There are fears that Italy’s three most powerful mafia groups have formed a formidable alliance after images emerged of leading figures sharing a meal together.
Senior members of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate, based in the Calabria peninsula, the Camorra of Naples and Cosa Nostra, based in Sicily, were reportedly caught on camera sharing a meal of pasta and wine in a garden in April 2021.
The meeting was reportedly one of several under police surveillance as prosecutors warned of the rise of a major crime coalition in Italy’s prosperous north.
“This is Milan,” an alleged Camorra mafia don was heard saying to an ally. “We are not in Sicily, we are not in Rome, we are not in Naples, this is where we do the right things,” said one Telegraph report.
A suspected member of Cosa Nostra is said to have replied: ‘We have built an empire.’
Senior members of Italy’s three most powerful mafia groups may have formed a formidable alliance after images emerged of them sharing a meal together
Sicilian mafia boss Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina, nicknamed ‘The Beast’, succumbed to his battle with cancer in a prison hospital in Parma shortly after being put into an induced coma in 2017. Rina is said to have ordered the murder of even more people. 150 people
Mafia boss Michele Zagaria of the Casalesi clan was escorted from police headquarters in Caserta, Italy, in 2011. His clan was one of the most feared families in the Camorra
It is reported that the three powerful criminal organizations have put aside their historic rivalry to form a ‘super mafia’ alliance that is taking advantage of business opportunities in the Lombardy region of the north.
They are suspected of having invested hundreds of millions of euros in legitimate companies in the global fashion capital of Milan.
The organizations had forged “an evolved criminal network” after agreeing on “a stable and lasting agreement between Calabrian, Sicilian and Roman mafia members, a kind of confederation”, prosecutors told the Telegraph.
The recently formed mafia in Rome is reportedly a hybrid of Camorra and ‘Ndrangheta criminals.
While public massacres, assassinations and fierce feuds were often a way of life for these mafia bosses, they are now said to be keeping a low profile, preferring white-collar crime to public shootings.
One of the oldest and largest criminal institutions in the world, the Camorra is known for its drug and crime operations, robbing people and committing violent attacks.
Francesco Maisano, alleged mafia boss of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate, flanked by paramilitary police shortly after his arrest in Calabria, southern Italy in March 2011
Sicilian mafia boss Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina during his trial in May 1994.
Ruthless Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro died this year at the age of 61 from colon cancer
They came into the spotlight last year after it was revealed that the Camorra was recruiting ‘babyface’ youths to become the mafia bosses of tomorrow.
Like the Camorra, the ‘Ndrangheta are also one of the most extensive and powerful criminal organizations in the world.
Their roots are in the Italian region of Calabria, but they have reportedly expanded to more than 40 countries around the world and continue to grow steadily.
They are involved in a wide range of organized criminal activities, from drug trafficking and money laundering to extortion and manipulating government contracts.
Their enormous profits are then reinvested in legitimate businesses, further strengthening the organization’s power and influence.
Police revealed in September that Italian mother Maria Chindamo, who disappeared seven years ago, was murdered and her body fed to pigs by a ‘Ndrangheta gangster.
Italy’s Ministry of Public Security is spending millions of euros attempting to disrupt the numerous global networks of the infamous ‘Ndrangheta mafia.
In 2021, 70 gangsters involved with the ‘Ndrangheta were sentenced to 20 years in prison in one of the biggest mafia trials in more than 30 years.
Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the Godfather films, consists of a coalition of criminal organizations called “families” or “clans.”
They are also involved in extortion, smuggling, gambling and mediation in disputes between other criminals.
One of their most infamous and ruthless mafia bosses, Matteo Messina Denaro, died this year of colon cancer at the age of 61.
Denaro, who was called the ‘last godfather’ of Cosa Nostra, was on the run for thirty years from the murder of fifty people, including a boy dissolved in acid.
He once boasted that he could fill a cemetery with the people he killed.