Can Italy Defeat Its Most Powerful Crime Syndicate, The 'Ndrangheta?

Rachel Donadio at the Atlantic offers a piece on the Italian organized crime group the ‘Ndrangheta.

The airport at Lamezia Terme, Calabria, in the toe of Italy’s boot, was built in the 1970s and has not aged well. The cement facade is punctuated by rows of round windows that resemble oversize portholes. The parking lot is poorly paved. Beyond it rises an unfinished concrete tower, open to the elements and

I was there one day last year to meet Nicola Gratteri, the chief prosecutor for nearby Catanzaro, a small city high in the hills of central Calabria. Gratteri has dedicated the past three decades of his life to fighting a Calabria-based organization known as the ’Ndrangheta—the richest, most powerful, and most secretive criminal group in Italy today. (Pronounced en-drahn-get-ta, the word essentially means “man of honor”; it is believed to be derived from the Greek andragathía, or “heroism.”)

Sicily’s Cosa Nostra has been romanticized by the Godfather movies. The Neapolitan Camorra has become widely known through the film and TV series Gomorrah. But the ’Ndrangheta, the least telegenic and most publicity-shy of Italy’s Mafias, is the most aggressive.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/10/italian-mafia-ndrangheta/615466/ 

Inside Europe's Most Powerful Mafia -- The 'Ndrangheta

Tim Lister at cnn.com offers a piece on the ‘Ndrangheta, seen as the most powerful organized crime group in Europe.

(CNN) Back in 2010, Domenico Oppedisano was often seen taking his fruit to market in the town of Rosarno in southern Italy, chugging around in his three-wheeled van. But the 80-year old had another job: he was 'chairman of the board' of Italy's most powerful mafia group -- the 'Ndrangheta.

This week, police in four European countries carried out raids on the ‘Ndrangheta’s sprawling empire of money-laundering and drug-trafficking, arresting 90 people. They described "Operation Pollino" -- two years in the making - as a "decisive strike against one of the most powerful Italian criminal networks in the world."

The operation took place the day after the alleged head, or "godfather," of the Sicilian mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, was arrested with 46 other people in the Palermo region of Italy on mafia charges.

But Oppedisano, now in jail after being arrested eight years ago, may not be impressed. The 'Ndrangheta has been the target of raids and even US Treasury sanctions for well over a decade. And yet it has entrenched its dominance of the cocaine trade, forging links with organized crime groups in Latin America, New York, Turkey and Albania. 

Mafia watchers estimate its turnover is probably in the range of about $60 billion a year -- similar to the GDP of Croatia or Bulgaria. And it may control as much as 80% of the cocaine entering Europe.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/08/europe/ndrangheta-mafia-raids-analysis-intl/index.html 

Italian Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Says Mafias Now Cooperating

The Miami Herald offers a piece on Italian organized crime and international drug trafficking.

MILAN - Italy's new national anti-mafia prosecutor said Thursday that Italian organized crime gangs are increasingly cooperating to control international drug trafficking.

Prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho told an anti-mafia conference in Milan that the Italian mafias "are not isolated. By now, they move together. The 'ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra, Camorra, also the groups from Puglia" work together, coordinating, for example, ports they use for heroin and cocaine shipments.

"They are able to change the commander on a ship in Panama, and insert their own commander, so the ship can handle a big transport of drugs," Cafiero De Raho said, illustrating their reach.

While in southern Italy organized crime "occupies the entire territory," in the north the mafia is making inroads by entering the real economy by preying on business people in difficulty who accept financial help to keep their business alive, until eventually they are forced out.

Cafiero De Raho urged Italian law enforcement and magistrates to cooperate on exchanging data and other information, saying it was "the first step in the strategy" to defeat organized crime.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article186252518.html 

Italian Police Hold Mafia Boss After 20 Years On Run

The British newspaper the Guardian offers a piece on the capture of an Italian organized crime boss.

Italy’s second most wanted mafia boss, Ernesto Fazzalari, was arrested on Sunday after almost two decades on the run, apprehended by the paramilitary carabinieri police.

Fazzalari, of the notorious Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s richest and most powerful criminal organisation, had been a fugitive since June 1996. He was the country’s second most wanted mafia boss in terms of influence and danger to society behind Matteo Messina Denaro, of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia, a police statement said.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/26/mafia-ernesto-fazzalari-arrest-ndrangheta-calabrian-italy

'Human Shield' Three-Year-Old Was Shot Dead In Southern Italy Alongside His Mafia Boss Grandfather Who Took The Boy With Him Everywhere To Prevent Assassinations It Is Revealed, As Police Arrest Two Men

Thomas Burrows at the Daily Mail offers a piece on the poor young child was killed in Italy with his organized crime grandfather.

Police in Italy have arrested two people on suspicion of murdering three-year-old Nicola 'Coco' Campolongo in the killing that sent shockwaves through the country.

The toddler, who was being used as a human shield by his grandfather, was shot in the head in the town of Cassano allo Ionio.

He was murdered along with his grandfather and his grandfather's Moroccan girlfriend in an apparent mafia assassination linked to drug-dealing territory. 

Coco's body was found strapped in a car seat in a burnt out Fiat Punto in January 2014 in a case that stunned Italy.

Today Cosimo Donato, nicknamed 'Mouse', and Faustino Campilongo, known as 'Potbelly' were arrested.

They murdered Coco because he recognised them, police said.

His grandfather, Giuseppe Iannicelli, had been trying to expand his business in Cosenza - a territory controlled by the powerful 'Ndrangheta mafia - and had started taking his grandson with him on drug runs to try and stave off reprisals.

The two alleged attackers lured Iannicelli to a meeting purportedly to pay for a batch of drugs, then killed all three.

On the roof of the torched car was a single unmarked 50 cent coin, an apparent symbol from the assassins that Iannicelli had not paid his debt. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3269920/Human-shield-three-year-old-shot-dead-alongside-mafia-boss-grandfather-took-boy-bid-prevent-assassinations-revealed-police-arrest-two-men.html