and so the secretary of the Italian Socialist Party Bettino Craxi who was in the area for a series of lectures and conferences had just finished one of these events in Aversa and he rushed over to our town on the pretext of paying a visit to the comrades in the local Socialist chapter hall and the following scene ensues Craxi walks into the headquarters of the Italian Socialist Party on Corso Umberto and he remains cloistered in conversation for a couple of hours with Ernesto Bardellino to persuade him to give up the idea of running for parliament at least in the upcoming elections because the press would unleash a ferocious attack not only against him but against the entire party in short there was some horse trading Ernesto Bardellino gave up his parliamentary ambitions but he certainly received something substantial in exchange and there was a final vignette in which cheerful and contented the pair of politicians emerge from party headquarters and walk down Corso Umberto together Craxi Bardellino and all the members of the Socialist Party and of the clan strolling down the corso together toward the Bar Nazionale located in the little piazza across from the church and along the way other people join the little procession the whole town winds up following them to the Bar Nazionale to take an espresso together and Ernesto Bardellino publicly pays for Bettino Craxi’s coffee and when he does the little crowd surrounding them bursts into an enthusiastic ovation everyone is clapping furiously shouting evviva evviva hurrah hurrah laughing happily with satisfaction and the episode ends there

XI ALBANOVA

his brother Antonio has no need to worry about this kind of local problems now the gang war is over he has no more rivals he has become the uncontested chief of the organization he has amassed and controls an unprecedented power and wealth an international empire that outdoes the Sicilians by now he’s focused primarily on managing business in Latin America he’s constantly traveling to Brazil and Colombia he’s in charge of relations with the major producers and worldwide distributors of cocaine and he finally decides that it’ll help him to look after his business and successfully invest the profits from his activities if he moves to Santo Domingo from there he can better supervise the cocaine trafficking he can better control the drug channels and the couriers traveling to Europe and Italy he can better monitor activities of all sorts in various Latin American countries there in Santo Domingo he rapidly becomes the proprietor of numerous hotels restaurants casinos a small empire that serves him as cover as well as yet another source of profit