EversionRadicalia, chapter 3 of 5
Italian Mafias are holding companies that do business by means of the indiscriminate use of violence. Italian journalist Roberto Saviano claims the Mafia has killed around ten thousand people over the past thirty years. At present, it has an army of twenty-five thousands affiliates and two-hundred thousand direct supporters and a turnover estimated at 150 billion Euros per year. Considered together, the Mafias represent the most powerful business in Italy, with tentacles extending to Europe and the rest of the world. Some of the most famous Camorra and ʻNdrangheta clans are pictured here in the style of ʻtriumph photographyʼ, a form of photo-collage used in the second half of the nineteenth century to illustrate the organisation of criminal gangs in the Italian South and identify brigands who had been captured or killed.
CasalesiThe Casalesi are one of the clans affiliated with the camorra, the criminal organization operating in the Italian region of Campania. Their name comes from the town where their headquarters are located, Casal di Principe, near Caserta, an area which previously recorded the highest number of both killings and luxury cars in Europe. Specializing in construction, drug dealing and garbage disposal, the Casalesi operates globally and boasts a US$ 30 billion turnover.
SarnoShot up in the 1980s from the dissolution of other Camorra clans, the Sarno controls the zone of Vesuvio, Naples’ volcano, as well as the neighborhood of Ponticelli where their bunkered headquarters are located. They deal in contract management, gambling, real estate bribes and extortion of shops and market stands.
Pelle / VottariAllied against the Nirta-Strangio in the San Luca feud, Pelles and Vottaris are both ‘ndrine, family clans, from the town of San Luca in the province of Reggio Calabria. They are particularly active in international drug trafficking, and have proven contacts with Colombian cocaine cartels.
Nirta / Strangio
Nirta and Strangio are two families from the Calabrian ‘ndrangheta based in the Aspromonte mountain range. Since the Nineties, they have allied against the Pelle-Vottari clan in the “San Luca” feud: born as a banal Carnival joke, this feud has already caused dozens of deaths as far as Germany and the Netherlands.
ScissionistiAlso known as “the Spaniards” for the frequent trips they took to buy cocaine in Spain, the Scissionists were born from a feud within the Di Lauro clan that caused more than fifty deaths between 2004 and 2005. Since then, the new clan has been fighting the old one to control prostitution and drug dealing in Naples’ neighborhoods Scampìa and Secondigliano.
MazzarellaThe Mazzarella clan controls the eastern end of Naples from its headquarters in San Giovanni a Teduccio. Right after World War II, the clan specialized in cigarette smuggling but in the following decades, Mazzarella diversified into extortion and drug dealing, in competition with other Neapolitan clans.
Condello Born in the mid-Eighties from a break within other ‘ndrangheta families, the Condello clan operates today in the city of Reggio Calabria and in the towns Villa San Giovanni and Fiumara, focusing mostly on drug and weapon trafficking, contract management and extortions.
Di LauroThe Di Lauro is a camorra clan active in the province of Naples, in the towns of Secondigliano, Scampìa, Miano, Marianella, Piscinola, and in the surrounding areas. It manages the majority of drug trafficking in the south of Italy and invests some in touristic businesses, mostly abroad. The clan persists even though its top ranking officers were arrested and many members killed during a bloody feud.
De StefanoThis clan emerged in the mid-Seventies from a division within the Tripodo clan and now has its headquarters in the neighborhood of Archi, in the northern outskirts of Reggio Calabria. They manage extortion and drug dealing businesses in Reggio Calabria and in the rest of Italy.
PiromalliThis ‘ndrina from Gioia Tauro grew exponentially in the Nineties, when the town became one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean. Good at business, the Piromallis diversified their investment at an international level and are active today in agriculture, transport, drug trafficking and ripping off European Union funds.
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