Huge crime gang trial opens

Amaxi-trial is opening in southern Italy against the ’ndrangheta crime syndicate, arguably the world’s richest criminal organisation that quietly amassed power in Italy as the Sicilian Mafia lost its influence.

Prosecutors are hoping the trial will be a decisive blow for the ’ndrangheta, the Calabrian-based mob organisation that has exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenues to extend its criminal reach across Europe and into several continents.

The hearing against more than 300 defendants is opening in a specially constructed bunker on the sprawling grounds of an industrial park in Calabria, the “toe” of the Italian peninsula.

The ’ndrangheta

“has almost a monopoly on cocaine importation in Europe”, prosecutor Nicola Gratteri told reporters in Rome this week.

Investigators say the ’ndrangheta has established bases in much of western, northern and central Europe, Australia, North and South America and is active as well in Africa.

The trial grew out of the investigation of 12 clans l i n ke d to a c o nv i c t e d ’ndrangheta boss.

T hat figure is Luigi Mancuso, who served 19 years in prison for leading what investigators allege is one of the ’ndrangheta’s most powerful crime families, based in the town of Vibo Valentia.

Among the various accusations being considered by the court are drug and arms trafficking, extortion and Ma f i a association, a term used in

Italy for members organised crime groups.

Others are charged with complicity with the ’ndrangheta without actually being a member.

A total of 325 defendants were ordered to be tried in the Lamezia Terme, while 90 more defendants in the investigation chose to have a fast- track trial, which begins later this month in Calabria.

In yet another outgrowth of the same probe, a trial involving five murders begins in Fe b r u a r y elsewhere in Calabria.

The Lamezia Te r m e bunker is so vast that a score of video screens has been anchored to the ceiling so participants can better view the proceedings.

There is a sea of rows of tables for some lawyers to work, with microphones and chairs distanced for Covid-19 health rules. of

SCREEN TIME: Overhead monitors have been set up for participants to watch the trial.