More than 200 people were sentenced to prison terms of up to 30 years in Italy on Monday following a “maxi trial” against the ‘Ndrangheta, the peninsula’s most powerful mafia.
• Also read: A lion escapes from a circus in Italy for several hours
Of the 338 defendants who appeared in the first instance before the court in Lamezia Terme (South), 207 were found guilty and sentenced, while 131 were acquitted.
The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a total of almost 5,000 years in prison against the mafiosi as well as their business accomplices, civil servants, local elected officials and even high-ranking police officers.
The sentences read by Judge Brigida Cavasino range from a few months in prison to 30 years in prison, a sentence imposed on four people, making a total sentence of around 2,150 years in prison for all those convicted.
One of the most prominent defendants, former senator Giancarlo Pittelli, 70, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, while prosecutors had sought a sentence of 17 years.
Based in Calabria, a very poor region at the tip of the Italian boot, the ‘Ndrangheta is the richest and most powerful Italian mafia.
It is present in around forty countries and exerts a coercive influence on its homeland, infiltrating and corrupting the government and imposing its iron law on the population.
Since January 2021, three judges have given thousands of hours of witnesses, including about fifty repentant mafiosi-turned-justice collaborators, to the activities of the Mancuso family and their associates, an important ‘Ndrangheta clan that controls Vibo Valentia province .
“Deafening silence”
This major trial, organized in a closely guarded bunker in the city of Lamezia Terme, is the most important against the mafia in more than 30 years.
The allegations are numerous: mafia association, drug trafficking, extortion, usury, laundering of dirty money…
During the trial, the defendant described in detail the ‘Ndrangheta’s violent actions, their control over the local population, extortion, manipulation of tenders and elections, the acquisition of weapons, etc.
They revealed secrets about weapons caches in cemeteries or ambulances used to transport drugs, and revealed how municipal water was diverted to irrigate marijuana plantations.
On Monday morning, at the opening of the hearing, a businessman who was a victim of the mafia came, as he has every week since the beginning of the trial, to express his support “to those who help us to free ourselves, the judges and the prosecutors”.
However, interviewed by an AFP journalist, 67-year-old Rocco Mangiardi said he regretted “the deafening silence” of the Italian media on the matter and the absence of ordinary citizens like him on the public benches.
Multinational crime
Anyone who resists the mafia is threatened and even eliminated. They discover dead puppies or heads of goats or even dolphins on their doorstep. Not to mention the cars being set on fire or storefronts being destroyed. Some are beaten up or shot at, others disappear forever.
To illustrate the ‘Ndrangheta’s infiltration into the legal economy, company managers, mayors and officials, including a high-ranking police officer, appear in the dock.
The long-underappreciated ‘Ndrangheta grew quietly for decades while authorities focused their efforts on the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia depicted in films such as “The Godfather.”
The first major trial was also organized against its members in Palermo in 1986 and led to the conviction of 338 Mafiosi.
Experts today estimate that the ‘Ndrangheta, consisting of around 150 Calabrian families, achieves annual global sales of around fifty billion euros.
With the help of Interpol, Italy has managed to tighten its grip on the criminal network in recent years, leading to police around the world identifying and combating ‘Ndrangheta activity on their territory.
But despite its scope, this process is unlikely to affect the ‘Ndrangheta’s activities, experts say.
“I don’t think a police operation is enough to destroy the ‘Ndrangheta,” says Antonio Nicaso, who highlights other priorities: employment, education and changing mentalities. “This is what we need to attack a criminal organization.”