New Mafia Discovered in Rome - "Mafia Capitale", 37 people arrested

Mafia a Roma, 37 arresti per appalti del comune - articolo La Repubblica

Maxi operazione a Roma per "associazione di stampo mafioso" con 37 arresti, di cui 8 ai domiciliari, e sequestri di beni per 200 milioni. Un "ramificato sistema corruttivo" in vista dell'assegnazione di appalti e finanziamenti pubblici dal Comune di Roma e dalle aziende municipalizzate con interessi, in particolare, anche nella gestione dei rifiuti, dei centri di accoglienza per gli stranieri e campi nomadi e nella manutenzione del verde pubblico: è quanto emerso dalle indagini del Ros che hanno portato alle misure restrittive e ai sequestri da parte del Gico della Finanza. Le accuse vanno dall'associazione di tipo mafioso, estorsione, usura, corruzione, turbativa d'asta, false fatturazioni, trasferimento fraudolento di valori, riciclaggio e altri reati. "Con questa operazione abbiamo risposto alla domanda se la mafia è a Roma - ha spiegato il procuratore capo di Roma, Giuseppe Pignatone, nel corso della conferenza stampa dopo la maxi-operazione - Nella capitale non c'è un'unica organizzazione mafiosa a controllare la città ma ce ne sono diverse. Oggi abbiamo individuato quella che abbiamo chiamato 'Mafia Capitale', romana e originale, senza legami con altre organizzazioni meridionali, di cui però usa il metodo mafioso". Nello specifico, ha riferito Pignatone, "alcuni uomini vicini all'ex sindaco Alemanno sono componenti a pieno titolo dell'organizzazione mafiosa e protagonisti di episodi di corruzione. Con la nuova amministrazione il rapporto è cambiato ma Massimo Carminati e Salvatore Buzzi (presidente della cooperativa 29 giugno arrestato oggi) erano tranquilli chiunque vincesse le elezioni".

Gli arresti. A capo dell'organizzazione mafiosa l'ex terrorista dei Nar, Massimo Carminati che, secondo gli investigatori, ''impartiva le direttive agli altri partecipi, forniva loro schede dedicate per comunicazioni riservate e manteneva i rapporti con gli esponenti delle altre organizzazioni criminali, con pezzi della politica e del mondo istituzionale, finanziario e con appartenenti alle forze dell'ordine e ai servizi segreti''. L'organizzazione di Carminati è trasversale. Ne è convinto il procuratore capo di Roma Giuseppe Pignatone che sull'argomento ha precisato: "Con la nuova consiliatura qualcosa è cambiato, in una conversazione Buzzi e Carminati prima delle elezioni dicevano di essere tranquilli". Carminati diceva a Buzzi, ha spiegato Pignatone: "Noi dobbiamo vendere il prodotto, amico mio, bisogna vendersi come le puttane" e di fronte alle difficoltà presentate da Buzzi, Carminati aggiungeva: "Allora mettiti la minigonna e vai a battere con questi". 

fonte: http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2014/12/02/news/perquisizioni_alla_pisana_e_in_campidoglio-101923254/

A Critical Analysis of Anti-Corruption Agencies [ESSAY]

A critical analysis of anti-corruption agencies

Author: Alessandro D'Alessio

Anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) are public funded bodies that have the specific duty to tackle corruption through both repressive and preventive activities and, in general, are built under acts of an executive or legislature decree[1].

Paolo Borsellino (Palermo, 19 gennaio 1940 – Palermo, 19 luglio 1992)

Marco Travaglio: Informazione e disinformazione dalla P2 ad oggi

EU Anti-Corruption Report 2014 press conference (February 2014)

Camorra mafia 'super boss' Antonio Iovine turns state witness [The Guardian/UK]

One of four bosses of Casalesi clan within Camorra mafia is collaborating with investigators in Naples, Italian media says

A so-called super boss of a powerful clan within the Camorra mafia has turned state witness and is collaborating with investigators in Naples, Italian media reported on Thursday.

Antonio Iovine, one of the four bosses of the infamous Casalesi clan, started answering the questions of anti-mafia prosecutors earlier this month, La Repubblica wrote. The Naples daily Il Mattino declared it "a historic choice".

Aged 49, but known to all as o'ninno (the baby) for his youthful face and his rapid ascent of the Casalesi power structure, Iovine is thought to have effectively led the business side of the clan's activities before his arrest in 2010 and subsequent jailing for life.

All four bosses are behind bars after a big trial that concluded in 2008. But "until now, none of the core leadership of the Casalesi has ever turned state witness", said John Dickie, professor of Italian studies at University College London and the author of several books on the mafia. "It will be interesting to see if this is the start of the fissuring of this leadership group."

Reports of Iovine's decision were greeted with excitement by Roberto Saviano, a journalist whose bestselling book Gomorrah earned him repeated death threats from the Casalesi, a group known to have made huge inroads into construction, waste disposal and politics.

"This is news that risks changing for good what we know to be true about business and organised crime not only in Campania [and] not only in Italy," he wrote.

"He [Iovine] is someone who knows everything. And so now everything could change. The earth is trembling for a large part of the business and political worlds – and for entire branches of institutions.

"The companies, big and small, which … were born and prospered thanks to the flow of cash from Antonio Iovine, feel as if they're in a room whose walls are increasingly closing in."

Saviano, who lives under police protection, grew up in Casal di Principe – the fiefdom of the Casalesi – and took particular aim at the clan's activities in his book, which went on to become an award-winning film directed by Matteo Garrone.

He said that, while the phenomenon of mafia bosses turning police informers was nothing new, Iovine's move was a first for the Casalesi top brass. The only comparable pentito, he said, had hailed from a previous generation.

"Iovine is the organisation," said Saviano, predicting that his decision to talk could yield information not only about business and the criminal underworld, but also about the past two decades of politics in Italy – not least Nicola Cosentino, a key ally of the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in the Campania region around Naples.

Cosentino was arrested in April on suspicion of colluding with the mafia to favour his family business, allegations his lawyer has described as absurd.

Iovine was sentenced to life, in absentia, at the end of the so-called Spartacus maxi-trial in 2008, and to 21 years and six months at the end of a trial this year. So far, none of the other Casalesi bosses in prison – Francesco Schiavone (AKA Sandokan), Francesco Bidognetti or Michele Zagaria – have collaborated with investigators.

Dickie said the development could prove interesting "more for what he [Iovine] can reveal about the past", particularly regarding politics. However, testimony from mafiosi turned state witnesses was always handled with great caution and its use was "controversial, not least because of [the pentito's] motives".

The interior minister, Angelino Alfano – Berlusconi's former would-be successor – appeared to reflect this ambiguity, telling Sky TG24 television on Thursday: "Sincere repentances have helped the fight against the Cosa Nostra and the [Calabrian] 'Ndrangheta … If the same thing happens with the Camorra it could open interesting scenarios and could even lead us to its defeat."

Luigi De Magistris, the former anti-mafia prosecutor who is now mayor of Naples, was quoted as saying the news was a positive development, opening breaches within the Camorra clans, and a sign of "collaboration with justice".

SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/22/camorra-mafia-boss-antonio-iovine-state-witness-italy-naples 

Article by Lizzy Davies 

Occorre compiere il proprio dovere ogni giorno,costi quel che costi,qualunque sia il sacrificio da sopportare,perchè è in ciò che sta l’essenza della dignità umana.
Giovanni Falcone

Tangentopoli/Bribesville [Essay]

Tangentopoli

The Tangentopoli (Bribesville) case was probably the greatest corruption scandal happened in Italy. It caused the collapse of an entire party system that had characterised the First Republic[1] since 1946. About five hundred members of Parliament, six former Prime Ministers and thousand local administrators were investigated within the judicial inquiry called Mani Pulite (Clean Hands) led by Antonio Di Pietro. Everything began in February 1992 when a socialist manager and director of a nursing home in Milan, Mario Chiesa, was arrested, accused of a small bribe (7 million Lire, about 5000 GBP as of 2013) from a businessman who had a cleaning contract at the home. At first Bettino Craxi, at the time leader of the Socialist Party (PSI), affirmed that it was an isolated case. However Chiesa, questioned by the Mani Pulite pool of prosecutors, explained how the bribe was, by then, a sort of “tax” and revealed a more complex network of bribery that involved almost all political parties, especially the PSI and the Christian Democratic Party (DC).

-The CBA- [Article]

Anti-Corruption Efforts in Poland

-The CBA-

Review by Alessandro D’Alessio

The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) is a polish special service that has the specific objective to combat corruption in public and economic life, especially in local and public government institutions as well as fighting against actions that can have a negative impact to the State’s economic interest. The Act of 9 June 2006 on the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau regulates its activities. The Head of the CBA, appointed for a term of 4 years, is the central authority of the government administration; the Prime Minister appoints him after a consultation with the President of the Republic of Poland, the Special Services Committee and the Parliamentary Committee for Special Services; the Head of the CBA may be reappointed only once.

Mafia clans map provided by italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" 2/03/2014

"Corruption and Organized Crime in Europe: Illegal partnerships" [Book Review]

      Gounev, Philip; Ruggiero, Vincenzo et al.
      Corruption and Organized Crime in Europe: Illegal partnerships
      Taylor and Francis 2012

Review by Alessandro D’Alessio

With “Corruption and Organized Crime in Europe” the authors aim to define the relationships between corruption and criminal organizations within the 27 Member States of the European Union. Ruggiero and Gounev, through theoretical arguments and empirical data analysis, describe and succeed in outlining different aspects of these phenomena with a deep analysis that concerns many different fields.

The book is split in two distinct parts. The first one deals with definitional problems related to the notions of organized crime and corruption that often differ from one place to another due to cultural or political background diversities as well as with different countries legislations. Ruggiero analyses also various variables suggesting that the quantitative aspects, the number of the individuals involved in a criminal group, the notion of “continuing basis” and “professionalism” help to define what criminal organizations really are. Throughout the book they consider organized crime as “crime in organization” highlighting the importance of the legal-illegal nexus. This latter refers to when organized groups gain access to the official economy and to the world of institutional politics. Through the notion of criminal networks the authors help the reader understand the relationship between corruption and organized crime because the entry into licit business has to be favoured by a web of contacts with politicians and members of the economic sector. They provide also a wide range of observations to what concerns the relationships between corruption and democracy leading to the idea that corruption exacerbates the moral and political de-skilling of the electorate.

Then the inquiry moves to a deeper description that involves public bodies, the private sector and criminal markets.

As for the public bodies the writers show how corruption is used as a tool of influence and also a way to communicate with countries’ administrations as well as the judiciary systems, the police and the politicians. However the data offered by the EU and other organizations, such as Transparency International, display several difficulties in the measurement of the issue. Introducing the concept of “white-collar” offences they underline how, especially in certain areas such as Italy or Southern France, local criminal elites have always been colluded with local politics. Ruggiero and Gounev outline that corrupt relationships can be sporadic or symbiotic. This latter type can be found in specific towns where parallel power structures are developed and democratic principles are simply subverted leading to the phenomenon of “state-capture”.

In the following chapter Gounev describes the scope of private sector corruption for criminal organizations that is to penetrate and take advantage of a private company against the will of its owner. He explains that criminals do this mainly because they want to facilitate criminal activities or launder profits from other crimes. He suggests also some anti-corruption measures for companies such as following the international standards contained in the United Nations Convention against Corruption, internal whistleblowing and anti-bribery policies even though criminal behaviours are, in the majority of companies, detected by outside bodies (police investigations).

With regard to criminal markets the authors aim to demonstrate how corruption facilitates particular “organized criminal activities” such as the illegal cigarettes market, prostitution and trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation, illicit drugs market, vehicle theft and extortion racketeering. They give wide information concerning different aspects of corruption (administrative, police, judicial, private sector corruption etc.) to each of the illegal activities studied.

The second part of the book analyses in depth some European countries and how rooted the two phenomena are. The countries are Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain and UK. Tihomir Bezlov and Gounev describe the Bulgarian situation affirming that the scale of corruption that has permeated public and private sectors in the country since the early 1990s is vast. The four main institutions (political, judicial, police and custom) seem still to be seriously corrupt. The chapter begins with an overview of Bulgaria recent history that helps the reader in learning the current state of the institutions. The same formula has been adopted in the chapter regarding Russia because it’s useful to study the transition period to market economy in order to understand the social and economic changes that these countries are still facing. In Eastern Europe white-collar offenders are not considered as something separate from organized crime while the economic transition and privatisation processes have strongly enforced criminal activities and the creation of new criminal organizations.  In the case of Russia it’s interesting the historical overview that tends to underline that cultural behaviours, like the patron-client relationship, of the 18^th Century Tsarist Russia have been firstly embedded in the Soviet Russia after the 1917 October Revolution and then maintained after the fall of Communism in 1989. This chapter, written by Paddy Rawlinson, illustrates that the URSS was characterized by a widespread corruption as an intrinsic component of the system itself. Nowadays a lack of political will in the fight against corruption is observable despite Putin’s and Medvedev’s reforms announcements.

While France and UK are described as countries characterized by low levels of corruption Spain, Greece and Italy are facing serious problems in this sense. Spain, whose chapter is written by Alejandra Gòmez-Céspedes, is defined as a criminal hub with severe drugs and illegal immigrations problems. With the help of charts, provided by the Ministry of the Interior every year, the reader can be fully aware of the huge amount of drugs that pass through this country to reach the whole Europe. Greece has got similar problems and has to deal also with immigrant and indigenous organized crime. On the one hand there are the Albanians, Russians, Romanians, Turkish, Iraqi and Bulgarians. Every group is specialized in a particular criminal activity like drug trafficking, counterfeiting or cigarette smuggling. On the other hand Greek organized criminal groups often provide means of transportation for cocaine across the Atlantic route along with other criminal actions (extortions, human trafficking). Regarding Italy, Ruggiero describes the main criminal organizations (‘Ndrangheta, Camorra, Cosa Nostra and Sacra Corona Unita) very accurately and depicting them as organizations that constitute “power systems” because of their continuous contacts with the “official world” of politics. He narrates the story of these groups beginning from the unification of the Italian peninsula, a fundamental approach to figure out such a complex phenomenon. Citing the State Audit Board (the Corte dei Conti), Ruggiero explains that corruption is widespread throughout the country and shows that there is a “mafia method” in conducting business and doing politics. Moreover the infiltration of mafia organizations is very strong across the regions of Southern Italy, especially in Calabria where the ‘Ndrangheta has enjoyed little attention by institutions and public opinion. In the end Ruggiero underlines the importance of the violence factor; he outlines that the elite in Italy has never renounced violence and has never really managed to make the transition to a modern social order based on legality.

In conclusion I find this book very well written, accurate and supported by strong empirical evidence. The general-to-specific pattern turns out to be very useful to the reader and the countries chosen are helpful in defining the specific aspects of corruption, the organized crime and the related features. My only criticism is that the cultural and structural differences between mafia and “common” organized crime are not examined in depth as well as the economic power that such criminal groups exert on the European capitalistic system. Apart from that, I feel to suggest this book to everyone is interested in these issues and wants to know more about the world he lives in. 

The Mafia System in Italy [Essay]

[Silence... is Mafia!]

The Mafia System in Italy

Essay by Alessandro D'Alessio

Mafia represents a cultural, economical and political Italian phenomenon. Mafia organisations are criminal groups whose main objective is to make business, sharing a common background of values and culture. Its complexity requires a deep analysis in order to understand the reasons that allow it to be such a key player in the Italian history. Their power could be explained by social consensus given by a certain culture in specific poor areas, especially in the south, but, as prosecutor of Palermo Roberto Scarpinato affirmed[1], mafia issues would have been erased many years ago if politicians hadn’t always been so prone to it. The link between the political world and the criminal and violent universe of the Italian mafia existed even before the unification process of 1861[2]. After the end of World War II its presence has become more accentuated gaining an unofficial but constant representation throughout Italian institutions. These two powers, mafia and the institutions, are able to contact each other using corruption as means of communication, establishing and maintaining a specific order: the “Mafia System”.

In Italy we can distinguish five different mafia organisations: Cosa Nostra and Stidda in Sicily, ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia, Camorra in Campania and in the city of Naples[3]. It’s useful to make a brief overview of the most economically powerful[4] in their features and differences. The Sicilian Mafia, called Cosa Nostra, probably born at the beginning of the XIX Century[5], has been defined as a terrorist-mafia association by the “pentito” Gaspare Spatuzza in 2009. He explained the adjective “terrorist” referring to the mafia attacks in Florence and Milan that, in 1993, killed ten innocent people[6]. ‘Ndrangheta[7], whose name comes from the Greek “andragathos”[8], is not well-known to the national public even if its influence on the Italian political life goes back to the 1869, when Reggio Calabria administrative elections were cancelled because of gerrymandering. In those years a criminal organisation, initially defined “picciotteria”, began to spread its power in Reggio Calabria and Catanzaro areas and had characteristics that were similar to the Camorra’s, which, in turn, had been inspired by the Spanish “Garduna”, a Toledo secret association created in 1417[9]. Nowadays ‘Ndrangheta is one of the most powerful criminal organisations of the planet and it owns almost the monopoly of the cocaine smuggling in Europe[10]. In 2008 ‘Ndrangheta was included in the drug trade black list by the USA government[11]. The Camorra is a mafia phenomenon that involves the masses and it’s the only one with urban origins[12]. Camorristi[13] call their organisation “O’ Sistema”[14]. The lack of long-lasting hierarchical structures and rules makes the organisation very flexible and dynamic. Camorra, like other mafia organisations, has had strong contacts with the political system since the 1865 general elections. “O’ Sistema”, differently from Cosa Nostra, doesn’t propose an alternative order in opposition to the State but rules social disorder[15].

A common characteristic that links all organisations is the fact that the most important members have particular nicknames. Francesco Schiavone, former head of the Casalesi[16], has been dubbed “Sandokan”[17]; Michele Greco, Cosa Nostra boss of the 1980s, was dubbed “Il Papa”[18] [19]; Giuseppe Morabito, boss of the Morabito clan, is called “U’ Tiradrittu”[20] [21]. Nicknames are used by organisations as a fundamental communication strategy to be easily and quickly recognizible.

In order to understand the relationships between politics and mafia is appropriate to define values and structures of such organisations. The mafiosi[22] think that laws are for cowards but rules are for “men”. These “rules of honour” don’t tell them to be honest, on the contrary they tell them how to command. They think it’s only a luxury for the rich believing in the dream of a “better world”. Values like freedom, justice or equality are for the weak; they assume that if they risk all, they have all. They also know they will be killed or betrayed by someone very close to them like a friend, and so even friendship is considered insignificant. There’s no way to think it’s possible to live without hiding, running away or going to jail; if you do that, you’re not a real “man”. Organisations know that human beings are depraved and corrupt, so new members have to know the differences between a common man and a mafioso. The latter knows exactly what and when problems will happen while the former is cheated by bad luck or fate. They also show no compassion for betrayers who are inevitably death sentenced; there’s no forgiveness, the betrayer will always be on their list and if he runs away his family or allies will be killed[23]. It’s also true that it doesn’t exist a natural way of being a mafioso from an anthropological perspective, they have only few occasions to communicate their power publicly so they study methods to act like “mafiosi” for example dressing like Michael Corleone or using specific accents while speaking. They artificially create a “mafia style” that must be easy to recognize and to understand. They get their inspiration from the movies, not the opposite. Typical examples are the arrest of Cosimo Di Lauro, a Camorrista, when he showed himself to the media dressed like “The Crow”[24] and Walter Schiavone’s mansion in Casal di Principe that looked like the Tony Montana’s “Scarface” one[25].

Such cynical and ferocious mafia “ethics” seem to fit perfectly with democracy and its institutions. Especially in the last few years, politicians are those who activate themselves to create contacts with the organisations[26]. Politicians ask them to vote for their party since mafia controls large portions of the economy and of the population on the Italian territory. This is very common at all levels, administrative, general and even the primaries of the Democratic Party[27]. But why have politicians proven particularly prone to mafia groups gaining prominence in public life? First of all mafia is a cultural problem. Vast areas in southern regions of Italy are quite poor and completely left alone by the State; thousand of people recognise criminal organisations as the official authority. Frequently mafia is able to provide jobs and protection. Those regions are generally peaceful places even though such tranquillity is obtained through fear and threats. In a country where rights are not fully respected, mafia gives people a chance to live and, in this perspective, the State is judged to be an enemy. It’s a fact that a degraded ruling class degrades people and vice versa in a vicious circle[28].  

Joining an organisation requires a specific initiation ritual. Cosa Nostra calls it “Punciuta”[29] consisting of a little cut on the index finger of the hand that the initiate uses to shoot. This cut is made with a bitter orange thorn, sometimes a particular golden thorn, in front of the family boss and other “uomini d’onore”[30] [31]. ‘Ndrangheta calls this ritual “Battesimo”[32] and has almost religious connotations as the initiate has to pronounce a specific formula while holding in his hands the burning picture of Saint Michael[33].

Organisational structures are important because they mark some differences with other criminal groups that cannot be defined as “mafia”. Simple organised groups usually disappear when their members are killed or arrested while the mafia ones succeed in establishing continuity and giving, from a generation to another, a whole set of values and methods. The Sicilian Mafia is hierarchically composed by “soldati”[34] or “uomini d’onore” that form a “family”. This latter has a territorial based structure that allows it to control a particular city area from which it takes the name. An elected chief called “Rappresentante”[35] rules the “family”. Then there’s the “Capo-decina” that coordinates the activities of ten, or more, “soldiers”; the “Capi-Mandamento” represent three or more territorially neighbouring families and form the “Cupola”[36] or “Commissione Provinciale”, they also elect the chief of the “Commissione”. The advent to power of Totò Riina’s Corleonese Mafia brought the creation of a new entity called “Interprovinciale” that has the role to control all the Sicilian provinces[37].

On his side, ‘Ndrangheta has even more complicated hierarchical structures. The “Società”[38], as the ‘Ndranghetisti[39] use to call their organisation, is divided in “Società Minore” and “Società Maggiore”. The first one is composed of the “Contrasto Onorato”, a person who is not yet a member of the organisation; he becomes a “Picciotto” after the “Baptism” ritual. Then he can become a “Camorrista”[40] and if he kills at least one person he will gain the status of “Sgarrista” that is the highest rank of the “Società Minore”. The transition from the “Società Minore” to the “Società Maggiore” is very peculiar. The member receives a golden key from the hierarchically superior assembly of the “Santisti” and he has to hold it until the “Maggiore” of San Luca, the ‘Ndrangheta headquarter in Calabria, ratifies the transition. The “Sgarrista” now becomes a “Santista”, member of the “Santa”, quitting the ‘Ndrangheta to be part of a mixed structure having specific roles. Indeed, the “Santista” can establish contacts with the Police forces and with the public institutions of the State. The “Santa” objectives concern mainly drug smuggling, kidnapping and other trades that can bring profits. Then there is the “Vangelo” whose members[41] have the most important decision-making responsabilities of the organisation. There are also other ranks like “Quartino”, “Trequartino” and “Padrino” but the ‘Ndrangheta’s secrecy concerning the highest personalities of the hierarchy prevents us from knowing more precise informations about them[42]. According to the four volumes of the recent “Ordinanza di fermo” concluding the long investigation of the Milan and Reggio Calabria DDA[43], some previously unknown ranks within the ‘Ndrangheta are, in ascending order, “Crociata”, “Stella”, “Bartolo”, “Mamma”, “Infinito” and “Conte Ugolino” that should be the highest rank of the organisation[44].

Modern mafia organisations act like big companies and their main goal is to make money using every method. Drug smuggling, along with other illicit activities like racketeering, pronstitution, money laundering and corruption, gives them a lot of extra money that grants them to be extremely competitive on the legal market controlling and building restaurants, hotels, discotheques, supermarkets and a variety of different kind of enterprises that embrace almost every economic field[45]. In 2013 ‘Ndrangheta has estimated annual revenue of 52,6 billion euros that represent the 3,4% of the Italian GDP[46]. According to the Naples DDA in 2008 the Casalesi clan earned about 30 billion euros[47]. This economic power allows them to spread internationally causing serious distortions to the free market[48].

The knowledge of such informations is fundamental to understand how organised these groups are in controlling the territory through complex structures and how their criminal actions pursuit a specific, serious and professional economic strategy able to influence the international market and the political life of nations[49].

The cracks through which is possible to see the underground world of relationships between organised crime and politics in Italy are given by facts.  

The first one is the “Portella della Ginestra Massacre” committed in Sicily on May 1, 1947. The bandit Salvatore Giuliano and his gang opened fire on a crowd of poor peasants and workers gathered at Portella della Ginestra while celebrating the Labour Day. The shoot out caused the death of 11 people and many wounded. The reasons why Giuliano carried out the massacre aren’t totally clear till now even though it’s sure that Cosa Nostra was involved together with separatist Sicilian forces who wanted to guarantee the preservation of certain balances of power in the new post-war institutional and political framework. This latter is considered to be responsible of instigating the massacre attempting to threaten peasant masses that were protesting against landowners and who voted for the “People’s Block”, a coalition of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), a few weeks earlier[50].

The Cold War is the historical background in which this system of relations is set. Democrazia Cristiana (DC) won the 1948 general elections and inevitably mafia interests were directed towards this party. At first they supported politicians like Salvo Lima, mayor of Palermo, and his council member Vito Ciancimino both close to Amintore Fanfani who was minister of the first De Gasperi governments. When Fanfani together with Aldo Moro decided to collaborate with the PSI, mafia attentions shifted towards Giulio Andreotti and his “corrente”[51], joined also by Lima and Ciancimino. The DC accepted mafia votes mainly because they were useful in the fight against communism in the attempt to contain the PCI expanding influence. In the 1970s in Calabria ‘Ndrangheta syndicates decided to enter institutions directly; clearly the DC was the most compromised party also because the PCI followed an inflexible policy of expulsions with everyone in some way implicated with mafia. The DC had also relationships with the Camorra that can be explained through the specific case of the Cirillo’s kidnapping. In 1981 Ciro Cirillo, Neapolitan DC council member of the Campania region, was kidnapped by the communist terrorist organisation the “Red Brigades”. Members of the DC, Italian Secret Services and Raffaele Cutolo’s “Nuova Camorra Organizzata”[52] were the key players for the negotiations with the terrorists. Cutolo, in jail at that time, claimed many favours, profits for his enterprises and a judicial preferential treatment. A few months later Cirillo was released after the payment of a 1,4 billion Lire ransom[53]. It’s interesting to compare this case with another one that occured three years earlier when the DC refused to negotiate with the terrorists, belonging to the Red Brigades too, that kidnapped the then-president of the party Aldo Moro.

On his side, in 2003 Giulio Andreotti[54] was found guilty of cospiration[55] with Cosa Nostra till 1980 but the sentence was statute-barred. The verdict describes an “authentic, constant and friendly availability of the accused towards the mafiosi till spring 1980”[56]. Leonardo Messina, a “pentito”[57], affirmed that he was told that Andreotti was “punciutu” which means he participated the official mafia ritual, the “Punciuta”, to join the organisation[58]. Andreotti was accused also to be the instigator of the murder of the lawyer and journalist Carmine Pecorelli. The “pentito” Tommaso Buscetta testified that Gaetano Badalamenti, boss of the Cosa Nostra syndicate of Cinisi, told him that the homicide was ordered by the Salvo cousins, Sicilian entrepenaurs linked to the Sicilian Mafia, on behalf of Andreotti who was worried about Pecorelli’s revelations that could have destroyed his career[59]. However in 2003 the Cassation Court cleared him from this accusation[60].

The “Trattativa Stato-Mafia”[61] is one of the most recent and interesting investigations able to disclose a network of relationships between politicians and mafia from 1992 to date[62]. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the party system, thanks to the Mani Pulite inquiries, brought the mafia to look for new political representatives engaging a negotiation with a part of the institutions. The story began on January 30, 1992 when the Maxi Trial against Cosa Nostra finally came to an end; for the first time in the Italian history the Supreme Court confirmed life sentences for mafia bosses. This was possible thanks to a magistrate who fought against the Mafia, Giovanni Falcone; while working with the Minister of Justice, Claudio Martelli, he suggested a rotation criterion to avoid the judge Corrado Carnevale, also known as the “sentence-slayer”[63], to preside over the Supreme Court for that trial. According to the prosecutors of the “Trattativa” investigation the DC didn’t respect a “pact” with Cosa Nostra that should have granted impunity for mafia bosses. In February 1992 the Minister Calogero Mannino (DC) told the Maresciallo of the Carabinieri Giuliano Guazzelli “At this point they’ll kill me or Salvo Lima”. A month later mafia killers on a motorcycle murdered Salvo Lima, member of the “corrente Andreottiana”[64]. A few days later the chief of the Italian Police, Vincenzo Parisi, wrote in a secret note “death threats have been directed towards the Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, and the Ministers Vizzini and Mannino… terroristic attacks against DC, PSI and PDS[65] members expected in March-July. Strategy that includes massacres.”On March 20, Vincenzo Scotti, Minister of the Interior, stated: “hiding to the citizens that we are facing an organised crime attempt to destabilize institutions is a huge mistake”. Andreotti, however, defined this warning a hoax.

At the end of March 1992 Vito Ciancimino, former mayor of Palermo, met Bernardo Provenzano, one of the Cosa Nostra fugitive bosses. This latter told him that Totò Riina, the then boss of the Corleone syndicate[66], “has been guaranteed something important by someone and his intentions are not good at all”. On April 24 Andreotti government fell and between April and May Mannino informally met several times Vincenzo Parisi, Bruno Contrada[67], and the chief of the Special Operations Group (ROS) of the Carabinieri, Antonio Subranni; these meetings were probably an input to create contacts with Cosa Nostra. On May 23 the judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards were killed in the blast caused by the detonation of half a ton of explosives placed under the motorway that links the Palermo International Airport to the city of Palermo, the Capaci massacre. Two days later Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was elected President of the Republic in place of Giulio Andreotti. On May 30 the then Captain of the ROS, Giuseppe De Donno, met on a plane Vito Ciancimino’s son, Massimo, asking him to meet informally his father. This is when the negotiation got started.

In the first half of June Vito Ciancimino talked with Provenzano about the ROS’ request; the boss told him to try to be a mediator between Riina and the Carabinieri. At the end of June the first meetings between Ciancimino and the Captain De Donno took place. Riina, informed of the negotiation, was euphoric and started to write the “papello”[68], a list of requests that had to be delivered to the State. On 28th June Nicola Mancino replaced Scotti at the Ministry of the Interior while the day after Liliana Ferraro, who took the role of Falcone within the Ministry of Justice after his death, told Borsellino, magistrate and co-worker with Falcone, of the negotiation between ROS and Ciancimino. On July 1 Borsellino was in Rome to interrogate the “pentito” Gaspare Mutolo when the Ministry of the Interior called him to meet the new Minister, Mancino, who was taking office. Right before meeting the Minister, Borsellino encountered Bruno Contrada who told him a joke about Mutolo’s “pentimento”[69] that was still secret at the time. In the evening Borsellino told his wife “I breathed death”. During the first half of July Ciancimino received the “papello” from Riina, twelve requests that the Carabinieri evaluated as unacceptable; the negotiation interrupted. On July 15 Borsellino was sick, vomited[70], came back home and talked to his wife “I’m watching the mafia live; I’ve been told that Subranni is punciutu”. Four days later he died in the massacre of Via D’Amelio together with five bodyguards while he was visiting his mother’s house.

At the end of August the negotiation restarted, the ROS changed their strategy and wanted Ciancimino to help them in arresting Totò Riina giving him maps of the city of Palermo. In November 1992 Ciancimino gave these maps to Provenzano and when he had them back he noticed that Provenzano did some marks, indicating Riina’s hiding places. On January 1993 the boss of Cosa Nostra Totò Riina was finally arrested. However the Carabinieri Captain Sergio De Caprio[71] didn’t’ search his hideout and when this happened it was completely emptied. Cosa Nostra members responded to the Riina’s arrest with a series of attacks[72]. In November 1993 the new Minister of Justice, Giovanni Conso, let more than three hundred 41-bis[73] expire representing the first real concession of the State, threatened by the massacres. A failed attack at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, which should have occurred in October 1993, has been recently explained by the “pentito” Gaspare Spatuzza. He told the magistrates that the attack should have been the final attempt in trying to convince the State to reform the 41-bis but the bomb didn’t explode due to technical problems. Nonetheless he was ordered not to try again because, according to Spatuzza, two new political figures, Silvio Berlusconi and Marcello Dell’Utri were creating a party, Forza Italia, considered by Cosa Nostra to be the new mediator between institutions and mafia[74] [75] [76].

This story represents the prosecutors’ point of view and the “Trattativa” inquiry, started in 2009, is still going on. Nowadays mafiosi and politicians are under investigation including the co-founder of Berlusconi’s party Marcello Dell’Utri.

Solutions of such complex problem should probably regard reforms concerning all the aspects of the civil and political Italian life. First of all mafia has to be thaught in schools so that future citizens would be fully aware of the problem, especially in the southern regions the culture of legality should be a priority at all levels of education; the judicial and police sector need far more financial resources to fight against organised crime; magistrates and policemen have to be as professionally prepared as mafia organisations. According to Freedom House Italy is “partly-free”[77] for what concerns the freedom of press. Public television is in the government’s hands while the other main channels belong to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. This situation determines a serious problem because the lack of a free information system prevent people to understand what certain politicians really are and what is really going on in their country. A part from a few television programmes only local media report mafia related news, especially in those regions where people are already partly aware of the reality surrounding them. The benefits coming from the Internet technology are still limited because Italy has the worst broadband speed connection of Europe[78]. For these reasons, all the knowledge provided so far is not discussed nationwide and politicians don’t want to improve the information system. In the end economic reforms are fundamental, mainly because mafia is after all a huge economic obstacle. Such reforms should include more transparency and control of the Italian market even though they should concern also other countries since mafia is already a multinational corporation, making business everywhere around the world.

In conclusion, mafia organisations are not just criminal groups but an important and persistent aspect of Italian politics. Since 1861 they both need each other to maintain their power sharing same values and ideas about the world and life; they represent a system of power and mass control. This system lives within democratic institutions that aren’t showing political will along with constant and effective actions. Even though it looks like an enormous enemy, mafia is not invincible and as Giovanni Falcone stated: “The Mafia is a human phenomenon and thus, like all human phenomena, it has had a beginning and an evolution, and will also have an end.[79]”

 

Bibliography

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Antimafia.altervista.org

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Avvisopubblico.it

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Bianchi D., Rio R., (2013), “L' impero della 'ndrangheta. Radiografia di un'organizzazione criminale in continua espansione”, Perrone Editore, Roma.

Buscaglia E. and van Dijk J., (2003), “Controlling Organised Crime and Corruption in the public sector” Forum on Crime and Society, Vol. 3.

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Genova web

http://www.genovaweb.org/volume_primo_definitivo.pdf, 19/11/13

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Grasso P., La Volpe A., (2009, “Per non morire di mafia”, Sperling & Kupfer, Milano.

Gratteri N. and Nicaso A., (2006), “Fratelli di sangue”, Pellegrini Editore, Cosenza.

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYoikm3yO-I, 15/11/13

[2] Rogari S., Manica G., (2011), “Mafia e politica dall’Unità d’Italia ad oggi. 150 anni di storia”, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Napoli.

[3] Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia, (1999), Dossier “Conoscere le mafie, Costruire la legalità”.

[4] Cosa Nostra, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta

[5] http://www.fundus.org/pdf.asp?ID=5727, 15/11/13

[6] http://www.corriere.it/cronache/09_dicembre_04/spatuzza_deposizione_bunker_mafia_da1907d4-e09c-11de-b6f9-00144f02aabc.shtml, 14/11/13, 14/11/13

[7] ‘Ndrangheta is called “Onorata Società” by its members.

[8] “brave man”

[9] Gratteri N. and Nicaso A., (2006), “Fratelli di sangue”, Pellegrini Editore, Cosenza.

[10] http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/calabria-colombia-d-europa-qui-coca-fattura-35-miliardi.html, 14/11/13

[11] http://www.repubblica.it/2008/05/sezioni/cronaca/ndrangheta-usa/ndrangheta-usa/ndrangheta-usa.html, 10/11/13

[12] Cosa Nostra and ‘Ndrangheta were born in rural areas

[13] Members of the Camorra

[14] “The System”

[15] Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia, (1999), Dossier “Conoscere le mafie, Costruire la legalità” chapter 4.

[16] Camorra syndicate.

[17] Saviano R., (2006), “Gomorra”, Mondadori, Milano.

[18] “The Pope”

[19] http://www.repubblica.it/2008/01/sezioni/cronaca/mafia-2/greco-bio/greco-bio.html, 13/11/13

[20] “Shootstraight”

[21] http://www.repubblica.it/2004/b/sezioni/cronaca/morabito/morabito/morabito.html, 13/11/13

[22] Members of the mafia

[23] Saviano R., (2013), “Zero Zero Zero”, Feltrinelli Editore, Milano.

[24] http://xl.repubblica.it/dettaglio/6182, 14/11/13

[25] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4yeRU-qHsg, 12/11/13

[26] http://www.verona-in.it/2013/11/20/gratteri-verona-oggi-e-il-politico-che-chiede-aiuto-alla-mafia/, 20/11/13

[27] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdfG63rcqsc, 9/11/13

[28] Gounev P., Ruggiero V., (2012), “Corruption and Organised Crime in Europe”, Routledge.

[29] “Cut”

[30] Members of the Mafia.

[31] Grasso P., La Volpe A., (2009, “Per non morire di mafia”, Sperling & Kupfer, Milano.

[32] “Baptism”

[33] Gratteri N. and Nicaso A., (2006), “Fratelli di sangue”, Pellegrini Editore, Cosenza.

[34] “soldiers”

[35] “Representative”

[36] “Mafia Commission”

[37] Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia, (1999), Dossier “Conoscere le mafie, Costruire la legalità”.

[38] “Society”

[39] Members of the ‘Ndrangheta.

[40] In this case the word refers to the ‘Ndrangheta rank

[41] called “Vangelisti”

[42] Gratteri N. and Nicaso A., (2006), “Fratelli di sangue”, Pellegrini Editore, Cosenza.

[43] Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia

[44] http://www.genovaweb.org/volume_primo_definitivo.pdf, 19/11/13

[45] Saviano R., (2006), “Gomorra”, Mondadori, Milano.

[46] Bianchi D., Rio R., (2013), “L' impero della 'ndrangheta. Radiografia di un'organizzazione criminale in continua espansione”, Giulio Perrone Editore, Roma.

[47] http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2008/06/18/il-processo-ai-padroni-di-gomorra.html, 20/11/13

[48] Buscaglia E. and van Dijk J., (2003), “Controlling Organised Crime and Corruption in the public sector” Forum on Crime and Society, Vol. 3.

[49] Kerry J., (1998), “The New War: The Web of Crime That Threatens America's Security”, Touchstone.

[50] http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/portella-della-ginestra-strage-di_(Dizionario-di-Storia)/, 23/11/13

[51] “political faction”

[52] “New Organised Camorra”

[53] http://www.tesionline.it/consult/brano.jsp?id=11696, 23/11/13

[54] One of the most influential politicians of the First Republic, seven-times Prime Minister

[55] More precisely of “associazione per delinquere semplice” art.416 of the Penal Code

[56]http://www.avvisopubblico.it/categorie/pubblicazioni/allegati/sentenza_cassazione_assoluzione_andreotti_2005.pdf, 24/11/13

[57] "he who has repented", the word designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations.

[58] http://www.repubblica.it/online/dossier/andreotti/andreottidue/andreottidue.html, 24/11/13

[59] http://web.tiscali.it/almanaccodeimisteri/andreotti26.htm, 25/11/13

[60] http://antimafia.altervista.org/sentenze2/andreotti/andreotti_pecorelli_cassazione.pdf, 22/11/13

[61] “State-Mafia Negotiation”

[62] It’s not clear if this negotiation stopped or it’s still going on right now

[63] Because of the high number of mafiosi convictions overturned on appeal in his court for technical issues

[64] “Andreotti political faction”

[65] Partito Democratico della Sinistra (Democratic Party of the Left)

[66] Riina was still a fugitive at the time

[67] Member of the Italian intelligence

[68] The most important request was the removal of the 41-bis

[69] “repentance”

[70] Borsellino, according to his wife Agnese, considered the Carabinieri something “sacred” and incorruptible. Comprehensively he was really shocked by what he was told.

[71] Known as “Capitano Ultimo”

[72] On 14 May, 1993 a bomb exploded in Via Fauro in Rome but caused no injuries. On May 27 a bomb burst in Via dei Georgofili in Florence causing the death of five people including a fifty days old baby. On July 27 another bomb killed five people in Milan.

[73] Provisions including very restrictive measures for Mafiosi in jail, they are isolated and are not able to communicate with the external world.

[74] http://it.ibtimes.com/articles/40920/20130110/trattativa-stato-mafia-richieste-rinvio-a-giudizio-requisitoria-di-matteo.htm, 18/11/13

[75] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qADkCs2xd7g, 19/11/13

[76] http://antimafia.altervista.org/altri_documenti/audizione_spatuzza.pdf, 20/11/13

[77] http://www.freedomhouse.org/country/italy, 24/11/13

[78] http://www.akamai.com/dl/documents/akamai_soti_q213.pdf?WT.mc_id=soti_Q213, 24/11/13

[79] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akwxs1pXiVE, 25/11/13