January 25 – Police raid various homes in Sicily and arrest forty-six Mafia suspects believed to be helping Bernardo Provenzano elude the authorities.[1] Although they did not catch the elusive Mafia boss himself, investigators nonetheless unearthed evidence that 72-year-old Provenzano was still very much alive and in control of the Mafia, in the form of his cryptic handwritten notes, his preferred method of giving orders to his men.
February 4 – Information about Bonanno crime family boss Joe Massino's cooperation with police for a reduced jail sentence is released to the press.
February 9 – Susumu Kajiyama, a Japanese crime syndicate member dubbed the "loan shark king", was sentenced to seven years in prison for laundering money.[2]
April – Massachusettsmafia captainVincent M. Ferrara has his jail sentence ended by a US District Court six years before the original set date due to prosecutor Jeffrey Auerhahn using an illegal court tactic. In 1992 Ferrara pleaded guilty to racketeering, extortion, gambling and ordering the 1985 murder of Vincent "Jimmy" Limoli. Ferrara had only agreed to plead guilty to the murder because he was presented with a witness, one Walter Jordan. The witness, however, recanted his testimony before Ferrara testified. Auerhahn did not tell Ferrara this and so the District Court overturned the sentence. [1][2]
April 4–17 reputed mafia figures, including two identified as soldiers of the Genovese and Bonanno crime families, arrested in New York City's Queens borough on gambling charges. [3]
