San Mauro Castelverde, a village on 1,000 meters above sea level in the Madonie mountain range in the province of Palermo, is the stronghold of the Farinella Mafia family that goes back to the 19th century.

[2] He was a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission since the late 1970s, according to the pentiti Salvatore Cancemi, Francesco Di Carlo and Giovanni Brusca.

An old fashioned mafia boss, Don Peppino, did not allow his men to extort local shopkeepers, which was common among mafiosi from the countryside.

Revenues were not considered worthwhile compared to the money that could be extorted from companies that won public tenders in construction.

As member of the Commission he was held responsible for the killing of the two prominent anti-mafia judges Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone, receiving life sentences.