SUMMARY
Italian organized crime has quite a reputation in the United States but popular perception rarely takes into account the full scope of its activities outside of the US. Organized crime in Italy is largely a regional issue and is dominated by powerful families and alliances that control everything from drug and weapon trafficking to local protection rackets to the cement industry. At the center of modern day Italian organized crime is a competition between too many actors for too few resources. This unending competition between families and alliances within groups like La Cosa Nostra, the Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta and La Stidda ensures that no one single figure can control Italian organized crime for any meaningful length of time – but that certainly will not keep them from trying.
HISTORY
The organized crime phenomena in Italy began on the island of Sicily. This island, strategically placed in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, has been under the rule of dozens of different invading armies for the past millennium. Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans and Spaniards (among many others) claimed control over the island, often fighting over it amongst themselves and ignoring the plight of its local citizens. Sicily didn’t come under Italian control until 1862 and by then, Sicilians were accustomed to foreign powers imposing rule upon the island. For the most part, they distrusted the state and preferred to do things their own way. Under Italy, it was no different.
After hundreds of years of foreign powers battling over its territory but ignoring the welfare of the Sicilians, a kind of system of protection and security was established to support the feudalistic arrangement between land-owners (whether they were in the capital, Palermo, or in a foreign country) and the actual farmers. Rural, local middle-men emerged who conducted everyday business for the land owners in return for pay. Without supervision, these middle-men became the law enforcers in Sicily, favoring their own style of justice over that of the land owners. Shotguns were the weapon of choice. Land-ownersbecame irrelevant and they had little means to reassert control. Crackdowns would occur occasionally, but Sicily, after all, was important as a naval hub in the Mediterranean; not as an agricultural producer.
These middle-men were the beginnings of organized crime in Sicily and they were largely left alone until Mussolini sent forces in to assert state control in 1925.
Through extra-judicial killings, Mussolini’s agents were able to incapacitate organized crime on the island. By the 1940’s, many Sicilian organized criminals had either fled orwere dead. The end of World War II, however, brought opportunity for organized crime in Sicily.
Within the context of all-out war, the threat of organized crime lost significance. When the Allied forces invaded Sicily in 1943, their mission was aided by underground members of Sicilian organized crime. After the invasion, allied forces placed Sicilian organized criminals in positions of power and, by the end of the war, organized criminals had re-asserted their social dominance over Sicily.
In the following years, as Italy formed its government and relations between the Soviet Union and the United States froze, organized criminals used their positions in Sicily to influence the national government. It was during the time of the Truman Doctrine and Communist momentum in Italy that Sicilian organized crime put in their political support for the Christian Democrats – the pro-Western party that countered Communism in Italy. Despite the violence in Sicily, as long as Communism posed a threat to Europe, Italians (and their American allies) were willing to look past the party’s problems and elect the Christian Democrats to office no fewer than 11 times. Not Communism itself, but the threat of its spread ensured that Sicilian organized crime would thrive
The post-war period of organized crime in Sicily ushered in lucrative activities in drugs, weapons and extortion. It was then that the previously loosely grouped cultural phenomenon gained cohesiveness and came to be known as LaCosa Nostra.
The First Mafia War spurred the national government tolaunch a crackdown that led to the arrest of over 1,000 La Cosa Nostra members.But it did not put away the organized crime group for good.
Again, at the end of 1981, violence in Palermo intensified as inter-family attacks were carried out in a battle for power. The Second Mafia war was much more violent, producing 200 bodies, an untold number of disappearances and attracted the attention of Italian anti-mafia police. The 360 arrests made after the second Mafia War resulted in the 1987 Maxi-trials that
In 1989, the Italian Communist party disbanded, removing the perceived threat to Italian voters. The lack of an outside enemy greatly reduced the Christian Democrat’s power and the party eventually disbanded. Cosa Nostra knew that, without protection in Rome, their operations would not survive. In the summer of 1992, La Cosa Nostra assassinated two top state prosecutors in an attempt to end their campaign against the criminal group. These killings led to more trials and the arrest of La Cosa Nostra’s most violent boss, Toto Riina.
The damages La Cosa Nostra sustained in the early 1990’s cut deeply into its operations and ability to do business. Criminality, however, did not disappear. Another group, based out of Campania filled the vacuum that La Cosa Nostra left behind in international drug and weapons trafficking: The Camorra.
The Camorra have a history similar to that of the La Cosa Nostra. The group formed as a form of native power against foreign occupiers of Naples and, after the unification of Italy, the government attempted to put down the criminal organization but failed in stamping it out completely. It has always been present locally, but only after the crackdowns on Cosa Nostra in the 1990s did the Camorra gain power on an international scale. Drug and weapon trafficking that was largely dominated by the Cosa Nostra dropped off and the Camorra picked it up. The families that made up the organization grew in power during the 1990s and, by 2004, the Camorra was dominating the cocaine and heroin trade in Europe. But also like La Cosa Nostra, success brought competition. Rival families began to fight over territories and distribution networks in a war that left hundreds dead over three months during the winter of 2004/2005. Eventually, the police were called in to stop the violence and many of the Camorra’s top bosses were either killed or arrested.
Currently, the top Italian criminal organizations are the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria and La Stidda in Sicily. Much less is known about these organizations than their more ostentatious counterparts - Cosa Nostra and the Camorra – which is good for them. Secrecy is an important asset for any criminal organization. The question is whether they can maintain a low-profile and avoid the mistakes that Cosa Nostra and the Camorra made during their reigns over Italian organized crime. In August of 2007, the ‘Ndrangheta killed six Italians in the German city of Duisburg as part of an internal feud, an interesting twist as inter-clan wars have never been conducted openly in Germany. Police also arrested a mayor and several of his deputites in a Calabrian town in November of 2007. ‘Ndrangheta needs to be watched as the families vie for power over the lucrative cocaine trade and muscle their way into other deals.
In Sicily, meanwhile, La Stidda has also suffered some arrests. They’re identity was revealed to the public only in the 1980s and it is believed that they consist of La Cosa Nostra members that left during that time. For nowthe group is engaged locally in the south and east of Sicily – La Cosa Nostra operated in the north and west, primarily around Palermo. La Stidda is just getting started and it is unclear whether or not they have engaged in the drug trade, that lucrative facet of Italian organized crime that determines who has the real power. Like the ‘Ndrangheta, La Stidda will be an interesting group to watch as it either builds off of La Cosa Nostras historical success or becomes the latest target for the Italian police and state prosecutors.
GEOGRAPHY
The most important aspect of Sicilian geography is its placement in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. It has been a strategic naval holding for civilizations dating back to the Greek and Arab empires and sea powers like the English, French and Spanish. The coastal areas in the south and east are flat and ideal for cities and harbors while Northern Sicily is rugged and mountainous, providing insulation for the island’s historically agriculturally based natives. The traditional centers of Italian organized crime are located in the north of Sicily, in towns like Palermo, Corleone and Nicosia.
Long before Italy claimed the island of Sicily, other naval powers used the island as a trading station in the Mediteranean. Rarely did finished products ever end there or begin there, but raw materials, brought from Africa and the Middle East, made their way through the island on their way to bigger markets. Organized crime families there still treat Sicily in the same manner. While more money can be made on the island today thanks to government injections of capital, the big markets lie elsewhere. Friendly port operators in Sicily (either on Cosa Nostra’s payroll or owned by them outright) handle cocaine and marijuana traffic from Latin America and arms traffic from south-east Europe and Russia. Only a small fraction of these goods stay in Sicily while the bulk of goods goes on to Spain, France, Germany, the US and (in the case of weapons) Africa.
Since Cosa Nostra’s stumble in the 1990’s, other groups have cut into the drug and weapons market. The Camorra utilizes the port of Naples and southern Italy’s position to benefit from Mediterranean trade. Their rise has redirected drug shipments to the region of Campania and has made the area surrounding Naples one of the cheapest markets for cocaine and heroin in Europe. Drug users from all over Europe make their way down to Campania in search of a bargain. The Camorra’s rise in power has corresponded to China’s rise and so has also entered the counterfeit goods market – using the port of Naples to collect and distribute counterfeit sneakers, handbags and accessories. Even many legal items from China that come through the port of Naples are picked up by organized criminals who avoid paying duties. The Camorra has managed to turn Naples into an illegitimate free-trade zone for criminal activity.
But after the Camorra war of 2004/2005 and a police crackdown in 2006, the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria has enjoyed an increase in power. According to Italian officials, the ‘Ndrangheta now control up to 80% of the cocaine traffic between Colombia and Europe. They enjoy proximity to one of the bigger, more strategic ports of Europe – Gioia Tauro near the regional capital, Reggio Calabria.
Italian organized crime must be seen as regional actors with global contacts instead of a nation-wide conspiracy. From the Cosa Nostra in Sicily to the Camorra in Campania to the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria and many others, each one operates in a specific geographic area. Sure, bosses and clans will have contacts to banks in Milan and politicians in Rome and will hide-out in other parts of Europe or the world when there is a bounty on their head, but the heart of business resides in their home region. This is where the power base is and, due to rivalry within clans, it is also where their greatest threat resides.
Maintaining power as an Italian organized criminal requires vigilance not just over the complex trafficking arrangements and the flow of money, but also over the threats back home. “Mafia Wars” in the past have always been fought between clans operating in the same region, under the same heading of Italian organized crime. Bosses who are hungry for growth and expansion nonetheless rely on their networks back home to provide capital, trusted talent and, most importantly, ensure their own lives. If they ignore the home base, there are too many waiting in the shadows to wrestle away control and start their own empire. It is the constant threat of regional competition that has kept any one organized crime entity in Italy from becoming an international or even national power.
STRUCTURE
La Cosa Nostra, the Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, La Stidda are all names for organized crime groups based on geography. Each of these groups refers to the grouping of families that operate in a specific region of Italy. The crime that takes place, whether economic, narcotic or violent, is ultimately delegated and performed by a family - or clan - member. These families, in turn, are defined by their geographic location and not relations. Families are often referred to depending on where they are from – for example the Corleone family that ruled La Cosa Nostra for so long came from Corleone, Sicily. Since the families are grouped by geography, many family members will be part of the same family, but relations do not make the family.
Within each family, depending on how much power it wields and where it operates, there will be managers, look-outs, soldiers, hit men and which ever other employee deemed necessary to the family’s business. The more powerful families employ more and less powerful families either disappear or are incorporated into alliances. Alliances are collections of families with one family providing a foundation of power – much like political alliances. Whereas there may be hundreds of families operating within a region, there will be two or three major alliances that will wield the power. When wars break out, they are almost always between alliances, with certain families fighting for specific interests.
When violence breaks out, it is the attempt to resolve power struggles between family alliances. Families will call upon their resources and usually use the period of fighting to settle old scores. Wars will either reinforce an alliance’s control over a region (like the Corleone did during the first mafia war) or upset the power structure and allow a new player to get involved. Mafia wars are planned and, like those fought between nations, must take into account the economic losses that result from focusing resources on violence.
CULTURE
The major organized crime groups of Italyshare similar cultures, practices and structure. Their similarities are the result of a common, southern Italian culture that values family and machismo. But organized crime before the second world war is very different from modern organized. Before the war, organized crime groups were largely agricultural and had a strict code of silence and secrecy called Omerta. Omerta is, however, more than just a code of silence, it is an emphasis on self-reliance and toughness. It rejects outside authority (in the form of the state or occupying power) and encourages members to solve problems on their own – eliminating burdensome mediation and making the operations of organized crime more efficient. Organized crime creates its own justice, as dictated by the necessities of business and power. Omerta is the foundation of this justice.
After the war, as organized crime came to operate in the more profitable urban areas, the culture changed and emphasized money as a form of self-reliance instead of Omerta. Whereas before, cooperating with politicians, police or any other state actor was a death sentence for the offender and his family and was unthinkable, after the war, it became acceptable. Cosa Nostra, for example, enjoyed a relationship with the Christian Democratic party in Rome through the 1990s. And in 1983, Tommasso Buscetta became the first major state witness to reveal the secrets of organized crime in Italy and lived long enough to die of cancer. He was followed by many others who chose to talk in return for the protection that was no longer provided by their criminal families.
Cooperation with the government created new sources of wealth for criminal bosses not content with staying on the farm. Construction contracts, grants and development projects were too easy a target for the Cosa Nostra in Sicily and so, as long as it was for business purposes, cooperating and supporting certain politicians and bureaucrats became acceptable. The flow of government money effectively silenced many of the more traditional organized criminals but also stirred up rivalries over who controlled which shares of the wealth.
The rise in the number of informants who came forward to cooperate with police was also a consequence of the struggles over new-found wealth. “Mafia Wars” are a phenomenon in Italy that did not occur with regularity until after the Second World War. The violence in these wars drove some to question the respect of family that Cosa Nostra so highly regarded. Tommasso Buscetta, after a rival clan killed his entire family and network of contacts, had nothing more to gain from a life in organized crime. Since his enemies could not get to him (he was hiding out in South America during the most violent waves of fighting) they took his family instead. His only source of power remaining was the information that he had on Cosa Nostra and the police. He indeed violated Omerta, but he had no reason to continue to adhere to it.