Antonio Rotolo

The morphine base was refined into heroin at laboratories in Sicily and smuggled to the United States to feed the famous Pizza Connection.

[8] He was also a member of the hit team that killed the communist politician Pio La Torre and the prefect of Palermo, general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, according to the pentito Calogero Ganci.

In a message referring to an important decision for Cosa Nostra, Provenzano told Rotolo: "It's up to you, me and Lo Piccolo to decide this thing.

Among the other arrestees were Rotolo's right-hand men Antonino Cinà (who had been the personal physician of Salvatore Riina and Provenzano) and the builder Francesco Bonura.

In this way, Rotolo was free to run his business, extracting protection money from Chinese shopkeepers in Palermo and persuading the owner of the Migliore chain to pay up and even join an anti-racket association.

Inside, there was a table, eight plastic chairs and anti-bugging devices which, the eavesdropped conversations revealed, Rotolo thought would make it impossible for police to listen in.

[2][9] The police investigations indicated a clash between Rotolo and Salvatore Lo Piccolo over a request from the Inzerillo family to be allowed to return to Palermo.

Rotolo had passed a death sentence on Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro – and had procured the barrels of acid that are used to dissolve the bodies of slain rivals.

[11] According to the national Antimafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso, Nino Rotolo "was planning a series of murders to annihilate the family of Salvatore Lo Piccolo and become the undisputed boss of the clan in the city".

"The police and the special anti-mafia prosecution service in Palermo have forestalled the outbreak of a genuine war inside Cosa Nostra", said centre-left MP and Mafia expert, Giuseppe Lumia, vice-president of the Antimafia Commission.