Hundreds Sentenced in Trial That Sought to Break Mafia’s Grip on Southern Italy

Hundreds of defendants had been sentenced to jail on Monday in a case that prosecutors and consultants mentioned dealt a vital blow to the Mafia in southern Italy and confirmed how the mob retains deep ties to cocaine trafficking, but in addition exerts management over the native financial system and establishments by highly effective politicians.

The sentences marked a blow to the prison syndicate often known as ‘Ndrangheta, by imprisoning leading members of the Mancuso crime family, a group based in the southern Italian city of Vibo Valentia that prosecutors say has strong links to criminal organizations in the United States and elsewhere.

But they also showed how powerful the mobsters had gotten, steering local politics, local governments and even a former member of Italy’s Parliament.

Giancarlo Pittelli, who served in Parliament and was the regional coordinator of the center-right Forza Italia celebration when it was led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was discovered responsible of abetting the ‘Ndrangheta from the outside and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The case also resulted in prison sentences for a lieutenant in the Carabinieri, Italy’s navy police drive, and an official with the native finance police, in addition to a former regional councilor and a former member of the Democratic Party’s nationwide meeting.

The studying of the sentences of the over 330 defendants lasted greater than an hour, and coated crimes starting from extortion to cash laundering, corruption, usury, homicide and involvement in a prison group.

But the trial additionally resulted within the acquittals of some members of native establishments, together with a mayor, one other former regional council member and a few native police officers.

The case started greater than three years in the past, when police raids towards the Calabrian Mafia and their associates led to the arrests of greater than 330 individuals in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Bulgaria.

The title of the regulation enforcement operation, “Rinascita Scott,” or Rebirth Scott, paid homage to a U.S. drug agent who spent years pursuing ‘Ndrangheta mobsters.

The ‘Ndrangheta, while not the most well known Mafia group from Italy, is considered one of the most dangerous.

The crackdown on the internationally notorious Sicilian and southern Italian crime families goes back decades, and has severely depleted their power and influence.

The Campania-based Camorra syndicate has captured the public imagination with TV shows, including the popular HBO Max series “Gomorrah,” and movies.

Yet the ‘Ndrangheta, once considered just a group of rural gangs based in Calabria, has grown to control much of Europe’s cocaine commerce and has emerged as one among Europe’s most feared prison organizations. Prosecutors say it has deep connections globally, together with ties to South American drug lords and associates in about 50 international locations, together with the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“From a gaggle of punchers on the order of native rich lords, the ‘Ndrangheta is now a service agency and a structural component of global capitalism,” said Antonio Nicaso, a professor of social history of organized crime at Queen’s University in Canada who has written extensively in regards to the mob.

“The trial and the verdicts showed how it was able to form alliances with law-enforcement officials, the institutions and national politicians,” he mentioned.

Mr. Nicaso additionally mentioned that whereas such crackdowns are an indication of presidency vigilance towards the ‘Ndrangheta, the group is such a deeply rooted phenomenon in southern Italy that it can’t be uprooted simply “with handcuffs.”

After the preliminary wave of arrests, a handful of youthful kinfolk of ‘Ndrangheta households began collaborating with prosecutors, betraying the familial bonds which might be the spine of the native clans.

“Some young men put the community ahead of their blood,” Mr. Nicaso mentioned. “That is the strongest message of this trial.“