TheInterprovincial Commission (Italian:Commissione interprovinciale), also known as "Regione", "commissione regionale" or "cupola regionale") is a governing body of theCosa Nostra. It gathered only to deliberate important decisions about the Cosa Nostra interests between several provinces in the same territory that involved othercrime families.[1]
The first "Interprovincial Commission" was created in '50s by the boss ofTrapani Andrea Fazio, but it was dissolved after the beginning of theFirst Mafia War in 1963.[2] Then it was recreated in 1975 on the proposal of the boss of thefamily of Catania,Giuseppe Calderone, who wanted to avoid theoligarchy ofMichele Greco,Luciano Leggio andGaetano Badalamenti.
Calderone was appointed to manage the commission: it was decided that only the mafiosi delegates of every Sicilian province, exceptMessina,Siracusa andRagusa, had to participate in the commission. These delegates imposed the prohibition to execute kidnapping inSicily in order to stop extortion abductions carried out byCorleone clan led byLeggio.[3]
According to thepentitoAntonino Calderone, at the beginning the "Regione" meetings occurred monthly in one of the several provinces, but hereafter they occurred always at theMichele Greco's farmstead inCiaculli.[4]
In 1978 Calderone andGiuseppe Di Cristina were killed and the management of the "Commissione interprovinciale" went to Giuseppe Settecasi, but even him was murdered in 1981 during a mafia war inAgrigento province that saw the rising of the boss Carmelo Colletti, tied toBernardo Provenzano, who became the new provincial delegate of Agrigento; so the management of the "Commissione interprovinciale" went toGreco, mafioso delegate ofPalermo province because he managed theCupola.[5][6]
According to thepentitoAntonino Giuffrè, in 1983 there was a meeting in theCaccamo campaign in which several bosses participated:Salvatore Riina,Bernardo Provenzano,Michele Greco, Bernardo Brusca,Nitto Santapaola's brother (in representation ofCatania province), Colletti (forAgrigento province), Giuseppe "Piddu" Madonia (forCaltanissetta andEnna provinces) and some mafiosi ofTrapani province. In that meeting it was decided that the management of the "Commissione interprovinciale" went directly toRiina.
After the arrest ofBernardo Provenzano on April 11, 2006, the Interprovincial Commission began to lose its operational influence. Key provincial bosses were captured in major operations, which dismantled much of the organization’s leadership structure. From the 2010s onward, there have been no confirmed reports of further meetings among provincial Mafia leaders. While this absence may suggest that the Commission ceased to operate altogether, it is also possible that such gatherings continued in greater secrecy, evading law enforcement detection.[7]
| Province | Representative | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Palermo | Salvatore Lo Piccolo | Arrested in 2007 inGiardinello after twenty-five years on the run.[8] |
| Catania | Vincenzo Aiello | Arrested in 2009 during a mafia summit inBelpasso.[9] |
| Caltanissetta | Giuseppe Modica | Arrested in 2011 during the operation "Grande Vallone".[10] |
| Trapani | Matteo Messina Denaro | Arrested in 2023 in Palermo, after 30 years on the run.[11] |
| Agrigento | Giuseppe Falsone | Arrested inMarseille in 2010, after eleven years on the run.[12] |
| Enna | Salvatore Seminara | Released from prison in 2013 and rearrested in the same year.[13] |
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