Front Burner - Italy’s secretive ‘Ndrangheta Mafia on trial

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

More than 350 people currently face trial for their alleged connections with one of Italy’s most powerful Mafia syndicates, the ‘Ndrangheta. The crime group is known for its secrecy. Bosses, accused of murder, money laundering, and drug trafficking, often hide in bunkers in Calabria, even though their business extends around the world. Italy has not held a Mafia trial of this scale since the late 1980s — when the Cosa Nostra was under fire for their operations in Sicily and abroad. Today on Front Burner, CBC Rome correspondent Megan Williams on the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, its evolution, and what this trial could mean for their future.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Jamie Poisson. The Andrangheta are widely seen as the most powerful mafia group in Italy, with an incredible reach around the world.

In fact, the syndicate is considered the largest smuggler of cocaine in Europe. Its business model has evolved from fighting bloody wars in the streets to more sophisticated financial crimes. It's considered to be more profitable selling cocaine than McDonald's is selling Big Macs. Bosses have committed murder, money laundering, extortion, allegedly. They rarely leave the remote villages of Calabria despite being in charge of millions of dollars globally. They build secret bunkers, escape tunnels, and hideouts in the woods. We've come through the pizza oven, down the tunnel, through the bedroom. But none of that has stopped an elite group of investigators called the Cacciatori, or hunters. The hunters' work has come to a climax after a three-year investigation that involved over 24,000 wiretaps, all leading to this massive court case that aims to bring the

Andrangheta Mafia and officials connected to them to justice. There hasn't been a mafia trial of this scale in Italy since the late 80s, when members of the Cosa Nostra, the inspiration behind the Godfather, were being prosecuted. Today, CBC Rome correspondent Megan Williams on the Indrangita Mafia, its evolution, and what this trial could mean for their future. This is FrontBurner. Hi, Megan. Thank you so much for making the time today. Hey, good morning. Great to be here. I'm very much looking forward to this conversation. This is so interesting. And I want to start today by talking about some of the characters in this. And this trial is really focused on one family. I understand the Mancuso family,

who allegedly runs the Ndrangheta Mafia. And the highest profile defendant is this guy named Luigi Mancuso. And can you tell me about him? The uncle, Lozillo, is his nickname. And he's a 66-year-old Ndrangheta boss, he is the head of the Mancuso family. He's already actually done 20 years in prison. He got out recently, but he is back in prison after there was the culmination of this huge operation called Operation Rinashita Scott, reborn or the rebirth of Scott. Ashita Scott, reborn or the rebirth of Scott. And all of the defendants were arrested in December 2019.

And they're all accused of mafia associations. So being members of the Ndrangheta or colluding with them in a range of crimes from murder to extortion to loan sharking. The accused include politicians, police and white-collar businessmen. Arrests that were made in Italy, but also in Germany, in Switzerland and in Bulgaria. Authorities had to specifically build a high-security and high-capacity courtroom with space for 1,000 people to socially distance inside. And I know one reason why these arrests happened and this trial is happening in the first place is because the prosecution has

a key witness from within this family, from within the Mancuso family, right? That's right. It's not unheard of to have what's called in Italy a pentito, a turncoat within the Andrangheta, but it's not that common. And this one is actually a nephew of Luigi Mancuso. His name is Emanuele Mancuso. He's 33. He started collaborating with the head prosecutor, a man named Nicola Gratteri in 2016, and he was nearly killed for his betrayal. And he was nearly killed, actually, also by his mother and his aunt, which shows you how family-based this mafia organization is. Now, all of them are, but this one is particularly ferocious. Wow. Luigi Bonaventura, now working with prosecutors, he was raised to become a powerful

mafia you start with guns as a child they make you shoot they carry guns and you're a kid and it's all a game to you the other kids have toy guns but your guns are real have toy guns but your guns are real you're not afraid of being beaten but of disappointing those who are training you you mentioned this prosecutor nicola grateri and can you tell me a little bit more about him as well yeah nicola Gratteri is a really interesting character. You can hear him now talking about his own childhood a little bit. Here he's saying that he was born and raised in Calabria and that when he was a kid he grew up playing soccer barefoot in the local piazza with the men that later in life he arrested with hundreds of kilograms of cocaine on the coast of Florida. So this is someone who intimately understands the working of the Ndrangheta because he understands Calabrian life. working of the Ndrangheta because he understands Calabrian life. Prosecuting these members of the Ndrangheta underworld is really the goal of his life. He's been doing it for, he's been, you know,

an anti-mafia prosecutor for 30 odd years. And he understands what the risks mean in Italy of launching these huge trials and going after the mafia organization. I mean, there were two really beloved fellow prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were the ones who went after the Cosa Nostra, who were killed in car bombs in 1992. Giovanni Falcone's car was blown up by a half-ton bomb on a motorway in Sicily. His wife and three bodyguards also died. Borsellino, too, was murdered in a mafia bombing along with five policemen. So he understands what the risks are.

They have understood that if they knock me down, all this great work and this great team will stop. There are thousands and thousands of people who believe in me and therefore I am the last hope so this also gives me courage and helps we have to carry on whatever it takes if I pulled out today I would feel like a coward but he's been very tactical about going after the Andrangheta and one of his tactics has been having a kind of open house where he works in Calabria and telling people, local people, that they can come by anytime they want, one afternoon a week, to talk to him and tell him what's going on. And he's cultivated trust at a local level among ordinary citizens. And the other interesting thing about him is he's

extremely accessible to the media. He understands that it's very important to have constant contact with the media, and especially the international media media because the Indrangheta is understood in Italy but it's not so much understood outside of Italy but it's an international organization. There are men of the Indrangheta within the public administration. They attempt to manage it in whole or in part, trying to succeed in dominating, not only on the economic level, but also on the administrative and political level. He sounds like such a fascinating character. I was reading a profile of him talking about how he lives

in this completely walled-off compound under police guard. Megan, can you give me more of a sense of how the Andrangheta works in Calabria, in Italy, and then internationally as well? Sure. in Calabria, in Italy, and then internationally as well. Sure. Calabria, for those who don't know where it is, is the toe of Italy's boot. And it's this wild mountainous region, just a stone's throw across the Mediterranean from Sicily. This is where the Indrangheta is based. And it dates back to the mid-1800s. The name, actually, And it dates back to the mid-1800s. The name, actually, the Indrangheta, it has a Greek root, and it refers to a society of men of honor. It dates back a century and a half ago, but it was only considered a mafia officially under Italian law in 2010.

2010. So, you know, if the world is just catching up with understanding the Andrangheta, Italy itself, you know, is not that far ahead. And how the Andrangheta got to be in the position that it's in today, which is this global player in trafficking of cocaine, a major player, was in the mid 70s until the late 80s in Italy it was responsible for hundreds of kidnappings it would kidnap the the children or the family members of wealthy families including the kidnapping of John Paul Getty the third in 1973 there was that case where they cut off his earlobe and sent it to authorities to prove that he was alive. Young Getty was kidnapped from the streets of Rome, where he had lived like a hippie scrounging money in the Piazza Navona,

who had later emerged was held in the Asperamonte Mountains of southern Italy, one of the strongholds of the mafia. The mother made a public appeal. Communicate to these people that the family is ready to negotiate. So they pivoted from kidnapping people and making their money through that. And they were considered kind of, you know, rural shepherds who were involved in this criminal activity. But then they started investing their money into cocaine throughout Europe, South America, Colombia especially, Canada, United States. And they have dozens of units or family groups. They call them endrine, which is another Greek word that means a man who doesn't bend.

So they have these cells all throughout the world and dozens even in Toronto. Under the statue of the Madonna in the small village of san luca italy the reunion of the indrangheta clan among those often in attendance key clan members from canada and rcmp superintendent kevin harrison tells cbc news quote that's not something that hits you in the face like a body bleeding on the sidewalk they are very savvy they run under the radar in terms of public notoriety. But yet they are so pervasive in the economy. Right. I've also read that there are allegations, too, of skimming of public funds. it's interesting in this particular trial, it's not just members of the Ndrangheta that are on trial. It's also people from the world of business, of finance, lawyers, accountants, police chiefs, local politicians. So it shows that their alliances with the legal world of finance and politics

actually make them even more dangerous to society as a whole. Because the concern is they're involved in illegal financial activities, but they're also influencing government decisions and politics. Right, sort of the insidious nature of this. Exactly. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Do not know their own household income. That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing.

In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. You mentioned before these two assassinations of these prosecutors in the 1980s tied to the Cosa Nostra maxi trial and the Cosa Nostra syndicate. The question amid the wailing sirens and flashing lights of this biggest mafia trial ever is, will it make a difference? Italian authorities have brought 474 accused mafia members to this trial. Using wiretaps and bank records, prosecutors here have put together an 8,000-page indictment that includes drug running, kidnapping and murder.

And can you talk to me a little bit more about the shadow that that trial has now cast on this latest trial? Well, that first trial with the Sicilian Cosa Nostra called the Maxi Processo, the Maxi Trial, which took place, it started in 1986, was really important for officials to finally understand how the Cosa Nostra functioned. In that trial, it was huge as well. There were 338 people convicted. The sentences totaled more than 2,000 years. Even if this trial does not mean the end of the mafia in Sicily, authorities say they hope it will end the myth of its invincibility. It was a historic trial because it was the first time that any mafia style organization was tried on a grand scale. But also it peeled back the inner workings of that organization and disproved once and for all, the theory that this was a loose band of clans, that it was, they used to say in Italian that the mafia, the Cosa Nostra, was more a comportamento,

was more a way of being, rather than a well-organized hierarchical criminal syndicate, which it was. So that was an incredibly important trial for Italy. And it was really the beginning of an era of maxi trials. So some people are going to hear the Cosa Nostra and they'll probably immediately think about the Godfather trilogy, which is inspired by the Cosa Nostra. I ask you again, sir, here and now under oath, were you at any time a member of a crime organization headed by Michael Corleone?

I don't know nothing about that. But of course, media depictions don't tend to be a complete reflection of reality. And one of those clichés that we often see on TV and movies is that it's mostly men who are involved with the mafia. But it's my understanding that that's not really the case with the Indrangita, right? Well, it's worth noting that in this trial,

there are 42 mafia women who are facing charges of everything from murder to extortion, money laundering, arms trafficking, harboring fugitives. And there were another 12 women that did a plea bargain. So they're not part of the trial. But the role of women is complicated. And it's evolved, of course, historically, traditionally, it's been to the female role has been that of sort of like a maternal formation of children raising kids to share the values of the criminal clan, and to play key supporting roles when their husbands or their sons or their brothers go to prison.

But as you mentioned, women are playing more active roles in these groups. And one of the female suspects that's charged with murder for attempting to carry out a vendetta on behalf of her brother who was in prison, although she was thwarted actually because the victim took a cyanide pill. in prison, although she was thwarted actually because the victim took a cyanide pill. Another female suspect is charged with running guns to Bulgaria and storing a cash in her daughter's closet that included semi-automatic weapons and hand grenades. So women are involved in this. But it's also worth pointing out that women are also getting out of the Ndrangheta. But it's also worth pointing out that women are also getting out of the Ndrangheta. The Ndrangheta has arranged marriages, this feudal practice of creating allegiances between families and increasing the power of a certain clan through marriage. women who are kind of forced into marriages become so-called white widows, where they're married off to men who spend the rest of their lives either as fugitives or in prison.

And 20 or so of those women have entered witness protection programs with their children. And it's a very risky move because women who leave the Ndrangheta are supposed to be killed. That's the price that they're supposed to pay for getting out of that system. So, you know, women, it's complicated, women's role within the Ndrangheta. I could really listen to you talk about these stories all day, and it is so fascinating. But one thing that I wanted to ask you today, we've talked about these allegations of murder, money laundering, skimming public funds, closeness with politicians and businesses. And this is, of course, all very harmful to society. But Italy is also suffering through a recession and continues to be hit hard by the pandemic.

And I recall back in April, the mafia gained all this support in poorer regions by offering food. They provide food or they may provide money because they have the liquidity. And so they provide this kind of aid, but not for nothing. And I wonder, how do those factors play into how the Andrangheta is perceived in Italian society? The Andrangheta in Italian society, even though it operates all throughout Italy, but culturally, its presence is felt in Calabria. In terms of how it's taking advantage of this

particular recession, which all organized crime syndicates do, I mean, their motto is sort of opportunity in crisis. What they're doing is a number of things, which other groups are doing as well. I mean, you know, we've heard of situations in Sicily and in Naples, where they're handing out packages of food, for instance, to people, or in Naples, they were suspending what's called the pizzo, which is the protection money that people's shops have to pay each month. So these acts of kindness are carried out, these, you know, seeming acts of kindness are carried out during a recession. And of course, it's a way for the mafia to ingratiate itself into the people. And of course, it's going to be asking for that favor back at some point. But the Ndrangheta is operating mostly on an economic level, on a finance level. So it's investing their liquidity, because they have a lot of liquidity, they have a lot of cash,

by lending money to failing or struggling businesses, sometimes becoming part owners, full owners, but also in guaranteeing loans with banks. And that's another way of taking over. Right, right. And one final question for you. If previous mafia trials are any indication here, what could we see happen with the Andrangheta following this massive trial that's just started in Italy? The effect will be felt most in Calabria. And Nicola Gratteri, the chief

prosecutor, has talked a lot about this, that what he hopes he accomplishes by holding the trial in Calabria, I mean, this trial could have been held somewhere else, but they decided to hold it in Calabria to send a strong message. They want people to see all of those witnesses, that parade of witnesses, head to the courthouse and to denounce the Ndrangheta. That's a very powerful experience for a region that has historically been frightened and quiet about what's going on in their towns and villages and cities. Another really important thing is what I mentioned about Gratteri and how available he is to journalists. And I think what he would like to come out of it is for the Indrangheta to be finally put on the world map. One of the biggest frustrations with

Italian prosecutors and police has been a kind of naivety on the part of other countries, particularly in the European Union, when it comes to the presence of the Indrangheta in their countries. And Italy is way ahead in terms of its laws. The other countries don't so much. And, you know, criminal laws are national laws, even in the European Union. So I think the big message that would be positive to come out of this is that the police need to start cooperating. And that can only happen if people all around the world understand that the Ndrangheta is in their country. Right. And as you mentioned earlier, Canada is absolutely one of those countries. Absolutely. Megan Williams, thank you so much for this conversation. I hope you'll

come back on soon. And you can fill us in on the latest. Thanks so much. It's been a pleasure. Before we go today, some news from Washington. Today, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. Extra security measures will be in place given the violence on Capitol Hill earlier this month. Much of Washington has been in lockdown with thousands of National Guard troops on patrol. President Trump won't be attending the inauguration ceremony and will be flying to Florida this morning. Yesterday afternoon, he released a 20-minute farewell video, thanking his supporters and saying he was praying for the next administration's success. We'll have coverage of that inauguration for you tomorrow on the show. That's all for today,

though. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.