Declassified Italian files suggest 1980s Palestinian militant links to Sicilian Mafia

Mixed · 2Previously classified Italian intelligence documents point to suspected connections between Palestinian militant organisations and the Sicilian Mafia in the 1980s, according to an investigation published on Thursday 15 October by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. 1 2 Mixed · 2The suspected links include possible cooperation in weapons trafficking, narcotics smuggling and explosives expertise. The journalist Giulia Sorrentino drew on intelligence reports, judicial records and historical documents describing networks from Lebanon and Syria to Sicily and Rome. 1 2 Mixed · 2A central document, dated 9 November 1983, holds information gathered by the Carabinieri. It says Mafia networks tied to the Greco and Gambino families were operating in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, which was then under strong Syrian influence, where narcotics-processing facilities were reportedly located near Baalbek. 1 2

Mixed · 2The source alleged that six AK-47 rifles reached Mafia associates and were used in attacks in Sicily. The source also described a shipment of about 900 kg of morphine base sent from Lebanon toward Catania in October 1983, and warned of a planned attack on the US Embassy in Rome if the multinational force in Lebanon moved against Palestinian positions. 1 2 Mixed · 2The investigation revisits the 29 July 1983 killing of magistrate Rocco Chinnici, who died with three others in a Palermo car bomb of about 75 kg of explosives. The remote detonation resembled techniques used in Lebanon's civil war. A Lebanese police informant, Bou Chebel Ghassan, told investigators of Mafia contacts and efforts to obtain weapons and morphine. Days before the attack he reportedly described remote methods of killing investigators, comparing them to those of Palestinian militants in Lebanon. 1 2 Mixed · 2Italian judicial proceedings established that Cosa Nostra was responsible for the Chinnici murder, and the records do not show that Palestinian operatives planned or took part in it. 1 2

Mixed · 2The piece also revisits a Corriere della Sera report of 22 June 1993, in which Beirut correspondent Antonio Ferrari quoted PLO representative Zeid Wehbe. Wehbe alleged that operatives linked to Abu Nidal had infiltrated Mafia networks and supplied explosives and killing-device expertise in exchange for help with criminal operations. 1 2 Mixed · 2Further material includes an Italian military intelligence report of 13 January 1986, identified by historian Giordana Terracina, which linked Abu Nidal to circles around the family of Syrian President Hafez Assad and mentioned Carlos the Jackal. It followed the 27 December 1985 attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports, which killed 16 civilians and injured about 120. The investigation also cites an October 1990 memorandum attributed to General Demetrio Cogliandro, which raised allegations about Arab banks in Italy and funds allegedly reaching Italian organised crime for narcotics purchases. 1 2 Mixed · 2The records became accessible through an Italian government initiative begun in 2014 to declassify documents on terrorism and political violence. 1 2

Mixed · 2The reporting says the investigation does not establish a formal operational alliance between Abu Nidal's organisation and Cosa Nostra, or its participation in Mafia assassinations, and that not all the allegations have been independently corroborated. It adds that the documents show Italian agencies examined possible links between Palestinian militancy, organised crime and Middle Eastern trafficking networks years before the 1993 allegations became public. 1 2