Why Italy's scariest Mob loves Canada

National Post/

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.

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."