The First Independent State under Mafia Control

[DutchGangster69]

Aruba's reputation as a 'Mafia island' became public in March 1993 when it was described by the Italian daily "Corriere della Sera" as 'the first state to be bought by the bosses Cosa Nostra'. (7) The Sicilian Mafia clan of the families Cuntrera and Caruana allegedly had taken over the island. Between 1988 and 1992 they acquired 60 per cent of Aruba through investments in hotels, casino's and the election-campaign of a Prime Minister. Aruba looked set to be the first independent state under Mafia control.

At the time Aruba was set for independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1996. Ten years before it had acquired a "status aparte" - a semi-autonomous status - within the realm. The Dutch consented to the Aruban wish for self-determination, but established a 10-year time period. Due to the reluctance of many Arubans, and anxiety with the Dutch government about the infiltration of organized crime on the island, independence never materialized. The US, France, the United Kingdom and Venezuela pressed the Dutch government to abandon its moves towards Aruban self-government, and the Netherlands complied. (8) Consequently, although the island is now handling its own internal affairs, foreign relations and defense remain a Dutch responsability.

Prime Minister Eman doesn't like to be reminded of the name Cuntrera - primarily because of his signature on the licence of Paolo and Giuseppe Cuntrera for their nightclub Visage in 1987. It keeps hurting him, even though he tries to dismiss it as ""a very superseded story"." According to Eman, at the time these people were honourable citizens in several countries, among others in Venezuela. In Aruba, their criminal activities were not known. Moreover, ""when we learned who they really were, we expelled them"."

The issue also became highly politicized. The two main political parties - the "Arubaanse Volkspartij" (AVP, Aruban Peoples Party) led by Eman and the "Moviemento Electoral di Pueblo" (MEP, People's Electoral Movement) led by Nelson Oduber - accused each other of permitting the Cuntrera's to infest Aruba and both claim to have kicked them off the island. In reality, the Cuntrera's had left - temporarily - on their own in 1988.

In April 1988 "Business Week" published a story about the involvement of the family in a case of heroin smuggling from Thailand to Montreal, and their money laundering schemes in Canada. (9) The article and copies of the licence for the Cuntrera's signed by Eman, were distributed anonymously on the island, and caused a fierce political battle.

Eman still claims that the MEP-government which preceded his first government, already allowed the Cuntreras to establish the nightclub and that legally he couldn't do anything about it. But Eman's own Minister of Economic Affairs, Leonard Berlinski, in writing had refused a licence for Paolo and Giuseppe Cuntrera. Berlinski's officials advised him not to issue the permit because it was not in the public interest of Aruba, warning him ""don't burn your fingers"." Ironically, shortly after the licence was denied, Berlinski had to resign because of allegations of corruption. He was arrested but acquitted on appeal. In the meantime a new request for a licence was applied for - by notary Maria Albertina Eman, a sister of the Prime Minister. Eman, then Minister of Economic Affairs ad interim, approved the application in spite of repeated negative recommendations. (10) Berlinski contends that observers of these events can draw their own conclusions.

Eman's claim that the Cuntrera's were honourable citizens in several countries is not convincing. This was certainly not true in Italy, Canada and the United States. In 1983 an international arrest warrant for Paolo Cuntrera was issued by the Italian police, and in June 1985 Gerlando Caruana was caught smuggling heroin to Montreal. Assuming this escaped the attention of the Aruban authorities, closer at home in Venezuela, the Cuntrera's were exposed as mafiosi in 1984 - three years prior to permission for the Cuntrera nightclub. Their names, accompanied by photographs, made the headlines in the Venezuelan press. In addition, Aruban authorities knew - or at least should have known - of the involvement of the Cuntreras in cocaine traffic on the island. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had followed Sabbatino Nicolucci, a suspected courier for Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, to the island. When Canadian police-officers - accompanied by the Aruban chief of police - asked to look at Nicolucci's phone calls at the Holiday Inn it appeared he was not registered: the room was reserved and paid for by Pasquale Cuntrera. (11) Despite this incriminating evidence, which probably inspired the negative advice of Aruban officials, Prime Minister Eman gave the Cuntrera's permission to open a nightclub.

The 'Rothschilds of the Mafia' or 'the bankers of Cosa Nostra' were the names given to the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia-clan the Italian press. (12) A prosecuting judge was more precise, describing the clan as ""a close wicker-work of blood-relations composed of family-nucleuses in different countries all over the world, joined with an equal wicker-work of economical and industrial connections, intended to improve their networks for international traffic in narcotics and money-laundering"." (13)

The Cuntrera-Caruana clan specialized in laundering hundreds of millions of drug dollars. This may well have been why it had come to Aruba. The island is one of the many Caribbean tax-havens famous for their relaxed off-shore regulations popular at the shady side of the money business. In the 1980s the booming tourist-industry offered additional possibilities to re-invest drug profits. (14) It was entirely appropiate therefore when an Italian newspaper suggested that the sun never sets on the Cuntrera-Caruana narco-empire. The occasion for this was the arrest of three Cuntrera brothers (Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera) at Rome's international airport in September 1992. (15) They had arrived from Caracas. The night before they had been secretly put on a plane to Rome, after the Venezuelan government had decided to expel them.

The Italian government had requested the Cuntrera brothers' extradition several times since a first arrest-warrant in 1983, but the clan seemed to have safeguarded its stay in Caracas through political connections. For a long time the Venezuelan government seemed uninterested in pursuing thebrothers. In 1992, however, the tide turned. In May the brutal killing of the popular anti-mafia judge, Giovanni Falcone, in Sicily produced a public outcry in Italy and the government stepped up its battle against the Mafia. At the same time, the apparent protection of the Cuntrera-brothers in Venezuela dwindled.

President Carlos Andres Perez barely survived a coup of discontented military in February and faced allegations of corruption. A tough law-and-order Minister for Home Affairs was nominated. Diplomatic pressure from the US (where Pasquale Cuntrera was indicted on charges of heroin-smuggling) and Italy resulted in the expulsion of the three Cuntrera-brothers.

According to Natoli, ""the clan is best described as an international holding ... a holding which secures certain services for the Sicilian Cosa Nostra as a whole: drug-trafficking routes and channels for money-laundering"." The families Cuntrera and Caruana are the nucleus of the clan. They are relatives; they inter-married like medieval feudal lords to strengthen their criminal alliance. Consequently, the clan is very compact with great cohesion. Natoli describes it as " "a very tight knit family group of men-of-honor, not only joined by Mafia bonds, but also byties of blood"." The strength of this group - apart from the numbers and solid relationships - is that it moved to the nerve-centres of drug trafficking in North and South America.

Within Cosa Nostra few know who they are, but all know what they are. ""Everybody knew that Cuntrera-Caruana were the undisputed controllers of the Canadian and Venezuelan market"," says Gaspare Mutolo, a "pentito" (repentant) who himself was heavily involved in the drug trade, but became a state witness in 1992. (20) ""In Cosa Nostra it was generally known that they were involved in drug trafficking at a very high level"," says Mutolo. Indeed, the names Cuntrera and Caruana were - and probably still are - a guarantee of a good deal. Moreover, the clan has scarcely been touched by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra's internal power-struggles, like the one which brought Totò Riina and his Corleonesi to power in the 1980s. One reason is that the Cuntrera-Caruana clan had moved abroad. Another is that it positioned itself at an equal distance to the different factions in the Sicilian Mafia. As Natoli explains: ""Their interest is the drug trade, an activity which runs right across different interests and factions. That is why they have to keep a central position and be independent from whatever 'political' wing that rules Cosa Nostra"."

[Dobre]

Poli Pantev(Bulgarian mob boss) got whacked in Aruba in 2001.

Everywhere there are people in both the government, companies and amongst the people that work for the mafia and against it.

Here is an example of this heroin smuggling frog who accuses the reporters of mispropoganda and working for the 'mafia', 'cia', calling them 'mobsters'

The situation here is pretty much the same as in Bulgaria, Russia, Italy etc.

Except in those places, the domestic mob holds the most influence. Here there's a balance. It's Macedonians, Serbs, Bulgarians(all Slavs) and Albanians(Chechen/Caucauses/Middle Eastern/Central Asia origins).

[Dobre]

The example lol