Mafia intelligence gathering directly enables contract killings

Evidence

Intelligence gathering is also carried out in connection with specific tasks, notably in preparation for a murder (Falcone and Padovani 1991: 36). Vincenzo Sinagra, the other peripheral recruit whose revelations closely followed Calzetta’s in 1984, was frequently commissioned to spy on behalf of another Palermo family. This family had “sentenced” a man and were waiting for the first opportunity to “do him in” (sistemarlo). Sinagra recounts: “My cousin told me, ‘Enzo, take the motorbike and go around to see whether you can spot him.’ I took the motorbike … went toward Piazza Marina, and went around there and saw him with his motorbike, a Ciao, went back and said to my cousin, ‘I saw him.’ ” Half an hour later five bullets were pumped into this man (VS-GdS, June 15, 1986; VS: I, 58, 200). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 99