Italy convicts 70 mobsters in mafia ‘maxi trial’

AN ITALIAN court on Saturday convicted and sentenced 70 mobsters in a crucial test of the largest mafia trial in more than three decades.

Judge Claudio Paris read out verdicts and sentences against 91 defendants facing charges including murder, extortion and money laundering in a specially adapted courtroom in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme.

The convictions were the first verdicts in a huge “maxi trial” of hundreds of suspects affiliated with the ’Ndrangheta, the country’s richest and most powerful mafia group, that opened in January.

Those sentenced on Saturday had opted for a speedy trial which took place behind closed doors and allowed them to have a third of their sentence shaved off if they were convicted.

Another 355 people, including some of Italy’s most senior suspected crime bosses, have yet to be judged in proceedings

that are expected to last two years or longer.

Nicola Gratteri, an anti-mafia prosecutor who has lived under police escort for more than 30 years because of his tangles with the ’Ndrangheta, said the sentencing had gone “very well”.

Eight defendants including Domenico Macri of the group’s military wing; Pasquale Gallone, the right-hand man of alleged mob boss Luigi Mancuso, whose trial is still pending; and Gregorio Niglia, whose role included procuring weapons and extortion, received maximum 20-year sentences.

About a third of the group received sentences of a decade or more, while 21 individuals were acquitted, seven at the request of prosecutors, Mr Gratteri said.

The ’Ndrangheta, which operates in the Calabria region in the toe of the peninsula’s boot, is believed to be more powerful than Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and controls the bulk of cocaine flowing into Europe.

The group consists of approximately 150 families jockeying for position within the organisation. They are supported by at least 6,000 members and affiliates in Calabria, swelling to thousands worldwide, experts estimate.