Agostino Cuntrera was born in Siculiana, Sicily, in 1944. His father, grandfather, uncles and cousins were all members of the Mafia and had a leading position in the community around Siculiana. His family was intermarried with several other families from which the most prominent is the Caruana family. They formed one of the most profitable drug networks the world had ever seen and were closely associated with men such as Gaetano Badalamenti, Nicola Gentile and Michele Greco.