Ndrangheta: The pots of cash and a trail of victims

KILLED Maria Chindamo was fed to pigs

MARIA Chindamo was run over by a tractor and fed to pigs when she refused to play ball with the mafia, it is claimed.

Another neighbour had his legs blown off and burned to death when he too, reportedly, refused to sell land to one of the Ndrangheta’s most fearsome clans.

Even an out-of-favour gang member was tortured with pliers until he begged to be killed. The trail of bodies is so long that one informant – Andrea Mantella, who admits killing eight people – lost track of the number of hits he ordered.

Witnesses in the trial include 58 reformed mobsters and, more significantly, the sons of mafiosi choosing to turn their back on all the bloodshed.

Federico Varese, professor of criminology at Oxford University, says: “The sacred rule of omerta, or silence, is beginning to break, even in the Ndrangheta families.”

The Ndrangheta may not be as well known as the Cosa Nostra of Sicily, made famous by the Godfather films.

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But as a crime syndicate it is richer and more powerful and the operation is more akin to a corporate giant, with annual turnover put at 50 billion euros.

The Ndrangheta control most of the cocaine entering Europe. They launder cash with investments in everything from bitcoin to hotels. Seized assets include land, gold bars, hotels, motorboats, cars, luxury homes in Italy and Miami – even a submarine.

Legend has it that millions were buried in cash and used to give out high-interest loans.

In 1995 Francesco Cichello, 21, claimed he accidentally uncovered the stash. His body was later found burned and dumped at a landfill.

At the centre of many allegations are the Mancuso family, linked to drug supply, protection rackets and turf wars.

That is where Maria Chindamo comes in. Last week an informant said Maria, a 42-year-old who grew and sold olives and fruit, was killed and fed to pigs on the orders of the Mancusos.

Her daughter Federica, 21, said: “Even animals don’t behave like that.

“My family was a normal family, a long way from that world.”