By Europol.
Mafia-type Italian organised crime is a clear and present threat to the European Union (EU). The basis of the power of the Italian Mafias resides in their control and exploitation of the territory and of the community. The contextualised concepts of family, power, respect and territory are fundamental to understanding the dynamics of the Mafias. The Mafias are capable of manipulating elections and installing their men in administrative positions even far away from the territories they control. From that perspective, the threat they pose is unparalleled by any other European Organised Crime Group (OCG).
Exploiting legislative loopholes and using the services of corrupt administrators and professionals, they launder money and manage it through front companies and straw men. The four Italian Mafia-type organisations – Sicilian Mafia, Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, Neapolitan Camorra and Apulian Organised Crime – present common traits but also specific individual characteristics that need to be appreciated. When operating outside their territory of origin, the Mafias modify their behaviours and modi operandi.
Cosa Nostra is the oldest, most traditional and widespread manifestation of the Sicilian Mafia. Its international expansion has mainly been directed towards North America. In the EU its emissaries facilitate criminal operations and money laundering. Cosa Nostra’s present strategy of keeping a low-profile is valid both within the territories it controls and outside them. Cosa Nostra is increasing its involvement in cocaine trafficking, often cooperating with other Mafias.
Extremely skilled Cosa Nostra money launderers manage legitimate business structures and have infiltrated the economy of some target countries, including South Africa, Canada, USA, Venezuela and Spain. Other Sicilian Mafia groups not affiliated to Cosa Nostra include the Stidda and the Cursoti and Laudani clans. They also present a threat at an EU level because of their involvement in violent crime, including hit-and-run armed robberies.
The ‘Ndrangheta is among the richest and most powerful organised crime groups at a global level. It has a dominant position on the European cocaine market due to excellent relations with the producers. The ‘Ndrangheta is trying to colonise new territories and attempts to exert its influence over Calabrese migrant communities. It reproduces abroad perfect copies of its operational structures, the ‘Ndrine (or Clans) and the Locali, which still fall under the supreme authority of the Calabrian Crimine.
The ‘Ndrangheta has a hierarchical structure and has repeatedly proven its skill in infiltrating political and economic environments and its remarkable capacity for corruption. Through the shrewd use of its immense liquidity (of criminal origin) in legitimate business structures it has been able to achieve a position of quasi-monopoly in selected sectors, such as construction, real estate and transport. The ‘Ndrangheta is mainly present in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, the USA, Colombia and Australia.
The Camorra is for the most part a horizontal cluster of Clans and Families engaged inconstant internal strife. Their presence on the territory has a very high impact. Unlike theirSicilian and Calabrian counterparts, Camorra bosses tend to have a very high profile, with a flashy lifestyle and extravagant expenses. Outside its territory the Camorra is mainly involved in drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, illicit waste dumping and particularly in the sale of counterfeit products, either procured via Chinese OCGs or directly manufactured by the Clans.
It is also among the principal producers of counterfeit Euros, then sold to and placed on the market by other OCGs. The Camorra is present in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, the USA and Latin America. Apulian Organised Crime is frequently and wrongly identified with the Sacra Corona Unita (SCU), which is one of its components but by no means the only one. The Società Foggiana, the Camorra Barese and the Gargano’s Mafia are other criminal clusters belonging to Apulian Organised Crime.
Traditionally engaged in smuggling, Apulian organised criminals evolved from trafficking cigarettes to human beings, drugs, weapons and illegal waste disposal. Outside of Italy, Apulian Organised Crime is present mainly in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Albania.
2 INTRODUCTION
2.1 Background
Italian organised crime is known all over the world, to the point that the term ‘Mafia’ is now understood across the globe as referring to the organised criminal underworld. Literature on the subject is abundant, ranging from history, sociology and criminology to fiction and plain entertainment. The distinctive character, looks, habits, idiosyncrasies and jargon of the Mafiosi have been described, analysed, explained and imitated. Apparently, everybody is familiar with Italian organised crime.
Nevertheless, a document analysing the overall scope of Italian organised crime at an international level from the law enforcement (LE) perspective, and the threat it poses in the EU and beyond, does not exist. This document is intended to fill that important information gap. This is a public report intended for a wide audience, based on a more detailed strategic assessment prepared for law enforcement purposes. The extreme difficulty in collecting information of the required quality confirmed the particular nature of Italian OC, which tends to operate ‘under the radar’ whenever it acts outside its territory.
2.2 Aims and Objectives
The restricted version of this document, made available to the EU law enforcement community, aims at explaining the nature and structure of the four Italian Mafias: Sicilian Mafia, Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, Neapolitan Camorra and Apulian Organised Crime. It analyses their international dimension, the different attitudes they assume when operating outside their territory, the well-practised and new modi operandi used in their criminal operations, and their trans-national strategies. It also attempts to anticipate their next moves, and indeed to identify possible vulnerabilities and the course of actions necessary to successfully combat Mafia activity.
The decision to produce a report focusing on these OCGs was based on an intelligence gap recognised by Europol in the production of the 2011 Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA) and confirmed in the production of its successor, the 2013 Serious Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA). This is in line with Europol’s role in the EU Policy Cycle for organised and serious international crime, which foresees the production of regional or thematic threat assessments to address identified intelligence gaps.
This public report aims to summarise the restricted document in a manner which affords the reader a good understanding of the nature of Italian Organised Crime and an appreciation of the very real threat they currently pose to the European Union, and the challenge facing law enforcement agencies as a result. The much longer restricted report includes extensive details of up-to-date case examples, with relevant citations, which cannot be included here for reasons of confidentiality.
3 ITALIAN ORGANISED CRIME: COMMON FEATURES
The origin of Italian Mafia-type criminal organisations is the subject of abundant literature.Many theories are provided in the vast array of varied and often conflicting explanations of how, when and where the Mafia was born. These range from myth and legend, often mixed with Hollywood glamorisation and media speculation. The present report is a threat assessment, not a historical study. Research on the genesis of the Mafias and narration of their evolution is not the objective. However, there are a few fundamental and interconnected tenets that must be seriously considered whenever the Italian Mafias are involved: family, power, respect and territory.
3.1 Family
In virtually every culture, family is considered the basic element of society. It provides food, shelter and education to the newborn, manages internal dynamics and settles possible disputes. Several families and individuals constitute a community, where interpersonal relations are ruled by law (ubi societas ibi ius). Laws are made by the state exercising sovereignty on the territory where the community reside, and the state ‘upholds the claim to the monopoly of the use of physical force in the enforcement of its order’1.
Family bonds and obligations vary according to cultural and historical differences. In areas historically affected by a strong presence of Italian organised crime, the emotional and affectionate character commonly attributed to Mediterranean people, combined with a secular mistrust towards the state,2 amplified the role and the power of the family in the community. Governed by distant and foreign powers that preserved obsolete feudal rights far into the 19th century, local communities in Southern Italy were deprived of a consistent network of social, economic, industrial and political structures that, in the rest of Western Europe, marked the progress of modern states since the Peace of Westphalia (1648).
The state was often seen as a greedy and hostile entity imposing taxes without providing services, and the extended family was considered the only reliable point of reference. That sense of belonging to the family is often stretched to the point of superseding the rule of law governing the community of reference, leading to actions for the benefit and aggrandisement of the family and its members, even to the detriment of the community.
That overpowering sense of family, which has been romanticised in cinema and literature, is a formidable obstacle to the normal evolution of the community. In fact, no one affected by it will further the interests of the community, except when it is to his (or his family’s) private advantage to do so. In such cases, the expectation of material gain is the only motive for involvement in public affairs. This sentiment provided the ideal base on which the Mafias built their power: total commitment to (and total control of) a closely knit group; tremendous emotional impact boosted by centuries of local traditions; induced self-victimisation to justify abusive behaviours (‘everybody is against us, but we will defeat them all’); mistrust of the state and of its laws (‘the family only recognises and follows its own rules’); incessant reinforcement of family ‘esprit de corps’; strict systems of reward and punishment; overbearing emphasis on an adapted concept of honour; and ruthless treatment of members considered as traitors.
3.2 Power
Hunger for power is the essence of the Mafias. In common with all other OCGs, economic power is of paramount relevance to Mafia-type organisations, but it is by no means the only form of power they seek, and possibly not even the most important….
To keep reading about this great report go to: https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/italian_organised_crime_threat_assessment_0.pdf
