Brief History of Camorra Mafia Organization (Part Two)
CAMORRA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The Cuocolo’s trial of 1912 profoundly weakened the Camorra’s hierarchical structure leading to a different organizational form in which there were no heads or chiefs anymore, but only independent families operating in different fields and areas. Between the two World Wars, they started to spread their businesses in the whole region of Campania forcing the Fascist government to intervene in order to constrain the criminal phenomenon. Consequently, Mussolini launched a violent repression destroying the major groups in Naples. Nonetheless, few of them survived.
Anyway, the Second World War created the perfect conditions to favor the reconstitution of Camorra’s power. Hunger, prostitution, and the black market became the main distinguishing traits of post-war Naples and the primary work sectors of criminal families as well. Thanks to their relationship with the Italian-American gangster Lucky Luciano, Camorra’s groups began to smuggle food, cigarettes, drugs, and even medicine from the US. Their power was so great, that people used to call them “Price Presidents”. Between the 1940s and the 1950s, Criminals established another business that would have carried on until the present day: Counterfeiting. Mafia members (the so-called “Magliari”) became experts in replicating perfect copies of clothes and other fabrics, even though they were not made with real cotton, wool, or silk.
Paradoxically, urban crime almost disappeared leading the common people to believe the Mafia phenomenon was concluded.
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL FACE OF CAMORRA (1960s-1970s)
Until the 70s, the main business of Camorra was smuggling cigarettes and other products from Eastern Europe and the US. Meanwhile, other crime groups — namely, the ones in Marseilles and Cosa Nostra in Sicily — launched the first international drug trade and started a war to conquer the routes established by the Camorra. Cosa Nostra defeated the Marseilles organization thanks to the involuntary help of the Italian state. Indeed, the primary weapon applied by the Italian magistracy to fight the Mafia phenomenon was the so-called “Soggiorno Obbligato” (forced stay) introduced in 1965. According to it, arrested Mafia members were forced to move far away from their homeland to other Italian cities including Naples. Nonetheless, the Italian legislators underestimated the ability of the criminals to develop relationships with other local mafia members. Thus, the “Soggiorno Obbligato” strengthened the link between Camorra and Cosa Nostra favoring their victory against the French association.
Consequently, Camorra entered into the sector of international drug trafficking, even though — until the end of the 70s — it was just an intermediate. The relationship between the two organizations terminated in 1979 when the Camorra instituted their own narcotraffic business with the compliance of Cosa Nostra.
RAFFAELE CUTOLO AND THE “NUOVA CAMORRA ORGANIZZATA” (1970s-1980s)
Raffaele Cutolo was a minor gangster born in the province of Naples in 1941. After he joined the smuggling dealing, he came across some members of Camorra and ‘Ndrangheta (the Calabrian Mafia organization) and started doing business with them. Nonetheless, he was arrested in 1963 after he killed a guy in a street fight. During his years as imprisoned in the 70s, he had the idea of creating — with the support of ‘Ndrangheta — a new type of organization with the same features as the original Camorra.
The “Nuova Camorra Organizzata” (NCO; New Organized Camorra) idealized by Cutolo was based on a solid hierarchical division and a vertical structure with the peak of the pyramid occupied by Cutolo himself (under the name of “Vangelo”, the Gospel. All the other bosses of the Neapolitan families would have been subjected to his control as all their businesses. Prisons — full of criminals greedy for power and money — would have been turned into recruitment centers. Affiliation required total adherence to the will of Cutolo. This was symbolically represented by an initiation ritual where the new followers had to swear loyalty by repeating a text inspired by the ceremonials of the original Camorra. By doing so, thousands of young imprisoners supported the innovative projects and, in a few years, Cutolo created an army of 7000 people. In 1978, the NCO declared war against the Neapolitan families that joined the forces forming the “Nuova Famiglia” (New Family), since they didn’t want to lose their independence.
The war ended in 1983, after the death of 1500 people.
Nonetheless, going through the whole story, I voluntarily omitted one detail: between 1963 and 2021 (the year of his death), Cutolo spent more than 50 years in prison. In other words, Cutolo was able to build a criminal empire behind bars gaining the support of thousands of people and destabilizing Camorra’s structure for the first time since the Cuocolo’s trial of 1912. This couldn’t be possible without the support of politicians and corrupted policemen (for further information about the link between Cutolo and politics, I suggest reading the iconic story of Cirillo’s kidnap).
The war between NCO and Nuova Famiglia ended for two main reasons:
- In 1982, it was adopted the “Rognoni-La Torre” Law (Art. 416 bis) which — for the first time in Italian history — recognized the existence of Mafia-type associations (namely, the Camorra and the Cosa Nostra) introducing a complete definition of them and providing for the primary weapon against these unique kinds of organizations: The confiscation of assets.
- In 1983, Cutolo was transferred and isolated in the Asinara penitentiary in Sardinia where he was the only convict. In the same year, the police arrested most of his lieutenants, ending Cutolo’s empire.
The Mafia war between NCO and Nuova Famiglia caused the second great point break of Camorra’s history. Even though the conflict generated thousands of casualties and arrests, the main families survived going through one of the most complicated periods of their history. In fact, starting in 1983, new alliances took power and imposed their will over the others provoking internal conflicts, deaths, and wars.
Once again, the Devil was able to avoid its destruction, and in a few years, he pulled one more time one of his best tricks: disappearing in the darkness.
The main source of the article is the book “Storia della Camorra” by Francesco Barbagallo (2010).
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