Modern history Of the Mafia
Until 1975, the Ndrangheta restricted their Italian operations to Calabria, mainly involved in extortion and blackmailing. Their involvement in cigarette contraband expanded their scope and contacts with the Sicilian Mafiaand the Neapolitan Camorra. With the arrival of large public works in Calabria, skimming of public contracts became an important source of income. Disagreements over how to distribute the spoils led to the First Ndrangheta warkilling 233 people. The prevailing factions began to kidnap rich people located in northern Italy for ransom. A high-profile case was the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, who had his severed ear mailed to a newspaper in November, and later released in December following the negotiated payment of $2.2 million by Gettys grandfather, J. Paul Getty. The Second Ndrangheta war raged from 1985 to 1991. The bloody six-year war between the Condello-Imerti-Serraino-Rosmini clans and the De Stefano-Tegano-Libri-Latella clans led to more than 600 deaths. The Sicilian Mafia contributed to the end of the conflict and probabl suggested the subsequent set up of a superordinate body, called La Provincia, to avoid further infighting. In the 1990s, the organization started to invest in the illegal international drug trade, mainly importing cocaine from Colombia. Deputy President of the regional parliament of Calabria Francesco Fortugno was killed by the Ndrangheta on 16 October 2005 in Locri. Demonstrations against the organization then ensued, with young protesters carrying banderoles reading Ammazzateci tutti!, Italian for Kill us all The national government started a large-scale enforcement operation in Calabria and arrested numerous ndranghetisti including the murderers of Fortugno. The Ndrangheta has expanded its activities to Northern Italy, mainly to sell drugs and to invest in legal businesses which could be used for money laundering. In May 2007 twenty members of Ndrangheta were arrested in Milan. On 30 August 2007, hundreds of police raided the town of San Luca, the focal point of the bitter San Luca feudbetween rival clans among the Ndrangheta. Over 30 men and women, linked to the killing of six Italian men in Germany, were arrested. Since 30 March 2010, the Ndrangheta has been considered an organisation of mafia-type association according to 416 bis under the Italian penal code. On 9 October 2012, following a months-long investigation by the central government, the City Council of Reggio Calabria headed by Mayor Demetrio Arena was dissolved for alleged ties to the group. Arena and all the 30 city councilors were sacked to prevent any mafia contagion in the local government. This was the first time a government of a capital of a provincial government was dismissed. Three central government-appointed administrators will govern the city for 18 months until new elections. The move came after unnamed councilors were suspected of having ties to the 'Ndrangheta under the 10-year centre-right rule of Mayor Giuseppe Scopelliti. Ndrangheta infiltration of political offices is not limited to Calabria. On 10 October 2012, the commissioner of Milans regional government in charge of public housing, Domenico Zambetti of People of Freedom (PDL), was arrested on accusations he paid the Ndrangheta in exchange for an election victory and to extort favours and contracts from the housing official, including construction tenders for the World Expo 2015 in Milan. The probe of alleged vote-buying underscores the infiltration of the ;Ndrangheta in the political machine of Italys affluent northern Lombardy region. Zambettis arrest marked the biggest case of Ndrangheta infiltration so far uncovered in northern Italy and prompted calls for Lombardy governor Roberto Formigoni to resign. In 2014, in the FBI and Italian police joint operation New Bridge, members of both the Gambino and Bonanno families were arrested, as well as ten members of the Ursino clan. Raffaele Valente was among the arrested. In Italian wiretaps, he revealed that he had set up a faction of the Ursino Ndrangheta in New York City. Valente was convicted for attempting to sell a sawn-off shotgun and a silencer to an undercover FBI agent for $5000 at a bakery in Brooklyn. He was sentenced to 3 years and one month in prison. Gambino associate Franco Lupoi and his father- in-law, Nicola Antonio Simonetta, were described as the linchpins of the operation. In June 2014, Pope Francisdenounced the Ndrangheta for their adoration of evil and contempt of the common good" and vowed that the Church would help tackle organized crime, saying that Mafiosi were excommunicated. A spokesperson for the Vatican clarified that the popes words did not constitute a formal excommunication under canon law, as a period of legal process is required beforehand. On 12 December 2017, 48 members of Ndrangheta were arrested for mafia association, extortion, criminal damage, fraudulent transferral of assets and illegal possession of firearms. Out of the 48 arrested, four were forced to house arrest and 44 were ordered to jail detention. Two-time mayor of Taurianova, Calabria and his former cabinet member were among the indicted. It was alleged by investigators that the Calabrian clans had infiltrated construction of public works, control of real estate brokerage, food fields, greenhouse production and renewable energy. According to some reports, the Ndrangheta works in conjunction with Mexican drug cartels in the drug trade, such as with the mercenary army known as Los Zetas. On 9 January 2018, law enforcement in Italy and Germany arrested 169 people in connection with the Ndrangheta mafia, specifically the Farao and Marincola clans based in Calabria. Assets worth €50 million (£44/$59m) were seized. The indictment mentions that owners of German restaurants, ice cream parlours, hotels and pizzerias were forced to buy wine, pizza dough, pastries and other products made in southern Italy. The Farao clan was being led by life-imprisoned Giuseppe Farao, before the arrests, and was passing orders onto his sons. They controlled bakeries, vineyards, olive groves, funeral homes, launderettes, plastic recycling plants and shipyards. The waste disposal of the Ilva steel company based in Taranto was also infiltrated. Some of the charges were mafia association, attempted murder, money laundering, extortion and illegal weapons possession and trafficking. Italian prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri, said that the arrests were the most important step taken against the Ndrangehta within the past 20 years. Eleven suspects were detained and accused of blackmailing and money laundering. They were deported back to Italy. Alessandro Figliomeni, former Mayor of Siderno, Calabria, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on 7 May 2018. He is alleged to be a member of the Commisso ndrina clan and served in the top hierarchy. In December 2019, more than 300 people were arrested in Calabria on suspicion of belonging to the Ndrangheta in an operation involving 2,500 police. Among those arrested was Giancarlo Pittelli, a prominent lawyer and former member of Silvio Berlusconi Forza Italia party. The arrests weresaid by Nicola Gratteri, the chief prosecutor in Catanzaro, to be the second largest in number in the history of Italian organised crime, after those that led to the so-called Maxi Trial of Sicilian Mafia bosses in Palermo between 1986 and 1992.
