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Nor is the Mafia any less active in Italy, where organized crime has a hold on every major city. In Sicily, the old Mafia has infested every aspect of the island's life. Once known for its poverty, Sicily may now be addicted to a rich diet of drug money. Some Sicilians, in fact, wonder how anything will ever get done without the Mafia to navigate a hopelessly tangled bureaucracy. As a Palermo businessman said last week, "Our city administration is so bad that without the 'friends of friends,' how are we ever going to get anything accomplished? At least with the Mafia, you knew how to fiddle it."
Prosecutors in the U.S. and Italy acknowledge the Mafia's continuing influence but are convinced they can reduce it. Italian authorities insist that last week's roundup, which was organized secretly and carried out with military precision, will be followed by more arrests as they question those in custody and pursue the leads laid out by Buscetta in his statement. U.S. officials are equally encouraged. "This is truly a historic occasion," said U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, "because this is the first tune that there has been an arrangement of this kind developed between two countries that has been made up of policy-level officials who have the authority to make decisions."
The optimism is understandable. Buscetta's decision to break with the Mafia has given the police voluminous information and may encourage others to sing as well. It has also provided other would-be Mafia renegades with a model and given law enforcement a major psychological boost. Says Giuliani: "This is the type of work where you don't get many victories. It's enormously important as an example that someone at a very high level has broken his silence."
Dramatic as they may be, Buscetta's revelations have painted only a small part of the big picture of Mafia organization and activity. U.S. and Italian officials point out that Buscetta has revealed far more about the activities of the Corleone families than he has about his own Palermo organization. They suspect that despite his talk about honor, the Sicilian singer may lose his voice once he has finished implicating his rivals. They also note that the loose-tongued Buscetta is a rarity and that most Mafiosi still respect their organization, and value their lives, sufficiently to keep silent.
Yet Buscetta's disclosures, and the very fact that he was willing to make them, indicate that the seemingly solid facade of the Mafia has its cracks. By continuing the cooperation that has brought them this far, U.S. and Italian authorities can widen the gaps. With patience and persistence they may even widen them to the point that the Mafia's facade crumbles. Doing so will be neither quick nor easy. But as last week's events show, the goal is worth pursuing.
— By Peter Staler.
Reported by Walter Galling and Roberto Suro/Rome and Barry Kalb/New York, with other bureaus