Corleonesi

The Corleonesi was an alliance of Mafia families within the Sicilian Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, Salvatore Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella from the Corleone Mafia family, Giovanni Brusca from San Giuseppe Jato, Nitto Santapaola from the Catania Mafia family, Michele Greco from the Greco Mafia clan, Giuseppe Calò from Porta Nuova, Matteo Messina Denaro from Castelvetrano, and others. Corleonesi affiliates were not restricted to mafiosi of Corleone. The Corleonesi coalition managed to take over the Sicilian Mafia Commission and imposed a quasi-dictatorship over Cosa Nostra, waging war against rival factions (also known as the Second Mafia War) from 1981–1983. The more established Mafia families in the city of Palermo grossly underestimated the mafiosi from Corleone and often referred to the Corleonesi, in Sicilian language, as i viddani – "the peasants", or peri 'ncritati – "muddy feet". Under Riina's leadership, the Corleonesi imposed an iron grip on the Sicilian Mafia – one that would nearly prove to be its undoing.