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During the early Cold War, particularly from the late 1940s onward, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) leveraged its existing ties with Italian-American organized crime figures, forged during World War II to secure the Allied invasion of Sicily, to cultivate relationships with their Sicilian Mafia counterparts.

This collaboration was part of a broader U.S. strategy to combat the growing influence of the Italian Communist Party and ensure political stability aligned with Western interests, often by relying on local power brokers.

This nexus between intelligence operatives and criminal networks was further embedded within a clandestine anti-communist paramilitary structure known as Operation GLADIO, which, according to some historians, collaborated with elements like the Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2) that had deep ties to organized crime.

Source: https://tesi.luiss.it/43729/