An Italian court has convicted and sentenced more than 200 people for crimes including criminal association, extortion and bribery in Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades.
The verdicts mark the end of a three-year “maxi-trial” that took place in a high-security courtroom in the southern Calabria region, purpose-built to house up to 350 defendants, 400 lawyers and hear 900 witnesses against an extensive network statements from members of the notorious ‘Ndrangheta.
Although more than 100 people were acquitted by the Lamezia Terme court, the conviction represents one of the biggest blows yet to the powerful organized crime syndicate that enjoys a near monopoly on the European cocaine trade.
Almost all of the defendants were arrested in December 2019 after a lengthy investigation that began in 2016 and spanned at least 11 Italian regions. About 2,500 officers took part in raids against suspects in Vibo Valentia, Calabria, the heart of an area mainly controlled by the ‘Ndrangheta’s Mancuso clan.
An elite unit of Carabinieri known as Cacciatori, literally “the hunters”, arrested several suspects hiding in bunkers located behind sliding stairs, hidden trap doors and maintenance hole covers.
A police chief, local councilors and businessmen who were accused of aiding and abetting the mafia were also arrested in Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria.
Former Forza Italia MP Giancarlo Pittelli has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a court for supporting a mafia clan.
Nicola Gratteri, an anti-Mafia prosecutor who led the investigation, told the Guardian at the time of the raids that it was the largest operation against the crime syndicates since the 1986-92 Palermo Maxi Trials, when Sicilian prosecutors arrested 475 people brought to the dock.
Almost all of the defendants were arrested in December 2019 after a lengthy investigation that began in 2016 and spanned at least 11 Italian regions. Photo: Valeria Ferraro/APFor the trial, Gratteri’s team collected 24,000 wiretaps and conversations to support her allegations.
Investigators provided extensive evidence of the ruthless and oppressive tactics used by the ‘Ndrangheta to control the local community, including violent attacks, extortion, corruption in public contracts, weapons stockpiling, election manipulation and bribery.
The gangsters were members or supporters of the leading ‘Ndrangheta group operating in Vibo Valentia, an economically disadvantaged rural area where the mafia has exerted its influence for many years, suppressing the local economy, infiltrating public institutions and terrorizing the population.
In particular, the trial represented a significant departure from previous cases as the defendants included non-Mafia individuals. These people included a senior police official, mayors, other officials and business people.
On Monday, Gratteri, who was appointed Naples’ chief prosecutor this year, said: “It is a very significant verdict and we are very satisfied.” We have finally proven that there was a network of employees, entrepreneurs and politicians who were involved with the Calabrian clans did business.”
Most of those sentenced Monday said they would appeal their convictions.
Vibo Valentia’s ‘Ndrangheta, whose members are known by colorful nicknames such as “The Wolf,” “Fatty,” “Sweetie” and “Lamb Thigh,” is deeply rooted in the local economy. The criminal group inspired fear among business owners and farmers while enjoying the protection of employees and politicians.
Informants revealed shocking details, such as the hiding of weapons in cemetery chapels and the transport of drugs in ambulances. They also revealed cases in which municipal water supplies were diverted for marijuana cultivation.
Those who dared to oppose the ‘Ndrangheta were met with acts of violence, including dumping dead puppies, dolphin or goat heads on their doorsteps, attacking storefronts with sledgehammers, or setting their vehicles on fire. Some suffered physical attacks, disappeared without a trace or were killed.
The high-security courtroom in Calabria was purpose-built to accommodate up to 350 defendants, 400 lawyers and hear 900 witnesses. Photo: Valeria Ferraro/APLuigi “The Supreme” Mancuso, the territory’s undisputed ruler, was removed from the list of defendants last year to face a separate trial.
At the trial, codenamed Rinascita (Rebirth), all eyes were on his nephew Emanuele Mancuso, who revealed the clan’s secrets after accepting police protection.
Vincenzo Capomolla, the deputy chief prosecutor of the Calabrian capital Catanzaro, said: “The Vibo Valentia clans are rooted in every aspect of life, as well as in the economic and social fabric of the province. This sentence shows it and shows the absolute power of the Mancuso clan.”
The ‘Ndrangheta, once ridiculed by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Campanian Camorra mafios, is by far the most powerful criminal group in Italy and one of the richest in the world. According to a 2013 study by the Demoskopita Research Institute, the company was financially more powerful than Deutsche Bank and McDonald’s combined, with annual sales of €53bn (£44bn).
According to the investigators, the secret of success lies in its strong integration in Calabria. Bosses rarely leave their remote villages, despite running global businesses worth millions.
To protect themselves, they build escape tunnels under their homes, elaborate bunkers in the mountains that can only be reached on foot, and hideouts in the forests when they are on the run. During the investigation, police discovered a pizzino, a small piece of paper used by the Mafia for high-level communications that contained a quote from three 17th-century knights who, according to legend, founded the Cosa Nostra in Sicily Camorra in Campania and the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria.
Although they live like hermits in the mountains of Calabria, the ‘Ndrangheta bosses are able to launder millions of euros from drug trafficking through shell companies. Unlike the Sicilian Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta clans are characterized by deep blood ties, a quality that until recently made this organization virtually impenetrable.