Profile on Bartina Barzini~~~~~~ Once married to Rosario Di Giovine, a prolific tobacco smuggler.  The Di Giovine clan ultimately controlled the territory around Piazza Prealpi, a square located in the north of Milan, and via Belgioioso.  The family began their illegal career with smuggling cigarettes and receiving stolen goods.  Bartina Di Giovine, stood for trial on tobacco smuggling seven times and six times for fencing.

In the Late 70's the trade shifted from cigarettes to drugs (including hashish, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy) and weapons, and involved the whole family of twelve children. Her older sons, Antonio and Emilio Di Giovine, who dealt in stolen cars, helped to develop the drug trade from their contacts with foreign criminals.  Within a few years time, the family’s activities concentrated on the drug business and by the late 1980s, the Di Giovine clan ran one of the largest and most successful drug dealing enterprises in Milan. Their small local business transformed into a significant international trade.

In Late 80's Bartina's Husband Rosario was killed in a drug deal gone bad. She resumed her maiden name of Barzini and moved to the USA. She kept control of her former husband's affairs in Milan, by leaving her son Emilio in charge.  The operation in Milan was fully recognized by other criminal organizations that ran drug trafficking in neighbouring areas.  Drug suppliers dealt only and exclusively with her, unwilling to risk taking other customers out of fear of reprisals.  She ensured the overall operation of the association by distributing merchandise to her other sons and other partners, as well as collecting the money from middleman. Other important duties involved contacts with corrupt law enforcement officers.

According to Maria's daughter, Rita Di Giovine,  "My mother was the boss of the family. She was the one who gave the orders,  even if my brother Emilio was the boss in name.  She decided who was to do what, but she did it all in a way that my brother wouldn't notice she was running the family, not him."Bartina Barzini was sentenced multiple times for Mafia association and murder in the late 90's.  She had ordered the murder of a drug dealer who worked for the family and was guilty of attempting to go into business on his own. The results of the trial were a hung jury, she was ultimately declared not guilty. She is out on bond and continues to work her "magic" as she sees fit.