Narcotic Background:
The Ndrangheta organised crime group is arguably one of the worlds 'richest organised crime group'. The Ndrangheta largest mafia-style organised group is responsible for much of European cocaine trade, systematic money laundering, bribery and violence. The transnational criminal organisation is believed to operate internationally with interests in further countries such as Australia. It has extensive and powerful criminal organisation networks despite its roots in Calabria, Italy. It has expanded to more than 40 countries worldwide and continues to grow.
The group has became an urgent threat to international peace and security, due to its influential widespread corruption. The criminal network have been involved in violence known as the San Luca feud and involved in mass shootings such as Duisburg Massacre in Germany 2007. It has been uncovered in investigation that the Italian criminal network has been working in partnership with the Colombian organised crime group Gulf Clan. It was also found the Italian group has provided weapons to the notorious Primeiro Comando da Capital in Pakistan in exchange for cocaine shipments.
Arrests:
More than 150 people have been arrested across European states Germany, Spain and Italy after a three year investigation into a powerful Italian mafia group. The investigators in Italy and Belgium believe the group has smuggled close to 25 tonnes of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022. Law enforcement authorities have raided multiple locations and seized several companies, with a total of over 2,700 officers being involved in the investigation. There has been a huge multinational police operation across recent years to challenge organised crimes and to take down the Ndrangheta organised group.
INTERPOL (I-CAN):
The launch of the INTERPOL cooperation against Ndrangheta crimes, it is a joint initative with Italy to combat the global threat of mafia-type crimes. It is funded by the Italian Department of Public Security to focus upon capturing members of the organised group Ndrangheta. The purpose of the programme is to enhance the ability of law enforcement worldwide to challenge mafia-type organisations. The project focus is to dismantle operations by the organisation and challenge the criminal network created. The I-CAN aims to increase cooperation and operational activities upon the global platform.
The pillars I-CAN represents include content, access and action. The purpose of the I-CAN pillar is to build upon Italian experience and knowledge of the threat posed by Ndrangheta, structure and operation. It becomes a vital policing information available to target countries, identifying patterns and trends for law enforcement. It also is coordinating with joint investigations with national law enforcement agencies to identify and arrest individuals in connection with Ndrangheta linked activities. The Ndrangheta group has "repeatedly proven its skill in infilitrating political and economic environments, and a remarkable capacity for corruption" stated Secretary General Jurgen Stock.
Practical support is handed to countries in colloboration to deal with the mafia group. There are six modules that the I-CAN project makes available through a virtual academy and guide police academies of the member countries. Further, they provide ad hoc training tailored to specific needs of the law enforcement agencies. There are also access to the Criminal Analysis Files, containing 50000 entities companies and individuals, and more than 30 published analytical reports.
International organised relations:
GULF CLAN: The network is known as a service provider to independent drug traffickers, controlling territories and regulates the international trafficking corridors. In May 2022 the Gulf Clan ordered a four-day strike in retaliation for their former leader's (Dairo Antonio Usuga) extradition to the US in Colombia. The Gulf Clan took control of 11/23 Colombian departments, imposing lockdowns, closing off roads and disrupting transportation links. Many towns had ran out of basic supplies and local hospitals having staff shortages. The purpose of the strike was to demonstrate that the organised group had military strength and they were de facto authority. As a result of the strike twenty-four civilians were killed and there was an attempted fifteen murders. In March 2023 the Colombian president Gustavo Petro has suspended a ceasefire to the drug trafficking cartel. A ceasefire was agreed in December 2022 for 'total peace in Colombia' however became short lived. It was accused that the mafia group had broken the ceasefire, inciting protests, shooting at police officers and now wanted the security forces to challenge the structure of the organisation. Henry Sanabria, head of Colombia's police force, has said that officers would be mobilised and sent to areas of high activity. The Ndrangheta connection to Colombias paramilitaries has became evident through exchange of cocaine and laundering money. In Colombia, they still remain control of most drug trafficking routes and are still a reliable connection for the Ndrangheta.
PRIMEIRO COMANDO DA CAPITAL: The First Capital Command (PCC) is a criminal organisation formed by prisoners as self-protection groups in Brazils prison system. In the early 2010s the group had branched to establish drug and arms trafficking operations in neighbouring countries like Bolivia and Paraguay. It had expanded its criminal portfolio to include international drug trafficking operations and developed ties with the powerful Italian mafia Ndrangheta. It has became the largest criminal organisation in Brazil and participate in crimes including: prostitution, kidnapping, bank robberies and money laundering.
SAN LUCA FEUD: The Duisburg Massacre shook Germany and highlighted the authority that Ndrangheta had outside of its territories of origin. A death of six Italians in Western Germany was at the result of the mafia family feud. The victims were gunned down due to a 16 year conflict between Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Romeo clans, rival families of the Ndrangheta mafia mob native to Calabria. The victims were to be connected to the Nirta-Strangio family according to Italian authorities. Pressure by law enforces has helped the Ndrangheta expand its drug operation and tight family structures. The conflict between the two organised groups continue and since the massacre in 2007 there has been no identified killing.
GERMANY:
Suspects in Germany are accused of money laundering, gang tax evasion, commercial gang fraud and narcotics smugglings. In particular, an unnamed man was arrested in Saarbrucken in an operation involving 30 special police units and riot police. Both his house and business premises were searched.
FRANCE:
EDGARDO GRECO: In February 2023 the French police had arrested mafia hitman Edgardo Greco who had links to the Ndrangheta group and spent 16 years on the run after convicted of killing two people in the 1990s. He was working under an assumed identity and avoided arrests to that point. Greco was part of a rival gang; the bodies of Bartolomeo brothers were beaten to death in January 1991 and their bodies were never found (belief they were dissolved in acid). An arrest warrant against Greco was awarded in 2006 but he had taken a new identity. He has now been given a life sentence in Italy and was subjected to a European arrest warrant. Interpol, the international policing agency, had said his crimes were linked to the mafia wars in early 1990s.
ITALY:
MATTEO MESSINA DENARO: In January 2023 Italian police had arrested mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro who had spent three decades on the run. He is suspected of being the leader of the Cosa Nostra crime group. He was known as the last godfather and represented the group Cosa Nostra. He was apprehended as he went to a medical clinic in Siciliy. He faces a life sentence for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome, and Milan that killed 10 people in 1993. He is accused by prosecutors to being solely or jointly responsible for numerous other murders in the 1990s. In 1993 he had helped organised the kidnapping of 12 year old Guiseppe Di Matteo in attempt to dissuade his father from giving evidence against the mafia. The boy was held captive for two years before he was strangled and body was dissolved in acid.
ROCCO MORABITO: A prominent member of the Morabito-Bruzzaniti-Palamara clan was considered one of the worlds leading drug traffickers. He was the subject of a Red Notice issued by Italy in 1995. He was placed on Italy's most wanted fugitives and was arrested in 2017 in Uruguay. However, he managed to escape prison in 2019. He was apprehended in Brazil in May 2021 before being extradited to Italy July 2022.
Until the next Legal Thought,
Elicia Maxwell
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