Crackdown on the ‘Ndrangheta: How did the most powerful mafia come to be, and what is being done to stop it?
One of the most famous stereotypes about Italy goes as follows: ‘pizza, mafia e pasta’. Ironically, as for pizza and pasta, there are indeed different types of mafias that populate the peninsula. One of the most obscure is the ‘Ndrangheta. This criminal organization, which is now more than 100 years old, has been classified by the Europol as the world’s most powerful mafia group. At the same time, however, the ‘Ndrangheta remains a relatively unknown phenomena to the general public. This leads to the question of how it managed to rise as a global criminal organization and yet remain fairly unchallenged until recent years. Moreover, given the magnitude of this organization, how are authorities responding to it? Could they do better? This article seeks to answer these questions!
From Regional to Global: How did the ‘Ndrangheta grow?
The ‘Ndrangheta’ has its roots in Calabria, one of the southern regions of Italy. During the 19th century, national newspapers started reporting incidents of extortion rackets and knife attacks in several Calabrian towns. After conducting several trials for such events, judges soon realized that they were facing a hierarchical organization, comprised of different clans that shared the same code of honour and values, as well as having a well defined initiation ceremony.
It still remains unclear why the ‘Ndrangheta emerged in Calabria specifically. Arguably, the newly formed Kingdom of Italy played a key role. In effect, the formation of the Kingdom in the 19th century introduced mass politics in the peninsula, and local politicians often appealed to violent criminal organizations to ensure their victory at the ballot box. Moreover, a culture of silence, secrecy and honour was particularly strong in Italy’s southern regions, possibly due to the distrust that citizens had towards public officials and state representatives. This attitude, which comprises a pillar of the ‘Ndrangheta’s code of conduct, undoubtedly helped the organization seize territorial control.
Until 1970, ‘Ndrangheta’s activities were mainly regional. More specifically, their operations focused on extortion and blackmailing and, with the arrival of public works in Calabria, the organization started skimming public contracts to gain an additional source of income.
In 1973, the international public started to become aware of the ‘Ndrangheta, after the group kidnapped for ransom Paul Getty III, the grandson of J. Paul Getty, one of America’s richest men at the time. Later, the ‘Ndrangheta started investing in cocaine imports from South America, attracting the attention of both the FBI and the Interpol.
By the beginning of the 2000s, the ‘Ndrangheta had consolidated territorial control in Northern Italy, administering one of Europe’s largest drug distribution networks. By 2010, ‘Ndrangheta’s criminal activities became even more profitable, with estimates claiming that the revenues coming from money laundering, narcotics and blackmailing accounted for at least 10% of Italy’s GDP. It also secured its roots in foreign countries, including Germany, Canada and Australia.
Recent figures estimate that, in 2015, the ‘Ndrangheta made a turnover of £44bn, more than McDonald’s and Deutsche Bank combined, while having only 6000 members. It is now present in more than 30 countries worldwide, controlling roughly 80% of Europe’s cocaine market. Given the magnitude of this organization, it is therefore unsurprising that Europol’s ‘Threat Assessment Report’ classified the ‘Ndrangheta as the most powerful criminal organization in the world.
National and International Responses: Can Authorities do Better?
The pervasive nature of the ‘Ndrangheta, together with its ever increasing power, has generated strong national and international responses.
Until the 1970s, Italy had a fairly fragmented and ineffective system of anti-mafia laws. In 1975, the Italian government decided to issue mafia’s worst nightmare: the ‘41 Bis’ prison regime. Under this scheme, mafia-associated prisoners have no contact with any other convicts and strictly limited contact with family members. Clearly, this regime was implemented to force mafia bosses to collaborate with judicial authorities.
However, what is problematic is that due to its notoriously slow and ineffective legislative system, Italy only recognized the ‘Ndrangheta as a mafia-type association in 2011, meaning that 41 Bis was seldom applied to ‘Ndrangheta bosses. Moreover, the 41 Bis scheme has also been subject of heavy criticism, with the European Court of Human Rights contending that the regime breaches two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Regardless, Italy’s strong crackdown on the ‘Ndrangheta has increased in the past 10 years, resulting in last December’s arrest of 300 suspected members, which included politicians and police officials.
The ubiquitous character of ‘Ndrangheta also requires international responses, in order to eradicate its roots from the 30 countries in which it is believed to have criminal activities. Bilateral operations have already been successful in the past. For instance, in 2014, the FBI and the Italian police jointly carried out ‘Operation New Bridge’, which led to the simultaneous arrest of more than 40 suspects located both in Calabria and in New York. This action unmasked a major trans-Atlantic criminal network between two powerful American mafia families and an ‘Ndrangheta clan. Together, they were planning to smuggle 500kg of cocaine through the Italian port of Gioia Tauro.
Multilateral operations have also been implemented in order to tackle the global threat posed by ‘Ndrangheta. In 2016, Europol launched ‘Operation Pollino’, one of the biggest joint actions that Europe has ever witnessed. It consisted of a continuous collaboration between judicial and law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. 2 years later, the joint action led to the seizure of almost 4000kg of cocaine in the Netherlands, as well as the simultaneous arrest of 84 suspected ‘Ndrangheta members.
It is made clear that, in order to effectively weaken the ‘Ndrangheta, national operations carried out by local Italian police forces must be complemented with bilateral and multilateral actions. Having recognized this, the Interpol launched earlier this year the ‘I-CAN’ project, which consists of the largest global attack against the ‘Ndrangheta to date. Its main objective is to facilitate cooperation between worldwide national police forces in order to identify and arrest individuals linked with the ‘Ndrangheta.
What remains unaddressed by the international community, is the urge to create firmer anti-money laundering regulations. In effect, while the Interpol plan has the potential to successfully tackle ‘Ndrangheta’s drug business, it has not been devised to seize ‘Ndrangheta’s money laundering activities. Clearly, by identifying such activities, the Interpol could stop the cycle that allows the ‘Ndrangheta to re-invest the revenues made from illegal activities.
The European Union has already developed numerous anti-money laundering laws. The problem, however, is that the supervision of banks is governed by the national authorities of each individual member state. This implies that issues such as money laundering are often singularly addressed by member states and every state has slightly different laws and intervention capacities. This makes it difficult for law enforcement authorities to successfully coordinate and identify ‘Ndrangheta owned money laundering businesses. A solution could be the creation of an independent agency with a specific mandate and with adequate powers to operate throughout Europe and to counter the growing expansion of ‘Ndrangheta’s money laundering.
Combining on field intervention through Interpol’s ‘I-CAN’ project together with an effective anti-money laundering interstate policy could deliver a decisive blow to the ‘Ndrangheta. This is because such a joint action would block both ‘Ndrangheta’s illegal earnings derived from drug trafficking and, at the same time, seize financial assets used by the mafia to launder the money and earn a ‘clean’ revenue. Again, given the salience and the magnitude of the ‘Ndrangheta, this joint action must be developed now!
All sources used for this article can be found separately in the article entitled “References for my articles” on my profile.
