San Giuseppe’s lone policeman shows us a secluded house that was once rented by the nephew of the town’s Mafia boss. He kept a kidnapped 11 year-old in a dungeon at this house for 2 years. The boy was his bargain chip to stop his fellow Mafiosi from talking to the police. After 2 years the boy was eventually killed. As was customary they put his body in a bath full of acid. The boy did not put up much resistance, they said; after all he’d been in a hole for two years and he didn’t have any muscles left. Once again Sicily’s fishermen are trawling for more than prawns. Waiting on the dock is a black Mercedes - behind the darkened windscreen sits a man for whom ‘fruit de la mer’ means a nice fat box of smuggled narcotics. Those hunting down the Mafiosi say that people’s consciences have gone back to sleep. We find the women who are now risking their lives in the fight against the Mafia. Teresa Principato is investigating the Mafia, although her two predecessors were murdered by them. “It’s love for your country that forces you to continue, to prevent this sort of oppression, this cloak of silence." The sustained state offensive to the Mafiosi six years ago seemed to have worked. But in the world of drug deals and prostitution, the Mafia is as strong as ever.

Produced by ABC Australia