- 22/06/2025
Documentary, Inside The Mafia - The Godfathers
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00:00it was perhaps the most lucrative criminal racket in history between 1979 and 1984 the
00:12Sicilian Mafia smuggled nearly two billion dollars worth of heroin into the US it made
00:20mobsters on both sides of the Atlantic rich it also led to war in Sicily rival bosses fought
00:32for control of the heroin trafficking Empire the terror this war unleashed drove one godfather
00:39to break omerta the Mafia's sacred code of silence his act of betrayal would lead to a transatlantic
00:49assault on the Mafia and make the first serious dent in their worldwide power
00:55heroin was flooding into the United States in the late 1970s smuggled inside Italian food
01:25products and distributed through pizzerias owned by the Sicilian Mafia it was known as the pizza
01:33connection the US faced an epidemic of heroin addiction but for American gangsters heroin
01:41meant money and lots of it Henry Hill was a mafia drug wholesaler in New York later his life of crime
01:51was immortalized in the Hollywood blockbuster Goodfellas Hill would pick up heroin from pizzerias owned by
02:01Sicilian Mafiosi then supply it to dealers across the city even for a low-ranking mobster like Hill the
02:12profits were enormous the amount of money that I made was I mean it was astronomical I mean like 20-30
02:24thousand a day at the wholesale I mean I'm serious shopping bags full I even have places to put them put the money and
02:32and in accumulating so quickly you know you just that's a whole nother lifestyle a whole nother lifestyle because you know you go from you know few hundred thousand to millions quickly you know
02:45this is where the drugs were coming from Palermo the capital of Sicily
02:54in the catacombs beneath the city bodies lie preserved for posterity in Palermo a cult of death has been a tradition for centuries
03:08in the 1980s death loomed over the island once again a bloody mafia war was raging the prize control of the heroin trade to America
03:27it was a war started by a ferocious mafia gang from the village of Corleone
03:35Corleone was a mafia stronghold set high in the mountains of central Sicily it was the place that
03:44gave its name to Marlon Brando's character in the film The Godfather
03:55the leader of the Corleone crime family was a killer called Toto Regina
04:01Reena became known simply as the beast
04:14in 1981 and 1982 bodies of Reena's victims were turning up on the streets of Palermo every three days
04:21yet a wall of silence meant bringing the killers to justice was impossible
04:28one night in Corleone arrival of Reena was shot dead outside the building where the town council was meeting
04:37it was a night that Dino Pato Nostro remembers clearly
04:44the bull bull bull shindiam all this car we went downstairs and found a body on the street
04:49I was only 25 years old and I said to the mayor let's phone the carabinieri
04:55he looked straight at me and said you found the carabinieri
05:02there was a butcher shop opposite and I asked if I could use their phone
05:10they just looked at me and said no the phones out of order
05:14no one was willing to talk the police could do little to combat the carnage
05:28that was about to change
05:33in Palermo five magistrates formed a special unit to combat the Mafia
05:38the driving force was Judge Giovanni Falcone
05:47Falcone had grown up in a rundown area of old Palermo
05:52an area that had become a breeding ground for future mafiosi
05:58but Falcone was brought up to respect the law as his sister recalls
06:02our parents had a big influence in the way we grew up
06:11particularly in shaping Giovanni's character
06:14above all in our household
06:17patriotism and the love of our country
06:20were the most important values in life
06:23Falcone fought the Mafia from the Palace of Justice in Palermo
06:41even here he lived in fear for his life
06:44the authorities provided him with little protection
06:53known mafiosi wandered freely through its corridors
07:00Liliana Ferraro was a close friend and colleague of Falcone
07:03in the war against the Mafia
07:06one day from her office in the Ministry of Justice in Rome
07:09she paid Falcone a visit
07:11I went to Giovanni's office
07:18knocked on the door
07:20and he was just asking an old man to leave
07:23Giovanni seemed very short with him
07:27and I thought this was a bit strange
07:30Later he explained the man was a known Mafia collaborator
07:36who'd managed to get into his office
07:38Falcone had a simple tactic for combating the Mafia
07:45heroin was being smuggled from Sicily to America
07:48dollars were flowing in the opposite direction
07:52if he could uncover the paper trail of this dirty money
07:55he would be able to mount a criminal case against the Mafia's leaders
07:59he would be able to mount a criminal case against the Mafia's leaders
08:02he would be able to mount a criminal case against the Mafia's leaders
08:14a trail led to the US
08:15where the American mob sold a heroin smuggled in by the Sicilian Mafia
08:19this is home movie footage shot in Brooklyn in the mid-1950s
08:26this is home movie footage shot in Brooklyn in the mid-1950s
08:30but this was no ordinary American family
08:33Dominic Montilio was raised by his uncle Nino Gaggi
08:38Gaggi
08:40Gaggi was a senior mobster with the Gambino crime family
08:43one of the most powerful of America's Mafia families
08:47Uncle Nino introduced Montilio to crime
08:55by the late 70s Montilio was also a Gambino mobster
08:59using this Manhattan restaurant as a base to deal drugs
09:03they used to call this restaurant my headquarters
09:10I would sit and do business here
09:16everything from the drug business to my lawn shark business
09:22I felt very secure here
09:25I always had a place to stash my weapons
09:29Montilio witnessed the police
09:32Montilio witnessed firsthand
09:34how heroin brought together the American and Sicilian Mafias
09:38uniting them by a common desire to make money
09:44when heroin was involved
09:47the Americans and the Sicilians would hold hands
09:50and do the deals, you know, do business together
09:53but other than that
09:55we had very little to do with them
09:57but mafia bosses faced a dilemma
10:02they loved the money heroin brought
10:05but they feared the long jail sentences handed down for dealing
10:09they were scared that faced with decades in jail
10:13their men would break omertat
10:16the sacred vow of silence
10:18it was like
10:20it was like
10:21don't get caught
10:22you know
10:23we want to ask where the money came from
10:24just don't get caught
10:25um
10:27and it wasn't about
10:28they had something against dealing drugs
10:30they just had something against the heat
10:32that the drugs bring
10:33the mob bosses were already too late
10:37the heat
10:39the heat
10:40was just about to arrive
10:48the Sicilian Mafia was making billions of dollars a year
10:51trafficking heroin into the US
10:53for American crime fighters
10:56it was time to break the Sicilian gangs
10:59it was a fight that took place on the streets
11:06led by men like DEA agent Frank Panessa
11:10Panessa worked deep undercover
11:13using an assumed surname
11:15he had posed as a taxi driver
11:17to infiltrate crime operations in New York
11:22he'd observed Sicilian gangsters from New York
11:25driving down to Philadelphia
11:28when two Philadelphia mafiosi were arrested
11:31Panessa told them
11:33go to jail
11:34or get me in with the Sicilians
11:40Panessa would have to calm the Sicilians into thinking
11:43he was a mafia godfather
11:45the two informants that we had
11:48selected a restaurant in South Philly
11:50which was a known mob hangout
11:52and we went there for dinner with the Sicilians
11:55I set in between the two made Italian guys here in Philly
12:00and when the food came out
12:02they would serve me first
12:04and so the Sicilians were looking at this
12:05they you know they knew men of honor
12:07that I must be somebody
12:09Panessa's targets were two Sicilian brothers
12:12Paolo and Giovanni Laporta
12:14this DEA surveillance footage
12:18secretly shot outside a pizzeria in Philadelphia
12:21shows them with Panessa
12:31the first step was done
12:33Panessa was in
12:34now his con took off
12:37I told them I had a import export company
12:42and so when they would come down to visit
12:44we would rent trucks
12:46okay
12:47and we'd have the metallic stickums
12:49from the side of the trucks
12:50and we would put them on the side of the trucks
12:52and it said
12:53Prima import export
12:55Trivos Pennsylvania
12:56so when they pull into the parking lot
12:58they would see my fleet of trucks
13:00and they thought
13:01well this must be a legitimate business
13:03Panessa upped the ante
13:06he said he also had an office in Germany
13:09which they could use to funnel heroin into the US
13:12Giovanni Laporta was eager to see it for himself
13:17so the DEA arranged for their German counterparts
13:22to set up a branch of Panessa's phony business
13:25in the airport this big burly German comes up to me and hugs me
13:35and he says Frank so good to see you
13:37I've never met him in my life you know
13:39and I introduced him
13:41he introduced himself to Giovanni
13:44and we go out to this big Mercedes Benz that's outside
13:48and he says look what Frank got me for Christmas
13:50you know
13:51and we get into the Mercedes Benz
13:53and we drive to this company
13:55that's Prima import export
13:58we go in the door
13:59and here's this young blonde frulein
14:02comes up to me and hugs me
14:04says Frank so good to see you
14:06here are the cookies that you like
14:08and she had a tray of homemade cookies
14:16Panessa's bold deception paid off
14:18he had uncovered a massive criminal conspiracy
14:22the Laporta brothers told Panessa that they could launder $5 million a day
14:29in other words over $1 billion a year
14:33and their business was not just confined to heroin
14:39the brothers told him they also controlled 75% of cocaine distribution on the east coast
14:49Paulo Laporta came down to Philadelphia
14:54and I met with him in one of the pizza shops
14:57and on the table was 30 kilos of cocaine
15:00and he says here take take a few kilos
15:02I said well you know I I'm not into that
15:06you know I'm doing the other stuff meaning the heroin and I'm not into the coke you know
15:10and Paulo's I guess it was his son it was like a little six year old standing there
15:15and and I said I feel in a slang term I said skoombari which means I you know I felt itchy
15:21that the little kid was down here you know looking at all this dope on the table
15:26and so he said to the little kid what do you see
15:31and the kid in true mafia form said I see nothing
15:36and that threw me for a loop he was you know mafia in training
15:41Vanessa secretly tracked the Laporta brothers for nine months as they ferried heroin between Sicily New York and Philadelphia
15:58both men would eventually serve lengthy prison sentences
16:04with such astonishing amounts of money at stake
16:11Vanessa was a little doubt what his fate would be if he'd been discovered
16:15those who got out of line were murdered and their bodies disposed of
16:25Gangster Henry Hill was a regular participant in operations to get rid of the Mafia's victims
16:31we usually buried them a few times in a terminal lot somewhere
16:38you know just leaving the cars and hadn't chopped up and just bring the car down to the junkyard
16:43put two of them a couple of times in the trunk and they get smashed and go to Japan to make air strays in
16:53the easiest places to bury bodies was in our clubs you know in the basement of course
16:58we you know just ducked the hole and right there and put the body in lime and
17:07it was it would disappear in you know a matter of months
17:11forget about it
17:20this African-American church used to be a Mafia bar run by a killer called Roy de Mayo
17:26this was probably the most notorious bar in Brooklyn it was the headquarters for the De Mayo crew
17:36I'd say 70% of their murders were done at this location
17:42you always were scared to be around this crew
17:47I don't care who you were there was always a certain apprehension
17:50the bar was called the Gemini lounge
18:01it was nicknamed the horror hotel
18:05Montilio saw firsthand how it earned its nickname
18:09they would invite you to the horror hotel
18:12and when you walked in there was this hallway and Roy would jump out shoot you in the head with a silencer equipped pistol
18:23then he would wrap a towel around your head so the blood wouldn't start hitting the walls and all of that
18:29then Chris would come out in his underwear because he didn't want to get his clothes dirty
18:33and stab you in the heart a bunch of times to stop the blood from flowing
18:39one visit is etched forever in Montilio's memory
18:43sat down like we always did you know spaghetti
18:46Joey always made good red sauce good spaghetti
18:50and you know we're starting to eat
18:53then I looked into the bathroom the door was open about this much
18:55and there's two bodies hanging in there with their throats cut
19:02and I said to Roy I said you know what's going on there who are those guys
19:06he said nah don't worry you're not staying for dinner
19:10the owner of the bar Roy DeMeo was a trained butcher
19:15who provided his crew with butcher's kits for their grisly work
19:19they're hauling these bodies out
19:22and they're just starting to hack away throwing off the heads
19:26getting rid of the arms
19:28gutting them
19:30they had these plastic garbage bags
19:33and they'd put the pieces in there
19:36and there was a dumpster outside and they'd take the boxes throw it in the dumpster
19:39and one of the crew Anthony sent his people
19:43had a carting business
19:46and they'd call them and they'd come and pick up the dumpster
19:48get all the body parts in there and they'd go to the fountain there when you're dumb
19:52and by the next morning there's 3,000 tons of garbage
19:55on top of those pieces
19:58so needless to say no one was ever found
20:03when they start to dismember the bodies
20:07something you can't show in movies or on film is the smell
20:12that comes out of the body
20:13and while they're doing that to the bodies and you're sitting there eating spaghetti with red sauce
20:21it's a pretty good test to see whether you're going to stand up to it or not
20:25good memories and bad memories
20:30because I did have some good times here
20:33I mean
20:35what you got to understand was
20:38it's a weird thing to say but these guys were my friends
20:43in Sicily terror was nothing out of the ordinary
20:56somewhere on the island lurked a man running the heroin trade to the US
21:02the godfather of the Sicilian Mafia
21:04to tow Riina
21:05Riina had murdered his way to the top of the Sicilian Mafia to seize control of the heroin trade to the US
21:19hundreds of people may have been killed on his orders
21:22few in Sicily had the courage to stand up to him
21:33one who did was prosecuting magistrate Judge Giovanni Falcone
21:40from his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo
21:44Falcone and a handful of brave colleagues waged a lonely and dangerous war against the Mafia
21:49help was about to arrive
22:01in May 1982 the Italian government sent an army general to Sicily
22:06with orders to crush the Mafia
22:08but not long after arriving
22:11he was gunned down in the city centre
22:14his young wife by his side
22:15Sicilians rose up in outrage
22:26at their funeral the coffins of the two victims were applauded
22:30but outside the church
22:33the politicians who attended the funeral were jeered and spat on
22:37blamed by ordinary Sicilians for tolerating the Mafia for so long
22:41in response the Italian government finally provided Falcone with the backing he needed
22:52Falcone set about his task of fighting Tottori Ina with renewed vigour
22:58he was on the verge of a breakthrough
23:01the net was closing in on two godfathers
23:04both of them closely associated with Tottori Ina
23:09it sparked a chain of events that would lead to the Mafia's biggest defeat ever
23:15in the United States FBI agents charged with destroying heroin trafficking from Sicily
23:27or onto something
23:28the FBI tapped phone calls made from Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn
23:39home to many suspected Sicilian Mafiosi
23:45the Mafia used public phones to arrange their deals
23:48unaware that the FBI had them under observation
23:56this is surveillance footage secretly recorded by the FBI
24:01but the calls were conducted in the Sicilian dialect
24:05incomprehensible even to most Italians
24:08they were also in code
24:10shirts for example meant heroin
24:12help was at hand in the form of FBI agent Carmine Russo
24:30Russo was born in Sicily and emigrated to the US as a boy
24:35later joining the FBI
24:37like the Sicilian prosecutor Giovanni Falcone
24:39he had grown up with a deep loathing of the Mafia
24:44Russo could understand Sicilian
24:47and soon picked up mysterious references to the boss of the operation
24:52he was not being called by his name
24:55he was either called the shepherd
24:59the uncle
25:01the professor
25:03anything other than his name
25:05that of course piqued my interest
25:07investigators
25:09investigators couldn't identify him
25:11until the Sicilians made a mistake
25:14a mistake that blew open the case
25:16on the phone
25:21the Sicilians talked about Italian newspaper reports
25:24of the killing of Mafiosi in South America
25:27those reports mentioned a Mafia Don called Gaetano Badalamenti
25:31Badalamenti
25:37Badalamenti was once a major player
25:39the former boss of the Sicilian Mafia
25:42during the war for control of the Mafia
25:45he had been on the losing side
25:47he had fled to Brazil in fear of his life
25:50from there he was importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into the US
25:55surprisingly
25:58it was a business he ran under the orders of the man who had overthrown him as boss
26:02to tow Reina
26:10in Sicily it was clear
26:13Reina didn't let hatred of an enemy stand in the way of making money
26:17once the FBI determined that we were dealing with a former boss of all bosses of the Sicilian Mafia
26:27the goal of the investigation turned its attention to Gaetano Badalamenti
26:33the investigation heated up
26:37the US Justice Department sent in top crime fighter Richard Martin
26:44Martin was a fluent Italian speaker with years of experience fighting organized crime
26:50he said you know this is like hooking the shark
26:55when you bring the shark onto the boat you got to be sure that you can kill the shark
26:59and what I meant what you know if we bring this guy in we've got to be sure that we can convict him
27:06in mid-1983 the FBI made a crucial breakthrough
27:14agents had become suspicious of a Sicilian pizzeria owner called Pietro Alfano
27:21who lived in the tiny town of Oregon Illinois
27:24a hundred miles west of Chicago
27:25when they ran a check
27:29they made an astonishing discovery
27:33hello
27:35hi
27:37Alfano was the nephew of Gaetano Badalamenti
27:41the two Sicilians spoke in code on the phone to arrange heroin deals
27:46that Alfano could never remember what the code was
27:51I refer to Badalamenti's nephew Alfano Alfano the buffoono
28:01because he was a complete idiot I mean Badalamenti was the type of person that talked in code and all that
28:09but Alfano forgot what the codes meant and he would tell him to go to a certain place and he couldn't remember what the code was for that place
28:19but Badalamenti didn't have any choice he depended on him for the distribution out of the Midwest
28:31the frustration with his nephew boiled over
28:35Badalamenti ordered him to a meeting in his anger he blurted out the location the Spanish capital Madrid
28:46law enforcement pounced
28:58in April 1984 both men were arrested by Spanish police
29:03this is footage of them being led away
29:05Badalamenti is a man on the left of this picture
29:12he was sentenced to 45 years in prison
29:16guilty of trafficking 1.6 billion dollars worth of heroin into the US in just five years
29:22investigators had cut the Mafia's main heroin supply line
29:33after that the trail went cold
29:36Badalamenti refused to break the Mafia's vow of silence
29:41if you would like to give us the information we require
29:44I'm sure it's possible to come to some arrangement
29:46he would not betray the Mafia boss controlling the heroin trade to the US
29:56Toto Arena
29:58what happened next would make history
30:07in Brazil another Mafia Don was under arrest
30:09a friend and drug-dealing partner of Badalamenti called Tommaso Buscetta
30:15he had also fled Sicily to escape Toto Arena
30:22in Reina's war to seize control of the Mafia
30:25he had killed two of Buscetta's adult sons
30:31the Italians asked for Buscetta's extradition
30:34but he was determined never to return to Italy
30:37he was sure that Reina would kill him and his new family
30:46so he swallowed a vial of strychnine
30:49that he had been secretly carrying with him since his arrest
30:52the poison failed
30:55he emerged from a coma
30:57and was put on a plane to Italy
30:58still seriously ill
31:05he had to be held down the plane steps at Rome airport
31:09protected by a bulletproof blanket
31:12Buscetta came to a momentous decision
31:16if the Americans would protect his family
31:18if the Americans would protect his family
31:22he would wreak his revenge on Reina
31:25but not by the traditional Mafia method of murder
31:29what he wanted in exchange for cooperating with the Italians with the Americans with anybody
31:35was to protect his family
31:37he didn't ask for a reduction of his sentence
31:40he didn't ask for any special treatment
31:44the only thing he wanted was to be sure that his family would be safe
31:48In Rome, Buscetta began to talk
31:53revealing the murderous secrets of the Mafia
31:56Buscetta would become the most senior boss ever to break the Mafia's sacred tenet
32:00the vow of silence
32:03he would reveal the secret world of the Mafia to judge Falcone
32:07the prosecutor who had waged a lonely battle against the Mafia for years
32:14Between July and September 1984, Buscetta spoke non-stop
32:18The words spoken here are taken from the actual transcripts of Buscetta's interrogation
32:37All the Palermo families are involved in drug trafficking
32:42The closer you are to the boss, the more profits you keep
32:52What he was really able to do was describe how the Mafia operated
32:59both in the United States and Sicily
33:02how the two worked together
33:04and how Mafia rules enabled an organization that was spread around the world
33:10to function
33:15Buscetta explained that the key to their success
33:18was the strict military discipline of the Mafia
33:21At the head of each family
33:25is a capo
33:28he is elected by the men of honor
33:31Somebody can pick up the phone in Sicily
33:34call Oregon, Illinois
33:36have a 30-second conversation
33:37and make a contract
33:40that would be binding
33:46Lower down, soldiers are organized into groups of ten
33:52with a captain over them
33:54He could explain how different people dotted around the world
33:58could take responsibility for different parts of the narcotics business
34:02and make it work
34:08It worked because all Mafiosi were bound by an oath
34:12taken at a secret initiation ceremony
34:15an oath which if broken
34:17would have dire consequences
34:19Then once in the room
34:22his finger is pricked
34:24and his blood is spilt
34:28on the image of a saint
34:30and the blood that comes out
34:32is poured on a saint
34:33He explained that anybody could be a member of the Mafia
34:38you know, it could be a priest
34:39it could be a doctor
34:41it could be anybody
34:43so long as he was male and Sicilian
34:46once they joined they were bound by the same rules
34:50and the rules were enforced with death
34:51For years the Sicilian prosecutor Giovanni Falcone
34:55had wanted to put the Mafia's leaders on trial
35:01The evidence of Mafia defector Tommaso Buscetta
35:07gave Falcone the chance
35:09Falcone ordered the arrest of almost 400 Mafiosi
35:13bosses and soldiers alike
35:22But to Torino, the leader of the Sicilian Mafia
35:26was not one of them
35:31Now the Italians had to find somewhere to try so many people
35:37There was nowhere big or secure enough in the Sicilian capital
35:40Palermo
35:43The Ministry of Justice decided to build a giant concrete bunker
35:48inside the central prison
35:51Falcone's friend from the Ministry of Justice in Rome
35:54Liliana Ferraro was put in charge
35:57She feared if the Mafia found out
36:00they would kill her
36:02Traveling from Rome to Sicily
36:04she went to enormous lengths to stay safe
36:06I put my flights under a false name
36:16Then phoned the foreman of the company building the bunker
36:21and he would pick me up at the airport in his truck
36:24One day I had to go to a funeral in Palermo
36:28I turned up with my black dress covered in builder's dust
36:35Awaiting the start of the trial
36:39Buscetta was being held in a safe house in the United States
36:43protected day and night by the DEA and the FBI
36:47One day he received a visit from his brother-in-law
36:49But the visit had a sinister purpose
36:52As his guard remembers
36:55Buscetta was offered a large amount of money
36:57Not to give testimony
36:59They wanted him to stop
37:01He told the individual he would not
37:03That individual went back and told him that he would not do it
37:07And they just assassinated him
37:09They killed the messenger for it
37:10In Palermo, the concrete bunker that would house the trial was ready
37:27The walls of the bunker were made of slabs of reinforced concrete
37:31Strong enough to repel a missile attack
37:33Inside the courtroom itself
37:3530 cells housed the defendants
37:45The most spectacular trial in Mafia history
37:48The Maxi trial
37:50Was about to begin
37:52Falcone would lead for the prosecution
37:55The star witness
37:57Would be Tommaso Buscetta
38:00When it was confirmed
38:01That Buscetta was going to give evidence
38:05We were warned that we could have come under attack from the air
38:11So the skies above the bunker were patrolled 24 hours a day
38:19The trial began in February 1986
38:233,000 armed soldiers guarded the bunker
38:33Plus an army tank
38:36Nearly 500 defendants were scheduled for trial
38:39Perhaps 10% of the Sicilian Mafia
38:42Charged with murder, drug trafficking
38:45And other serious crimes
38:46The defendants repeatedly disrupted the proceedings
38:58Only when Buscetta appeared
39:01Did silence reign
39:03Only when Buscetta appeared
39:05Did silence reign
39:06He was on the witness stand for a week
39:22Protected by bulletproof glass
39:24Repeating what he had already told Judge Falcone
39:28He really believed
39:30That at some point in time
39:33The Sicilians would kill him
39:36He did what he had to do testifying wise
39:41When we got back on the plane that comes in the United States
39:44We were sitting up on top of the 747 in the upper deck
39:48And he said to me Tony
39:50He said I didn't believe I was ever coming back
39:53On the 16th of December 1987
39:56The judge pronounced his verdict
39:59344 Mafiosi were found guilty
40:03Receiving a total of nearly 3,000 years in prison
40:08The trial had taken 22 months from beginning to end
40:11The maxi trial was the crowning moment for Sicilian prosecutor Giovanni Falcone
40:26Italian and American crime fighters had scored stunning successes against the Mafia
40:35It opened the floodgates to Mafiosi wishing to flip to the government
40:47Omerta, the vow of silence that for decades had given the Mafia its ruthless discipline
40:56Was dying
41:05The jailing of scores of top Mafia bosses by American and Italian crime fighters
41:12Threw the mob into crisis on both sides of the Atlantic
41:16Hundreds of Mafiosi were now willing to rat on their former comrades
41:21It was extortion that caught up with Dominic Montilio
41:26He was arrested at gunpoint in a New York restaurant
41:29The police had been hunting him for years
41:33He was imprisoned in the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York
41:39He knew that his mob bosses were terrified he would testify against them
41:45Montilio feared for his life
41:47My attitude was, you know, I'm not going to die in here for nothing and leave a wife and three children to fend for themselves
42:03You know, I'm just not going to die for their paranoia that I might talk, you know
42:08So in a funny kind of way, I think that they push you in that direction
42:14By their actions, you know, I mean today it's like if you get arrested they want to whack you out
42:23Montilio was brought up to live and die by the Mafia's vow of silence
42:28Now he decided to cooperate with the law
42:31Elsewhere in New York, the net closed on other gangsters too
42:40Henry Hill was in big trouble
42:43The FBI wanted to question him about a six million dollar airport robbery
42:48The Justice Department wanted to know about the murder of an Italian financier
42:53The Brooklyn Attorney's Office needed information about an unidentified body that had been found
42:58On top of it all, he faced a life sentence for dealing drugs
43:04He decided to cooperate
43:07The government arrested me as a material witness and I started to cooperate
43:12Because I knew I would have to do life or get a bullet in the head
43:16I knew I was a dead man
43:20When they found out, the Sicilians tried to lure him to this Brooklyn pizzeria to have him murdered
43:30But I still get shivers when I'm standing here
43:35This could have been my resting place
43:38But I'm still nervous, I haven't been nervous in a while
43:41Seriously, I don't know how many of those cousins live in this neighborhood still, you know
43:49These are in their pockets of, you know, of crews, you know, that are here 50 years, you know
43:57It's changed quite a bit, but there's always someone with their eye out a window over here
44:02Montilio and Hill would spend their subsequent years in witness protection
44:11Living in secret locations, hundreds of miles from their boyhood homes
44:16Always fearing what might happen if their old mafia crews caught up with them
44:21All in all, that whole experience is something you'd love to forget, but you never could
44:27I mean, I have a recurring dream
44:31Where I leave Nino's house and his Cadillac is parked in the driveway
44:36And when I walk out the door, I'm walking up the driveway
44:41And Nino, Roy, Chris, Anthony, Joey, they're all hidden under Nino's Cadillac
44:49And as I'm walking by, Roy looks at me and goes,
44:51Hey, Dominic, come to hell with us
44:57And then the dream stops
45:02The heroin trafficking empire, built up over several decades by the mafia, was dealt a massive blow
45:13Off the coast of Sicily, Italian police search fishing boats for drugs
45:16They find very little
45:22But on both sides of the Atlantic, the war against the mafia was far from over
45:40During his interrogation by Falcone, mafia defector Tommaso Buscetta had a warning for the Sicilian prosecutor
45:49The mafia would stop at nothing to kill him
45:53Never forget, when you open an account with the mafia
45:58It will only be settled when you die
46:01Hundreds of mafiosi have been sent to jail in the maxi trial
46:07But the boss of bosses, Tottori Ina, was still free
46:13He still controlled his vast criminal empire
46:18He still murdered his rivals
46:20In the US, the pizza connection had been destroyed by the biggest FBI effort ever
46:3121 Sicilian heroin traffickers had been jailed for sentences of up to 45 years each
46:37Never again, would the Sicilian and the American mafias work so closely together
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