Corleone calls for the removal of a convicted mafioso in order to protect the town from its bad reputation

The government of Corleone in Sicily is urging for the removal of Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, also known as Salvuccio, a convicted mafioso and son of Italy’s infamous mobster, Salvatore “Toto” Riina, in order to protect the town’s reputation from its past association with the mafia. Salvuccio was imprisoned for nearly nine years on charges of extortion, money laundering, and mafia association, and was released from prison recently. After returning to his hometown of Corleone, the local government passed a resolution calling for his removal from the town as the community seeks to distance itself from its association with the mafia.

The resolution stated that Salvuccio has never distanced himself from his father’s crimes and the reputational damage caused to the city by the Riina family is serious and difficult to recover from. The decision to remove Salvuccio now rests with magistrates in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, after the resolution was forwarded to law enforcement officers.

Toto Riina, known as the Beast, was the de facto leader of the Corleone crime family in the mid-1970s. He controlled the inflow of narcodollars to his rivals in Palermo and assassinated his criminal rivals on an unprecedented scale in the 1980s and 90s. Riina also targeted prosecutors, journalists, and judges who stood in his way, and is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, including a 13-year-old boy who was kidnapped, strangled, and dissolved in acid. He remained the undisputed boss of the Sicilian mafia until he died in prison in November 2017.

Salvuccio’s brother, Giovanni, was ordered by their father to strangle a kidnapped businesswoman in the countryside when he was only 19 years old. It marked Giovanni’s formal entry into the Sicilian mafia, and he was sentenced to life in prison in 1996. Salvuccio, convicted of mafia membership in 2004, lived in the north of Italy until his recent return to Corleone.

In 2016, Salvuccio wrote a controversial book entitled Riina Family Life, which prompted store owners from Sicily to Milan to post signs advising customers that the book would not be found on their shelves.