The gabelloto-as-mafioso identification was politically convenient for Fascist repression

Evidence

The view that the two groups coincided is of uncertain origin. During the early Fascist era it seems to have become predominant: according to Duggan (1988: 78), the representation of the gabelloti and their armed men as the embodiment of the mafia, and the fact that they became the prime target of the energetic action of Cesare Mori, Mussolini’s prefect in Sicily from 1925 to 1929, may have been the result of simple political expediency. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 856

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the Anthropologist’s ‘complaints as identity signaling’ pattern — here a diagnostic label serving a political crackdown rather than describing reality.