LAMEZIA TERME, Italy – A trial of more than 320 defendants began in southern Italy on Wednesday against the ‘ndrangheta crime syndicate, probably the richest criminal organization in the world, which has quietly gathered power as the Sicilian mafia has lost influence.
It is expected to last at least a year, the process takes place in a high security bunker built specifically on the vast grounds of an industrial park in Calabria, the “finger” of the Italian peninsula.
Prosecutors hope the trial will deal a severe blow to “ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia organization that has exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenues over the decades to expand its criminal coverage across Europe and several continents.”
Anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri told reporters when he reached the bunker that the trial, which targeted alleged members of a dozen criminal clans, as well as local officials, businessmen and politicians who were allegedly involved in the mob dispute, marked a decisive moment.
“A few decades ago, people trembled when they talked about Cosa Nostra or when they used the word ‘ndrangheta, something they only said in a hidden room, around the fireplace, in a whisper,” said Gratteri, who was born in Calabria and who he remembered how he played and went to school with boys who later grew up to become ‘ndranghetists, as the ranks of the union are known. “Today we begin to speak in the light of the sun.”
Encouraging him and others in Italy to tackle the “ndrangheta,” as well as other Italian crime syndicates, are the growing departures of the past, when few dared to provoke mafia retaliation by reporting attempts to demand “protection” money from big business. small. and other forms of intimidation.
“We have seen an increase in the complaints of business people, of abused citizens, of victims of usury, of people who, for years, have been in control,” Gratteri said.
Investigators say that “ndrangheta has established bases in much of western, northern and central Europe, Australia, North and South America and is also active in Africa.
The first three hours of the opening day of the trial were consumed by the official appeal of the court of the defendants and their lawyers. Defendants who are incarcerated due to convictions in other cases could follow the proceedings through a video conference.
The trial resulted in an investigation of 12 clans linked to a convicted Ndrangheta chief. This figure is Luigi Mancuso, who served 19 years in Italian prison for his role in leading what investigators claim is one of the strongest crime families of the “ndrangheta”, based in the city of Vibo Valentia.
The prosecutor’s office said it hopes to call more than 900 witnesses.
The charges examined by the court include drug and arms trafficking, extortion and mafia association, a term used in Italy’s criminal code for members of organized crime groups. Others are accused of complicity with the ndrangheta without actually being a member.
About 325 defendants have been ordered to stand trial in Lamezia Terme, while another 90 defendants in the investigation have chosen to have a speedy trial, which begins later this month in Calabria. In another evolution of the same investigation, a trial involving five crimes begins in February elsewhere in Calabria.
The Lamezia Terme bunker is so vast that a number of video screens were anchored to the ceiling so that participants could see the works. There is a large table to work 600 lawyers, with microphones and chairs spaced safely to comply with COVID-19 health rules.
While the numbers are impressive, this week’s trial is not the largest in Italy against mobsters.
In 1986, in Palermo, in a similarly built bunker, 475 suspected members of Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, were tried, resulting in more than 300 convictions and 19 life sentences. The trial helped uncover many brutal methods and murderous strategies of the island’s top mafia bosses, including sensational killings that bled the Palermo area during years of power struggles.
In contrast, this lawsuit against “ndrangheta aims to obtain convictions for alleged conspiracy between mobsters and local politicians, public officials, businessmen and members of the secret lodges, to indicate how deeply rooted the union is in the territory.
Based almost entirely on blood ties, ndrangheta has been virtually immune to turncoats for decades. But their ranks are beginning to become more substantial. Among those who return the state evidence in the Lamezia Terme trial is a relative of Mancuso. Dozens of informants in the case come from the “ndrangheta, but others are from the former ranks of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily and may be called to testify.
Flooded by cocaine trafficking revenues, “ndrangheta has engulfed hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, car dealerships and other businesses throughout Italy, especially in Rome and the rich north, criminal investigations have shown.
Bribes in recent years have spread strongly throughout Europe, as the Ndrangheta sought to launder illicit income but also to earn “clean” money, conducting legitimate business, including in the tourism and hospitality sectors, according to investigators.