IF IT had been the screenplay for a Hollywood movie about Italian organised crime, it would have been dismissed as far-fetched.
Undercover police footage, released yesterday, which led to the arrest of 304 Mafiosi, members of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, has thrown an intriguing light on the modus operandi of Italy’s most powerful Mafia.
There they are, the members of the northern branch of the ‘Ndrangheta, all gathered together to elect a new leader for the north. The film shows the Mafiosi electing unanimously and by a show of hands, a certain Pasquale Zappia, as maestro generale. The most cinematic aspect of the election is that it took place in Paderno Dugnano, a small town 20km north of Milan, in a civic centre ironically named after Italy’s two most celebrated Mafia investigators, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, both killed by the Sicilian Mafia in 1992.
The police film work is just one highly significant aspect of what seems destined to become a ground-breaking investigation. More than 3,000 police and carabinieri forces were involved in an operation, in both Lombardy in the north and Calabria in the south, which led to the arrest not only of suspected Mafiosi but also of Lombardy businessmen and at least one senior public service figure, Carlo Chiriaco, head of state health services in Pavia. Charges against those arrested include homicide, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, loan sharking and extortion.
Arguably the most significant element to emerge from the months of investigation behind yesterday’s operation was the discovery that the ‘Ndrangheta is, in fact, very similar to its Sicilian cousin, Cosa Nostra, in that it has a vertical power structure. Until now, investigators have tended to argue that, unlike Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta “families” have a large level of autonomy.
Thanks to a huge body of wire taps, photos and undercover surveillance, investigators came to the conclusion that the ‘Ndrangheta, however, now has its own Capo Dei Capi or “boss of bosses”. Thus, the most significant arrest yesterday was that of 80-year-old Domenico Oppedisano, a grand old man of the ‘Ndrangheta who was elected to this newly created position in August of last year at the wedding of Elisa Pelle and Giuseppe Barbaro, both children of ‘Ndrangheta godfathers.
Investigators claim that, rather than exercising any autonomy, ‘Ndrangheta families from Calabria to Canada are tightly controlled by a Calabrian commissione.
They point to the killing of Milan-based, ‘Ndrangheta godfather, Carmelo Novella in July 2008, as proof of this centralised power structure. Novella, it seems, had made the mistake of suggesting that he and his northern associates might break away from HQ down in Calabria. Accordingly, he was simply “disposed of” and replaced by a more trustworthy ‘Ndrangheta soldier.
For most of the last decade, the ‘Ndrangheta has been Italy’s most powerful Mafia, returning turnover of €78 billion last year, according to SOS Impresa, an anti-Mafia monitoring group run by the national retailers’ association. SOS Impresa argue that all organised crime in Italy generated €135 billion last year, or almost 9 per cent of Italian GDP.