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| Nicolo Rizzuto |
SIDERNO
- For a man who lives with an imperishable death sentence hanging over
his head, shadowed by bodyguards everywhere he goes, Alberto Cisterna is
full of welcoming good grace and joviality as he sweeps into his office
on the fourth floor of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, housed in a
brown-brick building on a quiet street in the historic centre of Rome.
Informally attired in a checkered shirt and fashionable eyeglasses, the
41-year-old is one of Italy's most famous anti-Mafia magistrates.
For
the past two decades, he has waged war against the 'Ndrangheta,
(pronounced ENdrangGETA), which is now Italy's most powerful, secretive
and richest Mafia organization, having eclipsed Sicily's Cosa Nostra in
influence.
Moreover, he has been so effective in prosecuting
'Ndrangheta leaders that a few years ago the Italian police discovered
he had been targeted for assassination, his car slated for an ambush
using armourpiercing bullets.
It is the kind of dramatic plot
typical of the bold tactics of the 'Ndrangheta, which originates from
Calabria, the southernmost province of Italy's mainland and which has
emerged as Europe's most dominant organized crime group, responsible for
importing 80% of the cocaine consumed on the continent and earning an
estimated ¤36-billion ($52-billion) a year in revenue from its illegal
and legitimate enterprises.
What is more, says Mr. Cisterna, the
organization has a heavy presence in Canada. "There is a massive number
of their people in North America, especially in Canada and Toronto," he
said in an interview. "And for two reasons. The first is linked to the
banking system. Canada's banking system is very secretive; it does not
allow investigation. So Canada is the ideal place to launder money. The
second reason is to smuggle drugs." Indeed, the 'Ndrangheta, like most
organized crime, have found Canada a useful North American entry point
given its porous ports and proximity to the United States.
The
'Ndrangheta's presence in Canada is long and storied. It has been here
since at least the 1950s, with its Canadian branch labelled the "Siderno
Group" because its members primarily came from the Ionian coastal town
of Siderno in Calabria. Siderno is also home to one of the 'Ndrangheta's
biggest and most important clans, heavily involved in the global
cocaine business and money laundering.
Three years ago, a couple
of important members of the Siderno clan fled to Canada to escape prison
sentences in Italy, moving into the middle-class, sprawling northern
suburbs of Toronto. One of them, Antonio (The Lawyer) Commisso is
actually the boss of the Siderno clan, while Riccardo Gattuso was wanted
for murder, suspected as one of the clan's hit men. They were both
deported to Italy in 2005.
"The criminal minds of Siderno are in
Canada," said a senior member of the Siderno police force, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
Indeed, there are believed to be at least
eight members of the Calabrian Mafia living openly in northern Toronto
who are wanted fugitives in Italy.
Giuseppe Lumia,
vice-president of Italy's parliamentary anti-Mafia commission, says the
'Ndrangheta outpost in Canada is heavily involved in cocaine
trafficking. "They don't have a monopoly on cocaine trafficking, but
they are very present with other Mafioso organizations," he says,
observing that the 'Ndrangheta has also worked with Montreal godfather
Vito Rizzuto, included in a plan authorities believe was to launder
billions of dollars through a bridge to be built from Sicily to Italy's
mainland.
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| The window through which the fatal bullet was fired to kill Nicolo Rizzuto |
The reach of the 'Ndrangheta is vast, extending not only
the length of Italy and throughout most of Europe, but as far afield as
the cocaine cartels of Colombia and outposts in Australia and the
United States. Whether it is laundering drug profits through
supermarkets and hotels in Germany, purchasing entire neighbourhood
blocks in Brussels, landing public works construction contracts in
Italy, trafficking Kalashnikov assault rifles, or even trading in
nuclear waste, the 'Ndrangheta is ubiquitous. Moreover, it is corrupting
Italy's political institutions.
"As the 'Ndrangheta has increased its economic power, it has transformed it into political power," says Mr. Lumia.
The
'Ndrangheta is rarely out of the headlines in Italy these days: There
is the fallout from recent killings in the German city of Duisburg --
when six men were mowed down with machine guns as they left a pizzeria,
wiped out by a rival 'Ndrangheta faction over a grab for power; the
unfolding soap opera of Italy's justice minister trying to transfer a
magistrate from Calabria who is investigating links between the
'Ndrangheta and politicians; and reports that one of the clan's
soldiers, a co-operating witness to the 2005 murder of a Calabrian
politician, had committed suicide while in protective custody.
This
last case shows the difficulty Italian authorities are having in
curbing the rise of what magistrates describe as a perfect organized
crime entity. Much like the Cosa Nostra, the 'Ndrangheta's roots go back
to the 1800s when it emerged as a local enforcement organization in the
dirt-poor, lawless southern tip of Italy. The word 'Ndrangheta loosely
translates as "honoured society," drawn from a decentralized structure
based on small clans (or ndrine) originating in tiny villages.
Today,
there are an estimated 75 to 150 clans with 10,000 "made men," who
typically recruit blood relations. "The 'Ndrangheta has a family
structure," explains Nicola Gratteri, the senior magistrate in Calabria
who has fought the 'Ndrangheta since 1991. "Every locali, or cell, is
composed of people that belong to a family.... This is why they never
collaborate with us."
Indeed, while 1,000 members (called pentito)
of the Cosa Nostra have co-operated with the Italian police -- helping
break the back of the Sicilian Mafia in the '90s -- only 42 such
turncoats have emerged from the 'Ndrangheta.
While the 'Ndrangheta
has always made money extorting local businesses (levying a tax called
il pizzo) and snagging public works construction contracts, what helped
propel them into the big leagues was kidnapping. The most famous
occurred in 1973 when the 'Ndrangheta kidnapped John Paul Getty III,
grandson of American oil billionaire J. Paul Getty, and cut off one of
the teenager's ears to garner a US$3.2-million ransom. Mr. Gratteri says
the profit from kidnapping allowed the clans to move into cocaine
smuggling in the '80s, forming close ties to Colombia's Medellin cartel.
The magistrate says the Colombians prefer dealing with the 'Ndrangheta
because "they are sure they will never be betrayed by them."
Despite
its wealth and power, the 'Ndrangheta remains rooted in small villages
clinging to six square miles of the Aspromonte mountains in Calabria, in
particular two hamlets, Plati and San Luca. Neither of the villages has
more than 4,200 residents, and both are heavily dominated by members of
the 'Ndrangheta. They are windswept, desolate places whose streets are
filled with widows dressed in black. In 2001, when Mr. Gratteri ordered a
raid on Plati, the police discovered an underground network of tunnels
and bunkers designed to hide fugitive 'Ndrangheta bosses.
San
Luca, called the "mother of the 'Ndrangheta," is home to two clans
embroiled in a feud leading to the killings in Duisburg this past
August. Two of the dead men came from this village. The feud was sparked
afresh last December when the wife of one clan leader was gunned down
outside her home. Today, the only person who will speak to journalists
is the local pastor, Don Pino Strangio, labelled the "mafia priest" by
Italy's media.
Sitting in the antechamber of San Luca's monastery,
the priest says the feud has taken its toll on everyone. "Every murder
is a debacle," he says. "For us, we are used to live a 'death life',
which is not a life, it's a dramatic experience difficult to explain."
The
'Ndrangheta wields violence to settle scores, eliminate those who pose a
threat, or simply to terrorize the locals. Their methods can be
gruesome: In 1991, the 'Ndrangheta murdered a butcher in the village of
Taurianova in broad daylight, in front of his own shop, by cutting off
his head with one of his own knives and then using the head for target
practice in the main piazza. Not one eyewitness to this public slaying
came forward. Last year, a businessman in the port town of Giaio Tauro
was found dead in his torched car on a beach, having been shot in the
neck. Fedele Scarcella, 71, had fought the 'Ndrangheta's attempts to
extort money from his retail business.
Despite all of this, while
the 'Ndrangheta was once able to go about its business quietly, it now
has Italy's undivided attention. "The state concentrated on the Cosa
Nostra and underestimated the 'Ndrangheta," concedes Giuseppe Lumia of
Italy's anti-Mafia parliamentary commission. "It was a mistake.... They
can be stopped. They have the power in Calabria, but they can be
stopped."
From Hong Kong to Sicily, this gripping set examines five of the world’s most notorious criminal syndicates.
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