complete. On a guided tour, you will almost certainly be reminded that its neoclassical exterior featured in one of the Godfather films.

The sprawling Lo Spasimo complex — by turns an unfinished church, a theatre, a leper colony, a hospital and a communal rubbish dump — has been rebuilt, providing an outstanding venue for exhibitions, concerts and other cultural events, though the trees that had taken root inside the roofless building are still there.

At the same time, squalid inner-city quarters such as La Kalsa (the name derives from the Arabic for “pure”) have been buoyed by the arrival of bars and restaurants, while squads of builders are busy ripping out the interiors of decaying apartment blocks for redevelopment. While this has not done away with the extreme poverty that still scars areas of the city, a journalist friend who grew up in La Kalsa, and only recently returned home after living in Milan, was thrilled by the changes he saw. “The place is humming with energy, and people seem much less closed and inward-looking,” he enthused over a ristretto, the shudderingly strong espresso of Italy’s deep south, at the elegant Antico Caffe Spinnato, where the same family has been purveying quality coffee and mouthwatering patisseries since 1860.

One of the most agreeable features of Palermo is that many of its historic treasures lie within reasonable walking distance of the centre, though in the fierce summer heat, the cheap and efficient AMAT bus network might be preferable. An ideal point of departure is Quattro Canti (Four Corners), a busy intersection that is overlooked on every side by a fine Spanish baroque facade featuring a riot of decorative carvings. Close by is the imposing Piazza Pretoria, known as the Square of Shame after the gleaming white statues around a spectacular fountain, which depict naked gods, goddesses and nymphs in bold anatomical detail. Long ago, it is said, scandalised nuns tried to chop off the rude bits.

From there, you can head west towards Palermo’s vast cathedral, which took centuries to complete and served as a mosque under Arab rule: an architectural hotchpotch, it looks much better from the inside. Another manageable trek brings you to the Palazzo dei Normanni (also called the Royal Palace), the jewel of Palermo’s cultural inheritance. The Byzantine mosaics in the chapel are breathtaking, set off by a magnificent carved ceiling in the Arab style; a must, though be prepared for crowds. From the nearby bus station, it is a short hop to the hill town of Monreale, and another gem: the 12th-century cathedral here is probably the finest example of Norman architecture in all Sicily, with a beautiful interior that includes entire walls covered by gilded mosaics.

Walking east from Quattro Canti towards the port, it is easy to get lost in the warren of narrow, dark alleys lined by dilapidated buildings strung with washing and strewn with rubbish. Then, quite unexpectedly, this may give way to a leafy square containing a glorious baroque church or a former palace.

For an idea of the splendour in which the Palermitan nobility once lived, drop by the Palazzo Mirto: its ornate ballroom was featured in The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s great novel of Sicily. On Piazza Marina, an outpost of Palermo’s university occupies the site where, under Spanish rule, victims of the Inquisition were tortured. If the heat gets too much, the gardens of the Villa Giulia are close by, providing welcome shade and a breeze off the sea.

When it comes to food, a local saying holds: “If you turn around and don’t find something delicious to eat, then you’re not in Palermo.” Climate and history, terrain and the sea have combined in a cuisine that ranks with the best in Italy. This has much to

do with the sheer quality of the raw materials: the city’s street markets overflow with an abundance of fresh local produce, from the most delicious tomatoes, oranges and olives I’ve ever tasted to pig’s feet, skinned kid’s heads and mounds of pinkish tripe. The best of the fish and seafood stalls resemble an artfully crafted tableau, with enormous red-fleshed swordfish and tuna posing among arrangements of glistening silver sardines, mackerel and an assortment of octopus, squid and succulent prawns.

Twenty years ago, the 700-year-old Vucciria market, off Piazza Caracciola, would have been heaving with shoppers and tourists. “The belly of Palermo and the heart too” was how Peter Robb described it in his fascinating book Midnight in Sicily.

Although the Vucciria is no longer the city’s premier market — many discerning locals prefer the Ballaro — it is still well worth a visit, ideally before the leisurely break for lunch. The butchers enjoy trotting out the old lines — “Pork so fresh, it’s still squealing” — and it is normally standing room only at the raucous Taverna Azzurra.

The nearby Sant’Andrea restaurant has a well-deserved reputation for imaginative cooking: its pasta con le sarde, a Sicilian favourite featuring fresh sardines, onions, fennel, pine nuts and raisins, takes some beating. Down by the old port, La Cambusa, on Piazza Marina, is equally renowned for fish and seafood, and there’s always stiff competition for one of its terrace tables.

On my last night in Palermo, friends took me to dinner at another Palermitan institution, the 175-year-old Antica Focacceria San Francesco. A police car has been stationed outside the ornate premises on Via Paternostro since the owner, Antonino Conticello, and his two sons defied mafia thugs trying to extract protection money a couple of years ago. Their testimony in open court led to long jail sentences for several crime bosses — an inspiring rejection of the menacing code of omerta.

My friends took charge of ordering what Sicilians call cibo povero — street food — and I was digging in with gusto until something that looked like a hamburger bun stuffed with thick strips of dark meat arrived. It was the house speciality, pane con la milza, which consists of sautéed beef spleen served with a slice of lemon and garnished with a pungent local cheese. With one of the Conticellos hovering, there was no escape, and I chomped away gallantly, fortified by gulps of a robust Sicilian red wine made with nero d’Avola grapes.

When I had cleared my plate, a family at the next table who had been looking on with interest rewarded me with a ringing “Bravissimo!”. To be honest, I felt I’d earned it.

Philip Jacobson travelled as a guest of Kirker Holidays

Palermo fights back – Philip Jacobson – From The Sunday Times – February 15, 2009 – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/holiday_type/breaks/article5716287.ece

The cross-dressing criminal, whose real name is Ugo Gabriele, was arrested by armed police during a raid in the southern port city of Naples, home to the Camorra, one of Italy’s four mafia groups.

Gabriele, 27, hardly conforms to the image of a gangster’s moll – his police mugshot shows him to be heavy set, with broad shoulders and a double chin.

But there is also an incongruous feminine touch – carefully sculpted eyebrows, blonde highlights in his hair and a light dab of lipstick.

Police said Gabriele was a mafia ‘capo’ or godfather who masterminded a drug dealing and prostitution racket in Naples for the Scissionisti clan of the Camorra.

Investigators said it was the first time they had arrested a transsexual mafia gangster.

Despite his chunky physique and masculine appearance he insisted on being addressed as Kitty, they said.

Gabriele was arrested with another 27 members of the Camorra, a powerful criminal organisation which was investigated by the Italian journalist Roberto Saviano in his best-selling book, Gomorrah, later made into a film.

“It’s a sign that the Camorra has changed not only its code of honour, which once forbade the killing of women and children; it has also changed its internal rules,” said the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The mafia has traditionally shown no tolerance for homosexuality. Last year a convicted mobster who was suspected of being gay because he wrote poetry in his cell was subjected to a horrific gang-rape by fellow prisoners.

Italian police arrest first known transsexual mafia mobster – By Nick Squires in Perugia – Last Updated: 2:22PM GMT 13 Feb 2009 – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4612516/Italian-police-arrest-first-known-transsexual-mafia-mobster.html

On Sept. 11, 1989, Staten Island real estate developer Fred Weiss was gunned down as he entered his vehicle in front of his New Springville home on Wellington Court.

Investigators say John “Jackie the Nose” D’Amico and Joseph “Joe the German” Watts were part of a death squad that carried out the hit.

Weiss, who was 49 at the time of his murder, was looking at seventy years in prison for his role in a Mafia-connected dumping operation in Arlington. Investigators believe he was killed when Gotti and company feared he might cooperate with federal authorities.

72-year-old D’Amico is charged with racketeering conspiracy and murdering a witness in a federal criminal case. D’Amico was already in federal custody after being picked up in a massive Gambino sweep last February.

Watts, 67, was arrested in Manhattan Wednesday and is also charged with murder.

Both men face life in prison if convicted.

via Two Members of Gambino Crime Family Charged in 1989 Murder.

BY DONNA BECK | wpix.com February 12, 2009 NEW YORK, N.Y. (WPIX)

Scruffy and unkempt, Antonio Caiazzo seemed like just another Italian who had come to Spain for the sun and good life. The reality was very different: he was one of the deadliest capos, or bosses, of the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia.

Caiazzo, 51, who was arrested in Madrid this week, was involved in a bloody turf war in the 1990s in which innocent bystanders were killed in shoot-outs on the streets of Naples.

In 2007 he was imprisoned for 12 years for Mafia association and aggravated extortion. Caiazzo went on the run, however, staying one step ahead of the law – until now.

His arrest has highlighted the growing menace posed by the Italian Mafia in Spain. Twelve capos have been arrested in the past three months, forcing police to admit that the Camorra and N’drangheta from Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia are now a very real presence on the Iberian peninsula.

Many come to Spain attracted by the opportunity to deal cocaine or to launder millions of euros through property. Others hope to escape the unwelcome attention of Italian investigators and Carabinieri by blending into the established Italian communities in Spain.

A growing awareness among Spanish judicial authorities about the organised criminals has forced police to cooperate with their Italian counterparts.

Among those arrested in Spain are Francesco Simeoli, Patrizio Bosti, Raffaele Laurenti, Mario Santafede, Marco Assegnati, and one of the Camorra “soldiers”, Paolo Pesce.

General Gaetano Maruccia, the head of the Neapolitan Carabinieri, said: “There are many camorristas in Spain. Some deal in drugs, others are fugitives. They know the terrain, they invest in construction and have highly efficient companies which allow them to launder money from extortion and drugs.”

Barcelona, with its large Italian population, has proved popular with Mafia bosses who want to disappear. Salvatore Zazo, 52, was arrested near La Sagrada Familia, Antoni GaudÍ’s unfinished Modernist church, earlier this month.

Zazo was the boss of the Mazzarella clan within the Camorra and was wanted for trafficking cocaine between Colombia and Naples. Within the Camorra there are up to 80 clans; Zazo negotiated drug deals between three of them, authorities said.

A source at the Catalan regional police told The Times: “These capos are coming to Barcelona because there is a large Italian population and they can disappear easily or they can operate more easily. It is also quite close to Italy – and the weather is quite nice, which is important.”

Roberto Saviano, the Italian journalist behind the bestselling book and film Gomorrah, about the Neapolitan Mafia, said that Spain has long been regarded by the Camorra as a crucial part of its criminal empire. He said that Camorra bosses refer to the Iberian peninsula as la costa nostra – our coast.

Mafia bosses seek sun and safety on la costa nostra – Graham Keeley in Barcelona – From The Times – January 31, 2009 – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5622165.ece

It was scary watching Charles Carneglia pour water into his glass yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court. After all, he was the mob’s go-to guy whenever John Gotti or his capos wanted a body dissolved in acid. One informant says he even tossed finger bones in a Gambino soldier’s soup once to prove he’d done the job.

Sounds like a monster. That’s precisely why Judge Jack Weinstein won’t allow the jury to know about Carneglia’s science projects. The 88-year-old jurist, who wrote the bible on evidence and is legendary for not wearing robes and refusing to sit up on the bench, is bending over backward to give Carneglia a fair trial on five charges of murder.

A wise man for a wiseguy. And Carneglia – whom a mob turncoat said yesterday had a reputation for being “capable,” Mafia lingo for “willing to kill” – benefits. Weinstein doesn’t want the jury to think Carneglia used acid to kill anybody. Well, maybe he did torture a couple of hoods by allegedly pouring acid on their feet with a turkey baster. But not kill with it.

Jurors heard from former Gambino capo Michael DiLeonardo, a third-generation mafioso, about the secret ritual of becoming a made member of the Mafia, “dripping your blood on a saint card” with a gun and a knife crossed before you. And Carneglia allegedly used both guns and knives on five victims.

The capo said he’s known as “Crazy Charles.” It doesn’t help that he’s got the full Manson beard and smiles frequently with his court-appointed defense lawyers, as if they’re sharing an inside joke.

“I can’t even look at him,” said Evelyn Colon, whose father, Jose Rivera Delgado, was an armored truck driver whom Carneglia is accused of killing at JFK. “My father was full of life – he was always laughing and dancing. If you admired his shirt, he would give it to you right there. It was 18 years ago, but I’m reliving it all over again.”

Memories are just as fresh for Dennis Quirk, head of the state court officers association, who brought three vans of fellow officers to remember Albert Gelb. Gelb was the city’s most-decorated court officer when prosecutors say Carneglia shot him to death as revenge for busting him for gun possession. “I remember his funeral like it was yesterday,” Quirk said.

Michael Cotillo’s family – or what’s left of it 30 years after Carneglia allegedly killed him at age 25 in a fit of temper – was in the second row. “His father, Pasquale, died of a broken heart five weeks after Michael was killed,” said his sister, Irene Cotillo.

They and the relatives of Salvatore Puma, whom Carneglia allegedly stabbed on a streetcorner in a fight over cash, and Louis DiBono, shot in the back of the head in the World Trade Center garage after he refused to meet with John Gotti, form a strange association. People Whose Lives Were Destroyed by Crazy Charles. Not exactly something to Facebook-friend about.

But the saddest thing about Charles Carneglia is that it was obvious he still believes it is DiLeonardo and other “rats,” “canaries” or turncoats who are betraying an oath. The oath of secrecy, of omerta. The disloyal ones, telling the world in a Brooklyn courtroom of their rituals and their business and their crimes and their passions. DiLeonardo couldn’t look him in the eye, but Carneglia stared at him and shook his head and gnashed his teeth, as if the former capo’s finally giving up on The Life was the crime.

“He’s pure evil,” said one courtroom observer of Carneglia.

Perhaps, but it may be more complex than that.

The psychologist Helen Palmer writes that what’s wrong with the world is not that some people are good and some are evil, but that people have different ideals that are completely at odds with one another and clash. Carneglia and the other wiseguys valued loyalty, and the ability to kill for it, above all. In this room full of ghosts, he’d better be doubting everything he believed in. Or he is a monster.

Judge’s fair-trial acid test – BY JOANNA MOLLOY – DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST – Thursday, January 29th 2009, 9:29 PM – http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/01/30/2009-01-30_judges_fairtrial_acid_test.html

Some people in Sicily who know a few things about networking.

In recent weeks, the Italian authorities have begun investigating Facebook discussion groups devoted to convicted Mafiosi, concerned that some members might be more than fans.

At the same time, a campaign calling on Facebook to remove pro-Mafia pages has been gaining momentum, while thousands of Facebook members have joined new anti-Mafia groups.

The debate spilled over from civil society to online society after recent news reports revealed that more than 2,000 people had joined Facebook interest groups hailing Salvatore Riina, the so-called boss of bosses known as Toto, who was arrested in 1993 after more than two decades on the run; and his successor, Bernardo Provenzano, arrested in 2006 after four decades in hiding. Both are serving multiple life sentences.

Such groups “are like sites that laud Hitler or Nazism,” said Rita Borsellino, whose brother, the magistrate Paolo Borsellino, spent his life investigating the Cosa Nostra before he was killed in 1992 by a car bomb that Riina was later convicted of ordering.

Borsellino said she thought Facebook was “damaged” by sites that glorified the Mafia. “These are people who are accused of serious crimes and are in prison,” she added.

Facebook’s member-generated groups encourage the free exchange of comments on a set theme. After receiving press attention, some groups disappeared, including “Toto Riina, the Real Boss of Bosses,” whose members wished Riina a merry Christmas and expressed their availability to work for him. Another group had called for the “immediate beatification” of Provenzano.

Facebook said it had taken down some Mafia-related content because it violated the site’s terms of use.

At the behest of anti-Mafia magistrates in Palermo, Italian authorities have contacted Facebook — which confirmed that it was working with the Italian officials who had opened an investigation.

“We’re taking it seriously without blowing it out of proportion,” said Maurizio De Lucia, a magistrate at the anti-Mafia prosecutor’s office in Palermo.

De Lucia said prosecutors were trying to determine whether members of pro-Mafia online groups were mostly “some kids who want to have fun” or gangsters looking for new ways to send coded messages to one another.

So far, the authorities said they had not found evidence of any criminal activity on the sites.

Last week, a member of Parliament’s anti-Mafia commission, Sen. Gianpiero D’Alia, called for a government investigation and urged his colleagues to remove their Facebook pages until the site took down pro-Mafia groups.

“We can’t accept in virtual reality what we don’t accept in real reality,” D’Alia said in a telephone interview.

Italy’s Mafia finding fans on Facebook – Rachel Donadio / New York Times – Thursday, January 22, 2009 – This story was found at: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090122/BIZ04/901220326/10

Rome — Italian police on Wednesday arrested 41 people as they broke up a Rome drug ring operated by Naples’ Camorra crime syndicate.

The gang brought in cocaine and cannabis from Spain and the Netherlands and supplied markets in Rome and Naples, recycling the profits in Roman property, officials said.

Police seized tens of millions of euros’ worth of laundered assets including apartments, cars and jewels.

They said the operation was further proof of the Mafia’s encroachment into the capital, where Mob-owned restaurants and villas have recently been found in chic locations like Via Veneto and the Spanish Steps.

An anti-Mafia official said the Camorra had established a ”pact” in Rome with Cosa Nostra of Sicily, ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Puglian Mob to split up turf and do business without stepping on each others’ toes.

”Rome has become a crossroads for illicit affairs,” a top police officer commented.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said the operation was ”a tough blow to the criminal infiltration of this city”.

Camorra drug ring smashed in Rome – ANSA – 2009-01-21 14:00 – This story was found at: http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-01-21_121297862.html

Sam Fasulo, 37, died Sunday after being shot several times while he was driving in a sports utility vehicle in Montreal North on Friday afternoon.

No arrests have been made in the shooting and investigators are trying to track down a pale coloured sports utility vehicle that is believed to have been used in the homicide. Several shots were fired into Fasulo’s Jeep.

Montreal police Constable Laurent Gingras said investigators have little in terms of a description of a white man who witnesses saw inside the suspect vehicle before it sped away.

Fasulo only recently finished serving a four-year sentence he received in 2004 for his leading role in a major drug trafficking ring that sold crack cocaine and heroin out of Italian cafés in St. Leonard and St. Michel.

When police carried out search warrants in the 2003 operation dubbed Project Espresso they seized a large quantity of drugs but also uncovered a cache of weapons that included automatic and semi-automatic firearms.

According to National Parole Board decision prepared when he was granted a full release in 2005, Fasulo was considered the leader of the highly organized drug trafficking ring that brought in $100,000 a week. The Montreal police had evidence it had operated quietly for years. It was busted after residents who lived near the cafés began complaining that the drugs sold out of the cafés brought problems like prostitution and used syringes to their neighbourhoods.

One of the parole decisions notes “(A) police report also indicates a tie to traditional Italian organized crime, which (Fasulo denied).”

Despite the denial, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit investigation Project Colisée uncovered links Fasulo had with Francesco Arcadi, the mob boss with the Rizzuto Clan.

In 2002, Arcadi was recorded giving orders to Fasulo to resolve a problem after a drug dealer with ties to the mob was roughed up inside a Montreal bar.

Arcadi was recorded telling Fasulo to go immediately to the bar but to not start punching right away. Instead, Fasulo was told, their adversary should only get a warning.

“You tell him: ” Don’t you touch this fellow or I will slit your throat like a goat,” Arcadi told Fasulo.

Subsequent wiretapped conversations suggested Fasulo solved Arcadi’s problem in under an hour.

Arcadi, 55, is currently serving a 15-year prison term he received in October after pleading guilty to conspiracy and gangsterism charges filed against him in Project Colisée.

Latest homicide victim had ties to local Mafia: police – By Paul Cherry, The Gazette – January 20, 2009 – This story was found at: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Latest+homicide+victim+ties+local+Mafia+police/1198607/story.html

Barrot, accompanied by the Bulgarian EC Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva, spoke for reporters at the Radisson hotel in downtown Sofia.

“Your judiciary system is producing very few positive results,” Barrot stated in the presence of the Bulgarian Justice Minister Miglena Tacheva, the Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev and members of the Bulgarian Supreme Judiciary Council.

Barrot added that the effectiveness of the fight against organized crime depended on the effectiveness of the judiciary system.

“There is some movement in Bulgaria, but the real reforms are still upcoming,” the EC Vice-President stated.

Barrot’s main objections towards Bulgaria include: obsolete Penalty Code, very few trials leading to serious and real convictions for the mafia bosses or for corrupted individuals.

“The organized crime is poison; the mafia is an obstacle to the development of the economy. Your task is very difficult since deep reforms cannot be achieved in one day,” Barrot pointed out.

The EC Vice-President further reminded that according to 2008 data of “Transparency International”, Bulgaria ranked 72nd in Europe for its institutions’ commitment to fight corruption, while Denmark and Finland took the leading positions.

“I love your country. I am in Sofia as a friend,” Barrot concluded.

EC Vice President: Bulgaria Judiciary System Produces Few Results – 20 January 2009, Tuesday – This story was found at: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=100577

Some people in Sicily who know a few things about networking.

In recent weeks, the Italian authorities have begun investigating Facebook discussion groups devoted to convicted Mafiosi, concerned that some members might be more than fans.

At the same time, a campaign calling on Facebook to remove pro-Mafia pages has been gaining momentum, while thousands of Facebook members have joined new anti-Mafia groups.

The debate spilled over from civil society to online society after recent news reports revealed that more than 2,000 people had joined Facebook interest groups hailing Salvatore Riina, the so-called boss of bosses, known as Totò, who was arrested in 1993 after more than two decades on the run; and his successor, Bernardo Provenzano, arrested in 2006 after four decades in hiding. Both are serving multiple life sentences.

Such groups “are like sites that laud Hitler or Nazism,” said Rita Borsellino, whose brother, the magistrate Paolo Borsellino, spent his life investigating the Cosa Nostra before he was killed in 1992 in a car bombing that Mr. Riina was later convicted of ordering.

Ms. Borsellino said she thought Facebook was “damaged” by sites that glorified the Mafia. “These are people who are accused of serious crimes and are in prison,” she added.

Facebook’s member-generated groups encourage the free exchange of comments on a set theme. After receiving press attention, some groups disappeared, including “Totò Riina, the Real Boss of Bosses,” whose members wished Mr. Riina a merry Christmas and expressed their availability to work for him. Another group had called for the “immediate beatification” of Mr. Provenzano.

Facebook said it had taken down some Mafia-related content because it violated the site’s terms of use. Under those rules, members agree not to use Facebook “in any unlawful manner” or to make available content the company deems “harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable.”

Others groups are closed to general membership, including “Fans of Totò Riina, a Misunderstood Man,” which declares itself “against false moralists.”

To the best of anyone’s knowledge, no convicted Mafiosi have their own Facebook pages, though it is tempting to imagine the status updates: “Totò Riina is looking to buy a judge.” “Bernardo Provenzano wishes he didn’t have to serve so many life sentences.”

But the Italian authorities are not laughing. At the behest of anti-Mafia magistrates in Palermo, they have contacted Facebook — which confirmed that it was working with the Italian officials who had opened an investigation.

“We’re taking it seriously without blowing it out of proportion,” said Maurizio De Lucia, a magistrate at the anti-Mafia prosecutor’s office in Palermo.