'Ndrangheta

• 1. Introduction

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  The 'Ndrangheta, a criminal syndicate from the Calabria region of Italy, carried a village feud to Germany on the 15th of August 2007. Six men were shot dead in front of an Italian restaurant in Duisburg. The killings belonged to a war between two clans from San Luca, the Pelle-Romeo and the Strangio-Nirta. That war had begun in 1991 in their home town and had already left several people dead.

  A quarrel between families in a Calabrian town, settled in a German city, raises questions that police on several continents have spent decades trying to answer. Why do prosecutors so often find the same surnames on their lists of suspects? Who, if anyone, gives orders across a network of clans that each guard their own turf? And how did an organization rooted in poor Calabrian villages grow into one of the most pervasive criminal powers in the world?

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• 2. A Name With Greek Roots

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  The Calabrian word 'Ndrangheta is generally traced to the Greek andragathía, which means gallantry or manly virtue. A related Greek term, andrágathos, joins the words for man and good, and describes a courageous man. In many parts of Calabria, the verb 'ndranghitiari, from the Greek andragathízesthai, means to act with a defiant and valiant attitude.

  The historian John Dickie reads that flattering meaning as evidence about where the phenomenon came from. He argues that the word's "flattering connotations" point to a social world "rooted in the same positive values" that only later "degenerated into criminality." Other historians criticise the Greek derivation as a full explanation.

  Folk culture in Calabria often links the 'Ndrangheta to the Spanish Garduña. Nothing substantiates a connection between the two organizations.

  The name is younger than the thing it describes. In 1861, the prefect of Reggio Calabria noted groups he called camorristi, borrowing the label of the better-known Camorra of Naples. From the 1880s onward, police reports and court sentences describe 'Ndrangheta-type societies under many names, among them picciotteria, onorata società, fibbia and Famiglia Montalbano. These groups worked in the olive and vine-rich districts and were distinct from the anarchic banditry around them.

  An 1890 court sentence in Reggio Calabria described a hierarchy and a code of conduct that included omertà, the code of silence. A court sentence from Palmi in 1897 mentioned a written set of rules found in Seminara. That code stressed honour, secrecy, violence and mutual assistance.

  According to Dickie, Calabrian mafiosi adopted the word 'Ndrangheta themselves around the time it first appeared in Carabinieri documents in the late 1920s. The Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro then brought it to a wider public in the Corriere della Sera in September 1955. By the middle of the 20th century, emigration from Calabria was already carrying its clans far beyond Italy.

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• 3. Blood and Rank

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  About one hundred groups, called cosche or families, make up the 'Ndrangheta, and roughly 86 of them are active in the Province of Reggio Calabria. Each asserts authority over a territory, usually a town or village, though its hold on violence there is not always complete. Estimates of membership vary. Some count 4,000-5,000 members within Reggio Calabria, others 6,000-7,000, with perhaps 10,000 worldwide.

  The families cluster in poor Calabrian communities such as Platì, Locri, Africo, Altomonte and San Luca. San Luca is widely regarded as a stronghold. A former ndranghetista testified that "almost all the male inhabitants belong to the 'Ndrangheta."

  The basic local unit is the locale, which holds jurisdiction over a town or a district of a larger city. A locale may include branches called ndrine, and some of these sit in other cities or even outside Calabria. Sub-units called sotto 'ndrine sometimes appear with their own leaders and staff. In some cases a ndrina has grown more influential than the locale it formally serves.

  Salvatore Boemi, an anti-mafia prosecutor in Reggio Calabria, told the Antimafia Commission that membership often comes "for the simple fact of being born into a mafia family." Marriages bind ndrine together and widen their ranks, so a group often rests on a few core blood families. That is why "a high number of people with the same last name" can end up prosecuted for belonging to one ndrina. Because a unit has no cap on membership, bosses may try to maximize their descendants.

  Sons of ndranghetisti are expected to follow their fathers. From a young age they are raised as giovani d'onore, or boys of honour, before joining formally as uomini d'onore, or men of honour. By the end of 2002, only 157 Calabrian witnesses were in the state witness protection program. Relatively few Calabrian mafiosi turned state witness compared with Sicilian mafiosi in the early 1990s.

  At the bottom of the ladder stand the picciotti d'onore, soldiers expected to obey without question. Promotion makes a man a cammorista, who commands his own soldiers, and who should not be confused with a member of the Camorra. Above the ndrina level come the santista and then the vangelista, and aspiring vangelisti must swear an oath to a life of crime upon the Bible. The quintino, also called padrino, is the second-highest command, made up of five privileged members who report to the boss, the capobastone.

  According to the Antimafia Commission, no formal authority sits above an ndrina boss within his territory. Whether that was ever fully true is disputed.

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• 4. The Meeting at Polsi

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  Every September, near the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Polsi in San Luca, chiefs of 'Ndrangheta locali have reportedly gathered since at least the 1950s. The assembly is called the crimine, and it serves as a forum for debating strategy and settling disputes. Its authority is limited. The head chosen for the occasion, the capo crimine, holds the post only temporarily, because a new representative is elected at each meeting. Bosses from outside Calabria, including Canada and Australia, reportedly attend, which suggests that distant ndrine see themselves as parts of one whole.

  Each boss is expected to report on the year's most important events in his territory, among them kidnappings and homicides. San Luca keeps a special place in this system. A new group or locale reportedly needs authorization from San Luca to operate. Each group also still sends a small percentage of its illicit proceeds to the principale there, in recognition of its "primordial supremacy."

  The Sicilian Commission of Cosa Nostra dates to the 1950s, but the 'Ndrangheta set up a superordinate body only in 1991, after negotiations to end long conflicts between families. That body is called La Provincia, or the Commission. It works through three subordinate bodies called mandamenti. One covers the Ionic side of Calabria, including the Aspromonte mountains and the Locride. One covers the Tyrrhenian side, the plains of Gioia Tauro. A central one covers the city of Reggio Calabria. Historians caution against imagining total independence before 1991, since evidence points to meetings and dispute resolution among locale bosses from at least the late 19th century.

  Security worries produced a secret society inside the organization, known as La Santa, whose members are known only to one another. It departed from tradition by letting bosses cultivate close ties with state officials, and some officials even joined. Many of those links ran through Freemasonry, which santisti were allowed to join despite another breach of the old code.

  Operation Crimine ended in July 2010 with the arrest of 305 members and pointed to a more hierarchical, unified and pyramidal structure than investigators had assumed. Pietro Grasso, Italy's chief anti-mafia prosecutor, described the organization as not solely clan-based. A hierarchical picture also suits Italian criminal law, which allows broader convictions under the doctrine of criminal association.

  Some criminologists object. Anna Sergi argues that the coordinating bodies mainly help separate clans share business ventures and risks, while the clans remain independent territorial units. For her, 'Ndrangheta works more as a brand than as a tightly integrated organization. She adds that the myth of a single entity may inadvertently help the groups, because they can borrow its international reputation to exploit political vulnerabilities and expand.

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• 5. Money and Cocaine

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  In 2007, Italian anti-organized crime agencies estimated the 'Ndrangheta's yearly revenue at 35-40 billion euros, around 3.5% of Italy's GDP. The Italian research institute Eurispes reached a similar figure that year: roughly 44 billion euros, about 2.9% of GDP. Its breakdown puts drug trafficking first, at 27.240 billion euros, or 62% of the total. Commercial enterprise and public contracts follow at 5.733 billion, extortion and usury at 5.017 billion, and arms trafficking at 2.938 billion. Prostitution and human trafficking come last at 2.867 billion.

  Later guesses run higher, and in 2013 some estimates reached 53 billion euros. A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2010 is reported to have put the organization's activities at about three percent of Italy's GDP. The cable lists drug trafficking, extortion, skimming of public contracts and usury.

  Italian investigators estimate that about 80% of Europe's cocaine passes through the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro under 'Ndrangheta control. Other data complicate that picture. A report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Europol names the Iberian peninsula as the main entry point for cocaine into Europe. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime counted almost 38 metric tons of cocaine intercepted in Spain in 2007, against almost 4 in Italy. 'Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra groups are known to run cocaine ventures together.

  In February 2017, Italian Carabinieri reportedly arrested 33 people tied to the Piromalli ndrina over olive oil exports to the United States. Investigators alleged that cheap olive pomace oil was being sold as costly extra virgin oil. In 2016, the American program 60 Minutes warned about organized crime in the olive oil trade, calling "Agromafia" a 16 billion dollar yearly enterprise.

  The organization also runs ostensibly legitimate businesses in construction, restaurants and supermarkets. It reportedly puts illicit profits into real estate and financial ventures, and it skims money from large public works projects.

  Alex Perry's 2018 book The Good Mothers: The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World's Most Powerful Mafia asserts something bolder. Over the past decade, it says, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta has been replacing the Sicilian Cosa Nostra as the dominant drug trafficking organization in North America.

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• 6. Exile, War and Ransom

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  Until the 1960s, the 'Ndrangheta kept its Italian operations largely inside Calabria, where it focused on extortion and blackmail. Cigarette smuggling widened its reach and brought contacts with the Sicilian Mafia and the Neapolitan Camorra. Once large public works projects began in Calabria, skimming public contracts became a major source of income.

  In 1963, Rocco Lo Presti was relocated to Bardonecchia, an alpine town in Piedmont near Turin, under a policy of mandatory internal exile called soggiorno obbligato. The policy was meant to cut crime bosses off from their hometowns and their criminal base. Lawmakers failed to foresee that it would backfire and help mafia activity travel north. Lo Presti was later joined by his cousin Francesco Mazzaferro.

  Their involvement in the local construction sector drew the parliamentary Antimafia Commission, which made its first-ever inspection in Northern Italy at Bardonecchia in 1973. In 1995, Bardonecchia became the first municipality in Northern Italy dissolved over suspected mafia infiltration, and Lo Presti was arrested. The towns of Corsico and Buccinasco in Lombardy are also considered strongholds.

  Disagreements over how to divide illicit gains led to the First 'Ndrangheta war, fought from 1974 to 1977, which left about 233 people dead. Factions in the conflict began kidnapping wealthy people in Northern Italy for ransom. The best-known case came in 1973, when John Paul Getty III was taken. In November, his severed ear was sent to a newspaper. He was released in December, after his grandfather, J. Paul Getty, paid a negotiated ransom of 2.2 million dollars. The 'Ndrangheta is estimated to have carried out over 200 kidnappings between the 1970s and the mid-1990s.

  The Second 'Ndrangheta war began in 1985 and lasted six years. It pitted the Condello-Imerti-Serraino-Rosmini clans against the De Stefano-Tegano-Libri-Latella clans, and it killed over 600 people. The Sicilian Mafia is believed to have helped mediate its end.

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• 7. Raids and Trials

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  On the 16th of October 2005, the 'Ndrangheta assassinated Francesco Fortugno, Deputy President of the regional parliament of Calabria, in Locri. Young protesters took to the streets with banners reading "Ammazzateci tutti!", Italian for "Kill us all." The national government launched a large law enforcement operation in Calabria, and it led to the arrest of many ndranghetisti, including those responsible for Fortugno's murder.

  Prosecuting the organization at home remains hard. Italian judges and prosecutors with high exam scores tend to choose postings outside Calabria, and those sent there often seek an immediate transfer. With a thin government presence and instances of official corruption, civilians in the region are afraid and reluctant to cooperate with the police.

  On the 30th of August 2007, hundreds of officers raided San Luca, the town at the centre of a feud between rival clans. More than 30 men and women were detained.

  On the 9th of October 2012, the City Council of Reggio Calabria was dissolved over alleged ties to the 'Ndrangheta. Mayor Arena and all 30 city councilors were removed to prevent "mafia contagion" in local government. It was the first time a provincial capital's government had been dismissed. Three administrators appointed by the central government ran the city for 18 months until new elections. Suspicions centred on the 10-year administration of Mayor Giuseppe Scopelliti.

  The next day, Domenico Zambetti of the People of Freedom party, Milan's regional government commissioner in charge of public housing, was arrested. He was accused of paying the 'Ndrangheta to win elections and to obtain favors and contracts, including construction tenders for World Expo 2015 in Milan. It was described as the most significant case of 'Ndrangheta infiltration uncovered in Northern Italy to that date. It prompted calls for the resignation of Lombardy governor Roberto Formigoni.

  In June 2014, Pope Francis condemned the 'Ndrangheta for its "adoration of evil and contempt of the common good." He said the Church would fight organized crime and that mafiosi were excommunicated. A Vatican spokesperson clarified that this was not a formal excommunication under canon law, which requires a formal legal process.

  On the 9th of January 2018, operations in Italy and Germany led to the arrest of 169 people linked to the Farao and Marincola clans. Assets worth 50 million euros were seized. The indictment described how owners of German restaurants, ice cream parlors, hotels and pizzerias were coerced into buying wine, pizza dough and pastries from Southern Italy. Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri called it the most significant action against the 'Ndrangheta in 20 years.

  In December 2019, over 300 people were arrested in Calabria in an operation involving 2,500 police officers. Among them was Giancarlo Pittelli, a prominent lawyer and former member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. Gratteri, chief prosecutor in Catanzaro, called it the second-largest operation in Italian organized crime history. Only the arrests behind the Maxi Trial of Sicilian Mafia bosses in Palermo, held between 1986 and 1992, were larger. The trial of the 'Ndrangheta suspects opened on the 13th of January 2021.

  In early May 2023, a crackdown on a 'Ndrangheta network led to 108 arrests in Italy and 30 in Germany, with over 1,000 police officers involved. It followed four years of covert investigation across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Investigators gained insight into the organization's internal workings, including its use of crypto phones and services such as EncroChat and Sky ECC. The organization reportedly relied on them because of movement restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  In November 2023, over 200 people tied to the 'Ndrangheta were convicted after a three-year trial described as the largest mafia trial in three decades. More than 100 defendants were acquitted. Even so, the convictions were considered a significant setback to the organization's activities in Europe.

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• 8. Across the Oceans

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  Michele (Mike) Racco settled in Toronto in 1952. According to a 2018 news report, the old-world boss of Siderno sent such acolytes to populate the New World. Racco led what Canadian judges dubbed the Siderno Group until his death in 1980, and in 1962 he established a Camera di Controllo with help from Giacomo Luppino and Rocco Zito. A witness described that board as six or seven Toronto-area men who make the final decisions and settle disputes among Calabrian gangsters in Southern Ontario. Elements of the 'Ndrangheta are reported in Hamilton, Ontario, as early as 1911.

  Alberto Cisterna of the Italian National Anti-Mafia Directorate gave two reasons for the heavy presence in Toronto. Canada's banking system is secretive, which makes it ideal for laundering money, and it also serves as a route for smuggling drugs.

  Carmine Guido, a member of the Greater Toronto Area cell who became a police informant, was paid 2.4 million dollars by the RCMP between 2013 and 2015 to secretly tape dozens of conversations. He testified at length in 2018 about the organization's structure and activities. The trial targeted Giuseppe Ursino and Cosmin Dracea, who faced cocaine trafficking charges. The judge called Ursino a high-ranking member who orchestrated crimes and then "stepped back to lessen his potential implication." Dracea received nine years. Deputy chief federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos said it was the first time since the Criminal Code was amended in 1997 that Canada had targeted the 'Ndrangheta as an organized crime group.

  On the 18th of July 2019, York Regional Police announced the largest organized crime bust in Ontario, Project Sindicato. The 18-month operation was coordinated with the Italian State Police. Fifteen people were arrested in Canada and twelve in Calabria, and 35 million dollars worth of homes, sports cars and cash were seized. The target was a wing of the 'Ndrangheta headed by Angelo Figliomeni. Fausto Lamparelli of the Italian State Police said the case showed that Canadian families operate autonomously, "without asking permission or seeking direction from Italy."

  The case then unravelled. Charges against three individuals were stayed in 2020. In January 2021, the charges against the remaining six, including Figliomeni, were also stayed after an investigation found improper use of wiretapping and significant breaches of solicitor-client privilege. Police must return all seized property except illegal possessions.

  In the 1960s in Australia, warfare among 'Ndrangheta clans broke out over the Victoria Market in Melbourne, through which an estimated 45 million dollars of fruit and vegetables passed each year. The fighting followed the death of Domenico Italiano, known as Il Papa. In July 1977, the Australian businessman Donald Mackay was murdered for his anti-drugs campaign, and several members of the Barbaro clan were suspected of orchestrating it. In 2008, the 'Ndrangheta was tied to 15 million ecstasy pills hidden in tomato cans from Calabria. It was then the largest ecstasy haul in the world. Pasquale Barbaro was arrested.

  On the 5th of March 2004-47 people were arrested in Belgium, accused of drug trafficking and of laundering money into Brussels real estate worth some 28 million euros. In Germany, a confidential 2009 report by the Bundeskriminalamt said some 900 people were involved in criminal activity and owned hundreds of restaurants. Federal police chief Jörg Ziercke said half the criminal groups identified in Germany belong to the 'Ndrangheta.

  In March 2016, Swiss and Italian authorities arrested 15 people in Switzerland, 13 in Frauenfeld and 2 in Valais, in Operazione Helvetica. Swiss federal police had recorded the group's meetings since 2015 at a restaurant outside Frauenfeld, where the Wängi Boccia Club served as cover.

  In February 2018, the Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak was shot dead at his home together with his fiancée. He had been working on a report about Slovak connections to the 'Ndrangheta. His unfinished story described Italian businessmen with organized crime ties who had settled in eastern Slovakia and spent years embezzling European Union funds meant for that poor region.

  In Brazil, the 'Ndrangheta has operated since the 1970s, and an alliance with the Primeiro Comando da Capital since the mid-2010s has deepened its presence. A steady stream of Brazilian cocaine is crucial to the organization's grip on the European market. Part of it travels through West Africa, including Senegal, Niger, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Brazilian police investigations found that Nicola Assisi lived in luxury properties as a supposedly legitimate businessman while negotiating with important members of the Primeiro Comando da Capital.

  Rocco Morabito, dubbed the "cocaine king of Milan," was arrested at a Montevideo hotel in 2017 after living in Punta del Este under a false name for 13 years. On the 24th of June 2019, while awaiting extradition to Italy, he escaped from Central Prison in Montevideo with three other inmates through a hole in the roof. In May 2021, Brazil's Federal Police, Interpol and Italian police found him in a flat in João Pessoa, where Vincenzo Pasquino was arrested beside him.

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