'Ndrangheta trial: "most of the accused come from regional civil society"
The extraordinary trial against the criminal organization 'Ndrangheta opened this Wednesday, January 13 in a bunker in Calabria.
AP - Valeria Ferraro
Text by: Vincent Souriau
5 mins
A maxi-trial against the all-powerful Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, opened this Wednesday in Italy.
Interview with Federico Varese, professor of criminology at Oxford and specialist in organized crime.
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Italy had not known such a trial since the 1980s. On the dock are suspected members of the Calabrian mafia power 'Ndrangheta, but also entrepreneurs, administrative leaders, politicians and police.
In all, 355 people.
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To read also: The biggest trial against the 'Ndrangheta mafia opens in Calabria
The list of offenses is very long: murders, mafia association, drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons, money laundering, concealment, usury, or even abuse of power.
Italian magistrates want to make these hearings an example of the fight against organized crime that has controlled international drug flows for years.
RFI: How would you describe the group which has been in court since Wednesday
?
Federico Varese:
The organization that is at the heart of this trial is the Mancuso clan, which is both one of the most violent and the most adventurous clans of the Calabrian mafia, with a truly international dimension.
They have established links with Australia, Colombia, the United States, because they are extremely well integrated in the international drug market.
It is a criminal group that comes from a very small province in the west of Calabria… How did they manage to build an empire of this importance
?
Their fundamental asset is the port of Gioia Tauro, at the tip of the Italian boot… They have been present there for years, they control part of it and this is where the containers of narcotics arrive from Latin America.
Traditionally, the 'Ndrangheta has always had this international vocation, and, apart from the Mancuso, a very large number of Calabrian mafia groups maintain relations with, for example, Australia, Canada or Germany.
They have a lot of money from drug trafficking, but also because they dominate the local economy.
They have built a lot on the Calabrian coast, especially tourist complexes which are owned by front companies.
We do not have precise figures but we are talking about billions and billions of euros.
They are extremely rich.
We talk a lot about historic, exemplary, never-before-seen trials. However, this is not the first procedure targeting executives of the Calabrian mafia. What makes this trial different from those of the past
?
In a way, the most annoying element is that most of the accused who will appear are from regional civil society.
They are entrepreneurs, politicians, civil servants, police officers… This is especially what this trial highlights: the very close relationship between a criminal group and the society that surrounds it.
Two entities which are supposed to ignore each other but which, in reality, are deeply entangled.
It is for this reason that at first glance, the accused have very common profiles.
There is still a new fact
: the presence of repentant Mafia who collaborated with the police ...
Yes, there are 58 repentants who will participate in this trial.
And what is extraordinary is that we count among them the son of the leader of the Mancuso who will testify against his own family.
It is rather a new fact within the 'Ndrangheta.
It was seen in Sicily, where members of the Mafia are not recruited on the basis of blood ties.
Until now, it was very rare in Calabria, because in Calabria, when you're mafia, denouncing your collaborators means denouncing your father, mother, sister or sons.
It is much more difficult.
The novelty is that this process is beginning to bear fruit in Calabria, and I believe it should be credited to
the prosecutor who has never let go
.
The Mafiosi are almost certain to spend several decades in prison and this prospect must have decided some.
But if you take the son Mancuso, he said he does it for his daughter as well, so that she doesn't grow up in this environment.
There are therefore ethical motivations.
But what matters most is the fear of spending your life behind bars
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