Francesco Marino Mannoia

Francesco Marino Mannoia (born March 5, 1951) is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who became a pentito (government witness) in 1989. His nickname was Mozzarella. He is considered to be one of the most reliable government witnesses against the Mafia. Antimafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was first to interrogate him, recalled Marino Mannoia as an intelligent and reliable witness.

He was raised in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, and joined the Santa Maria di Gesù Mafia Family, headed by Stefano Bontade. He was highly sought after by all Mafia families for his skills in chemistry to be used to refine heroin for the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino ring. Marino Mannoia recalled having refined at least 1000 kilograms of heroin for Bontade. He had learned how to refine heroin through Antonino Vernengo, alias ‘u dutturi’ (the doctor) who was the first to set up a refinery in 1977. He was also suspected of being involved in at least seventeen homicides.

During the Second Mafia War of the early 1980s his boss, Stefano Bontade, was murdered along with hundreds of associates. Mannoia only survived because he was in prison at the time for drug trafficking. He escaped from prison in 1983 with the help of his younger brother, a hitman named Agostino Marino Mannoia. They met with Corleonesi boss Salvatore Riina to establish their position in the dramatically altered landscape of the Sicilian Mafia and were both allowed to live and work under the auspices of the Corleonesi boss. Francesco Marino Mannoia became a major refiner of heroin for the Corleonesi.

In 1986 he was recaptured and returned to prison. On 20 April 1989, his brother Agostino Marino Mannoia - then aged twenty-three - vanished and was never seen again. His bloodstained car was found later that day. Francesco Mannoia realised his brother had been killed. As it turned out, both Mannoia brothers had been plotting along with Vincenzo Puccio to overthrow Salvatore Riina as the boss of the Sicilian Mafia. Somehow word had gotten out and Agostino Marino Mannoia was the first of the conspirators against Riina who would die. Puccio and his brothers followed soon afterwards.

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