Italy puts over 320 on trial for ’ndrangheta crime syndicate ties
LAMEZIA TERME, Italy — A trial with more than 320 defendants began Wednesday in southern Italy against the ‘ndrangheta crime syndicate, arguably the world’s richest criminal organization that quietly amassed power as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence.
Expected to take at least a year, the trial is taking place in a specially constructed high-security bunker on the sprawling grounds of an industrial park in Calabria, the “toe” of the Italian peninsula.
Prosecutors hope the trial will deliver a harsh blow to the ‘ndrangheta, the Calabria-based mob organization that has exploited tens of billions of dollars in cocaine revenues over decades to extend its criminal reach across Europe and into several continents.
Anti-mafia Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri told reporters as he arrived at the bunker that the trial, targeting alleged members of a dozen crime clans as well as local officials, businessmen and politicians who were allegedly in cahoots with mobsters, marked a turning point.
“Decades ago, people would tremble when talking about Cosa Nostra or when using the word ‘ndrangheta, something they would say only in a hidden room, around the fireplace, whispering,” said Gratteri, who was born in Calabria and who has recalled how he played and attended school with boys who later grew up to become ‘ndranghetisti, as the syndicate’s ranks are known. “Today we are beginning to speak out in the open sunlight.”
Heartening to him and others in Italy who are tackling the ‘ndrangheta as well as other Italian crime syndicates are the growing departures from the past, when few dared to provoke mobsters’ retaliation by reporting attempts to demand “protection” money from businesses large and small and other forms of intimidation.
“We have been seeing a spike in complaints by businessmen, bullied citizens, victims of usury, people who for years have been under the pall of the ‘ndrangheta,” Gratteri said.
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 first three hours of the trial’s opening day were consumed by the court’s formal rollcall of the defendants and their lawyers. Defendants who are jailed, due to convictions in other cases, could follow the proceedings by a video conference.
The trial grew out of an investigation of 12 clans linked to a convicted ‘ndrangheta boss. That figure is Luigi Mancuso, who served 19 years in Italian prison for his role in leading what investigators allege is one of the ‘ndrangheta’s most powerful crime families, based in the town of Vibo Valentia.
The prosecution has indicated it hopes to call more than 900 witnesses.