Italian police announced on Thursday that they have dismantled a ‘Ndrangheta mafia ring that controlled a big portion of southern Calabria and seized assets worth more than 250 million euros.
Over 300 police officers targeted portions of Italy’s poorest region controlled by the Mancuso clan and its associates — a major offshoot of the infamous ‘Ndrangheta, whose top operatives are among hundreds of defendants in an ongoing megatrial.
Police and prosecutors claimed 56 individuals, many of whom were already incarcerated, were placed under investigation for a variety of offences, including mafia-related conspiracy, extortion, kidnapping, bribery, and weapon possession.
In addition to accused mafia members, the operation reportedly netted businesspeople, a regional councillor just released from prison, a former director of the regional tourism board, and two government workers, according to the police.
The clan’s imprisoned leader, Luigi Mancuso “The Supreme,” is the largest fish in the mafia trial that began in January 2021.
Still, according to authorities, his clan and associates, notably the La Rosa and Accortini families, have continued to dominate operations in the province of Vibo Valentia at the toe of Italy, known as the “Coast of the Gods” for its breathtaking coastline views.
A panoramic picture of Calabria’s Vibo Valentia on November 19, 2021. GIANLUCA CHININEA/AFP sourced from Getty Images
The infiltration of a foreign tour operator in Pizzo Calabro, which overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea, was one mafia scheme.
Due to the ‘Ndrangheta’s pervasiveness in the Calabrian economy, its eradication is nearly impossible.
The ‘Ndrangheta is more powerful and wealthy than Sicily’s Cosa Nostra because it controls the majority of cocaine entering Europe. It has expanded well beyond its rural origins and now functions on a global scale, reinvesting illicit profits in the regular economy.
In the region surrounding Vibo Valentia, extortion of local businesses and bid-rigging are also prevalent.
Police say those arrested on Thursday are accused of transporting and selling stolen farm equipment to Malta and Romania.
Thursday’s operation stretched to other sections of Calabria, Sicily’s Palermo, Rome, and Milan, police said.
At a press conference, anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, whose efforts to destroy the ‘Ndrangheta have forced him to live under police supervision for more than 30 years, referred to the group as a “fierce mafia syndicate” that controls territories surrounding the Tropea resort.
Francesco Messina, head of Italy’s organized crime investigation unit (DAC), noted the clan’s “substantial” local extortion operations as evidence of its economic dominance.
Messina noted the “total absence” of complaints to authorities as evidence of the ‘Ndrangheta’s power to intimidate.
Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most-wanted fugitive, was apprehended by officials after a 30-year manhunt only last week. The 60-year-old fugitive was apprehended in a Palermo health facility where he had sought therapeutic treatment, according to officials.
Monday, Italian police in Sicily apprehended Andrea Bonafede, the man whose identity Messina Denaro used for 30 years while on the run, according to officials.
The arrest warrant for Bonafede was issued by Judge Alfredo Montalto, who stated that Bonafede was suspected of being a member of Cosa Nostra and aiding Messina Denaro in his capacity as a prominent crime boss.
Messina Denaro was regarded as “Mafia nobility”; he was the last of three senior mafia leaders, the others being the renowned Salvatore “Toto” Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, both of whom evaded capture for decades and continued to live in secrecy in Sicily.
Before his arrest in 1993, Riina, the so-called “boss of bosses,” had been on the run for 23 years. Provenzano evaded capture for 38 years and was finally apprehended in 2006.
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