The Camorra from Naples/Campania region, News & discussion

[Junior]

Naples' Camorra faces resistance from businesses
By Alan Johnston, BBC News, February 21, 2012

Small, with grey hair and now 70 years old, Raffaella Ottaviano is not the most likely looking heroine.

But there was a moment when she confronted the Camorra - the formidable Neapolitan mafia.

She made a stand, and launched a movement to drive the gangsters out of her community.

It all began when some Camorra men walked into Mrs Ottaviano's clothes shop on a street in Ercolano, a town on the outskirts of Naples.

"You know why we're here," they said. They had come to demand what's known as "il pizzo" - protection money.

Ruthless

For generations, the Camorra has extracted payments from shopkeepers, and bar owners and other small businesses in Ercolano and all across the region.

But Mrs Ottaviano decided that she would not hand over her money.

"Listen, please be kind and get out immediately, I have no intention of paying," she said, remembering her exchange with the men.

"And they said, 'But do you realise what you're doing?' And I said: 'I'm not interested. Just get out!'"

The Camorra has been described as Italy's most bloody and ruthless mafia. And very often its victims chose to say nothing.

But Mrs Ottaviano broke the silence.

She went to the police, and from photographs she identified the men who came to her shop. Soon they were arrested, and Mrs Ottaviano needed protection.

"For a year and a half, I was alone with the policemen, who never left me," she said.

But gradually, other shopkeepers in Ercolano began to follow her lead and refuse to pay the Camorra.

There were just two or three at first, and then a few more. But they would meet secretly and eventually they formed an association with the help of the local council.

That was back in 2006. And in the years since, their movement has grown in size and strength and determination.

'No more fear'

More than 80 businesses now refuse to pay the Camorra - and all the time more join the association.

But even now, does Raffaella worry that the Camorra might exact violent revenge for her defiance?

"I am calm," she says. "I don't even wonder about that. I wouldn't be able to live otherwise.

"There is no more fear now. We are all united. We couldn't go on like that.

"We must fight the Camorra. Not just with talk, but with action - with action."

Sometimes, though, the Camorra does punish those who defy it.

At Portici, not far from Ercolano, Raffaelle Rossi has a restaurant, called the Ciro a Mare.

Its location is perfect: down on the shores of the Bay of Naples, with a view of the island of Capri.

And the restaurant flourished, until the Camorra took an interest.

The gangsters demanded 50,000 euros (£41,700; $66,000) a year in protection money. Mr Rossi said no.

First, the restaurant's windows were shot at. Then, one night after Mr Rossi had closed up, a bomb was placed in the entrance.

Next, two men on a motorbike fired at him in his car. And finally, the restaurant was set ablaze.

But standing in the shell of what was his business, Mr Rossi said that he would rebuild and reopen. And even although he is afraid, he says he will not pay the Camorra.

"We're human," he said. "We cannot deny the fear that we feel even today. Much fear. But we do have to destroy this kind of pressure."

Arrests

The shopkeepers of Ercolano believe that they are winning.

In her bakery, Sofia Ciriello withstood intense pressure from the Camorra and refused to make the pizzo payments.

"People have to free themselves from this slavery and oppression - regain their dignity because things are not like they used to be," she said.

And what has been achieved in the town has not only been based on the courage of its shop owners.

They have been strongly supported by the police. Dozens of "Camorristi" have been arrested for attempted extortion.

And the local authority has backed those who stood up to the gangsters.

It is believed to have been the first council in Italy to offer tax breaks to businesses that go to the police, instead of paying.

"What is happening in Ercolano is extraordinarily important," said Rosario Cantelmo, an anti-mafia prosecutor in Naples.

He said that until two years ago, many businessmen were still refusing to admit that they were submitting to the gangsters' demands.

They would stay silent even when threatened with prosecution for "assisting a criminal organisation".

"Today, instead, unexpectedly, for a series of reasons, there is a new culture," Mr Cantelmo said.

"These people gained courage, went to the police, and complained about the extortion."

Mr Cantelmo said he had never seen anything quite like it the region.

And he believes that the gangsters are worried.

"They are facing a reality with which they are not familiar," he said.

"It never used to be that people would - in front of a judge - look them in the face and accuse them without fear.

"We haven't completely eradicated the Camorra issue in Ercolano. We haven't won the war yet, but we are winning many important battles."

[Carmelo]

11 local officials arrested in Casalesi swoop
Retired Carabinieri general probed in Camorra clan op

(ANSA) - Naples, February 22 - Italian police on Wednesday arrested 11 current and former local officials in towns north of Naples for helping the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia get building contracts for a huge residential complex.

A former Carabinieri general was placed under investigation for allegedly informing one of those arrested, an ex-mayor, that his council was about to be dissolved for mafia infiltration.

Preliminary investigations judge Pietro Carola called the case of the retired Carabinieri general, Domenico Cagnazzo, "extremely serious".

He said wiretaps taken since 2006 show the clan is in touch with "leading figures in the national and regional political world as well as prominent members of institutions, including military ones".

Anti-Mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho said the operation, in which hundreds of police seized real estate worth some 250 million euros, showed the Casalesi clan "is not at all defeated" despite years of arrests and convictions.

"It has infinite funds at its disposal but we will continue to hit its economic interests," he said.

Death threats from the Casalesis have forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano, whose expose' Gomorrah was turned into a prizewinning film, into round-the-clock police protection.

http://wwwext.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche..._102442033.html

[Junior]

Mafia's Main Drug Supplier Arrested in Malaga
Euro Weekly, Monday, February 27, 2012

A MOROCCAN man, believed to be the main provider of hashish to the Neapolitan Camorra, was arrested in Malaga.

Identified by his initials M.I.M.A., he had a European Arrest Warrant against him issued by the Italian Authorities and was arrested by the Guardia Civil with the collaboration of the Italian Carabinieri.

He is believed to have belonged to a network that shipped 500 kilos if hashish a month into Italy, the Ministry of Interior revealed.

At the same time, 23 people, of Moroccan, Italian and Polish nationality were arrested in Napoli, Imperia, Rome, Terni and Palermo in Italy.

Amongst them are important members of several mafia clans responsible for importing hashish into Italy, including Vincenzo Baccante, a member of the Nuvoletta clan, and brother of Luigi Baccante, who is serving time for murdering Mattino journalist Giancarlo Siani.

The man detained in Malaga has a criminal record in Spain and has used several identities in drugs trafficking and document forgery. Throughout the investigation, which began in 2009, 400 tones and three kilos of cocaine were seized.

[Carmelo]

Yacht, horses among assets seized from Neapolitan mafia
Camorra clan hit in eight different regions

(ANSA) - Florence, February 29 - A luxury yacht and 17 horses were among 41-million-euros worth of assets police seized from a clan of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra, in a big operation on Wednesday.

The assets were seized in eight different regions - Campania, Tuscany, Basilicata, Lazio, Sicily, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna and Umbria - from the Terracciano clan, a sign that it has expanded beyond its base in Naples.

Wednesday's operation involving around 200 officers stemmed from an investigation by Florence police, who believe the clan is highly active in loan sharking and prostitution in the Tuscan provinces of Florence and Prato. The police also seized 44 companies, 31 properties, 31 vehicles and two safes.

http://wwwext.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche..._106016085.html

[Carmelo]

Camorra kingpin arrested in Spain
Giuseppe Polverino's clan controlled one-billion-euro empire

(ANSA) - Naples, March 7 - Giuseppe Polverino, one of the leading members of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra, has been arrested in Jerez de la Frontera in Spain in a joint operation by Italian and Spanish police.

Polverino, 53, is the kingpin of a clan that controls a drug-trafficking empire estimated to be worth one billion euros a year.

The fugitive was with another senior member of his clan when he was arrested, 48-year-old Raffaele Vallefuoco, Naples police said Wednesday.

http://wwwext.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche..._128334164.html

[Carmelo]

Mayor among Camorra arrests
Official 'helped Casalesi clan'

(ANSA) - Naples, March 13 - The mayor of a town near Naples was among nine people arrested Tuesday in a probe into the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia.

Enrico Martinelli, mayor of San Cipriano d'Aversa, was arrested along with a town councillor for allegedly helping the clan, whose death threats have forced writer Roberto Saviano into 24-hour police protection.

http://wwwext.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche..._131128725.html

[Junior]

Judges held in Italy Naples mafia swoop
BBC News, March 19, 2012

Italian police have arrested 16 judges in what they say is a big anti-mafia operation centred on Naples.

They are alleged to have taken bribes to issue financial rulings in favour of the Camorra, the crime syndicate active around the southern city.

Altogether about 60 people are being held on suspicion of money laundering and corruption.

Buildings, cars and property worth 1bn euros (£829m; $1.3bn) were seized around Naples and in northern Italy.

The names of the detained 16 judges have not been revealed.

The police said the focus of the operation was the Fabroccino clan, which is believed to have bribed officials to obtain favourable court judgements.

The clan has become notorious for extortion and drug trafficking, but the police say they are also investigating its involvement in buying and selling property, hotel management and the food industry.

The authorities clearly believe that the corruption has spread far beyond the members of the clan itself, and that in this case even judges may have been working with the Camorra, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.

[Carmelo]

Italian Interior Minister urges youth to stand up to mafia
'Camorra worth nothing', Cancellieri says

(ANSA) - Naples, March 21 - Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri told Naples youth on Wednesday to stand "strong and to mobilize" against the local mafia known as the Camorra.

Holding a t-shirt printed with bold red letters reading "the Camorra is worth nothing," Cancellieri encouraged a culture of communication and culture.

The minister also met the families of organized-crime victims reminding them that the Italian State was standing "very close" to them.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en..._154967416.html

[Carmelo]

50 arrested in Camorra drugs swoop
Narcotics 'came via Spain and Netherlands'

(ANSA) - Naples, March 27 - Italian police on Tuesday arrested 50 people suspected of involvement in drug trafficking for the Neapolitan Camorra mafia.

The suspects were also accused of weapons possession.

Police said the gang's drugs came through Spain and the Netherlands.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en..._157671823.html

[Junior]

Mafia fugitive caught behind 'magic mirror'
By Josephine McKenna in Rome
The Telegraph, 01 April, 2012

Antonio Cardillo, a 34-year-old alleged crime boss affiliated with the Lo Russo clan of the Naples Camorra, was arrested by Carabinieri police in a raid early Saturday after they discovered a ruse reminiscent of a classic spy novel.

Cardillo had been at large for 18 months but had apparently been living at home with his family in Marano di Napoli on the outskirts of the city.

The rose pink home called Villa Excelsia was surrounded by a large veranda and lush garden and was protected by high walls and an elaborate security system.

Acting on warrants sought by anti-mafia prosecutors, police raided the house early Saturday and found Cardillo's wife and two children asleep.

When police searched the master bedroom, where Cardillo's wife has been sleeping, they saw signs that the matrimonial bed had been used on both sides.

As they continued their search of the house they found a tiny remote control device that did not appear to belong to a television, computer or any other appliance.

But when they entered the walk-in wardrobe beside the master bedroom and activated the remote control, a full-length mirror that seemed to be attached to the wall moved aside.

The mirror was operated by a series of large hydraulic pistons and tubes activated by the remote control device and Cardillo was found sitting on a small red chair in the small room behind it.

Cardillo is wanted for a number of Mafia related crimes and extortion and is considered a boss in a clan that operates across the northern suburbs of Naples including Miano and Marianella.

He managed to escape a police blitz in which 50 of his alleged accomplices were arrested in Naples in November 2010 and he has been on the run ever since.

Cardillo's bunker is the latest in a number of bizarre and often elaborate hideouts used by mafia bosses to evade police.

In Aug 2009 police arrested mafia boss Giuseppe Bastone who was found hiding in an underground bunker equipped with a skateboard he planned to use through a 200 yard secret tunnel to escape capture.

Bastone hid for a year in a 10ft by 10ft space beneath a house that was accessible through a hidden trapdoor.

Giuseppe Setola, a hit man for the Naples Camorra, evaded arrest during a police raid on his home north of Naples in January 2009 when he fled down a tunnel linked to sewers beneath his hideout.

He was captured two days later while seeking treatment for a wrist injury and is now serving a life sentence for ordering or carrying out up to 18 murders.

[Carmelo]

20 Camorra arrests include three women
'Decapitated' clan also had 'stranglehold on funerals'

(ANSA) - Mondragone, April 2 - Italian police on Monday arrested 20 people in the Neapolitan Camorra mafia including three women for drug trafficking north of Naples.

Police said the clan, which they had "decapitated", also had a stranglehold on funerals in the area, using threats to preserve a monopoly for a Camorra-approved firm.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en..._160475030.html

[Carmelo]

Tonne of hashish found in highway beam
Man arrested near Salerno

(ANSA) - Salerno, April 11 - Italian police on Wednesday found more than a tonne of hashish in a concrete beam supporting a highway near this southern Italian city. A man was arrested in the town of Angri after the 1,220 kg of narcotics was discovered at a height of more than 10 metres, police said.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en..._183560972.html

[Carmelo]

Police arrest eight for involvement in mob murders
Son of jailed superboss Schiavone among the suspects

(ANSA) - Rome, April 10 - Police on Tuesday arrested eight people suspected of involvement in two murders in 2009 during a mob war within a clan of Campania's Camorra mafia syndicate.

Among the people arrested in the province of Caserta was the oldest son of Francesco 'Sandokan' Schiavone, the jailed superboss of the notorious Casalesi clan.

Schiavone's son is suspected of organizing the murders of Clemente Prisco and Antonio Salzillo.

Schiavone, who has been in jail since 1998, featured in Roberto Saviano's 2006 expose' Gomorrah.

He is nicknamed Sandokan after Italy's most famous literary pirate.

He is one of the Casalesi bosses whose death threats against Saviano have forced the 32-year-old writer into round-the-clock police protection.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en..._163393524.html

[Carmelo]

44 Camorra arrests
'Top role' played by wives of jailed chieftains

(ANSA) - Naples, April 24 - Italian police on Tuesday arrested 44 people suspected of belonging to a top clan in the Neapolitan Camorra mafia near Naples. The Belforte family is based in the town of Marcianise near the city of Caserta, 30.5 km (19 miles) north of the Campanian capital.

Police said investigations had uncovered a "leading role" played by the wives of Belforte clan chiefs jailed under special anti-mafia conditions.

More than 10 million euros of assets were seized in the operation and 250 bank accounts were frozen.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...ts_6766345.html

[Carmelo]

Camorra boss extradited from Brazil
Right-hand man of Casalesis' 'Sandokan' to face murder charges

(ANSA) - Naples, April 25 - A boss in the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia linked to jailed chief Francesco 'Sandokan' Schiavone was extradited to Italy from Brazil Wednesday.

Francesco Salzano, 39, caught by Interpol in the Brazilian seaside resort of Fortaleza in February 2011, is wanted for three murders, attempted murder and extortion.

He narrowly avoided arrest in June 2010 when nine other top members of the notorious clan were detained near Naples.

Italian police said Salzano's arrest "completed the dismantling of the Schiavone clan's command structure".

Schiavone, a superboss of the clan featured in Roberto Saviano's 2006 expose' Gomorrah, has been in jail since 1998.

He is nicknamed Sandokan after Italy's most famous literary pirate.

Schiavone is one of the Casalesi bosses whose death threats against Saviano have forced the 31-year-old writer into round-the-clock police protection.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...il_6773024.html

[Junior]

Secrets of the real-life Godfather: 'Coded' letter to mafia boss shows how mobsters can run the mafia from behind bars
By Ruth Whitehead, The Mail, April 2012

[Carmelo]

Seized Camorra assets include homes rented to U.S. military
Associate of Casalesi clan in property swoop

(ANSA) - Naples, April 30 - Italian police on Monday seized assets from the Neapolitan Camorra mafia including four homes rented to US soldiers working for NATO near Naples.

The assets were taken from an alleged associate of the Camorra's Casalesi clan, whose death threats against Roberto Saviano have forced the 'Gomorrah' writer into round-the-clock police protection.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...ry_6795336.html

[Carmelo]

Police arrest 23 Camorra suspects for extortion
Juvenile among the people facing charges

(ANSA) - Naples, May 2 - Police have arrested 23 suspected members of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia allegedly involved in extorting money from local businesses in the Naples province port of Torre Annunziata.

A woman and a juvenile were among the people arrested in an overnight operation.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...on_6802611.html

[Carmelo]

Fugitive mafia killer arrested in Portugal

Lisbon, 3 May (AKI) - Italian gangster and convicted murderer Giovanni Capone Perna was arrested in Portugal on Thursday after seven months on the run.

Perna, a member of the powerful Camorra mafia from Naples, was evading a 30-year sentence for the 2003 killing of Francesco Esposito, a mafia boss.
Perna could be extradited back to Italy within the next few days. He was arrested in Holivera do Hospital, a town in central Portugal
Esposito was killed on the orders of clan bosses eyeing who were valuable public works contracts.

The Camorra has its roots in and around the southern Italian city of Naples. The group together with Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Calabria region's 'Ndrangheta is one of Italy's top three crime networks.
Perna is a member of the Pagnozzi crime family, whose top boss Domenico Pagnozzi was arrested in Rome in 2003.

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/S...3264908935.html

[Carmelo]

12 Camorra arrests
Young Casalesi suspects linked to 'Sandokan'

(ANSA) - Naples, May 4 - Italian police on Friday arrested 15 suspected members of the notorious Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia.

The 15, all in their 20s, were arrested on suspicion of mafia crimes including extortion in a so-called "advertising racket" and were linked to jailed Casalesi chieftain Francesco'Sandokan' Schiavone, police said.

They were commanded by two of Schiavone's sons, police said.

Schiavone, 59, a superboss of the clan featured in Roberto Saviano's 2006 expose' Gomorrah, has been in jail since 1998.

He is nicknamed Sandokan after Italy's most famous literary pirate.

Schiavone is one of the Casalesi bosses whose death threats against Saviano have forced the 31-year-old writer into round-the-clock police protection.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...ts_6814180.html

[Carmelo]

One dead and one wounded in an ambush in the town of Mugnano, near Naples. Victim close to the clan of the 'scissionisti'

(ANSA) - Naples, MAY 9 - A man was killed in the evening in the town of Mugnano near Naples, in an ambush in which was also wounded a second person.

The victim is Biagio Biancolella, 32. The wounded Vincenzo Nano, 46. The two were walking when they were approached by unknown people who fired at them several shots. Biancolella, already known to the police, was close to the clan of
"scissionisti".

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/regioni/cam...no_6844818.html

[Carmelo]

Police nail Camorra murder suspect from fingerprints on a crash-helmet

Naples, 10 May (AKI) - Police in the southern Italian city of Naples on Thursday arrested a man suspected of a mafia contract killing after his fingerprints were found on a motorbike crash helmet left at the murder scene.
Annunci Google

Giovanni Illiano, 23, from the northern Naples suburb of Scampia was already known to police as an affiliate of the Naples mafia or Camorra's feuding breakaway faction from the once all-powerful Di Lauro clan.
Illiano and a second gunman aboard a motorbike allegedly shot dead Fortunato Scognamiglio in Naples on 16 January this year. Police identified Illiano's fingerprints on the motorcyle crash helmet which Illiano and his accomplice allegedly left beside Scognamiglio's corpse together with the two pistols they used to kill him before they fled the scene.

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/S...3288411482.html

[Carmelo]

47 Camorra arrests in six regions
Clan hit in Campania, Abruzzo, Calabria, Emilia, Lazio, Lombardy

(ANSA) - Naples, June 6 - Italian police on Wednesday arrested 47 suspected members of a top clan in the Neapolitan Camorra mafia in an operation across Italy.

Police said the operation "destroyed the new structure of the Mallardo clan," which had been reorganising and linking up with other Camorra outfits after a string of veteran bosses were jailed.

The arrests took place in six regions.

The suspected members of the Mallardo clan were detained in Campania, Abruzzo, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio and Lombardy, police said.

Seized assets included a yacht and a supermarket, totalling about three million euros.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...ns_6993176.html

[Carmelo]

International drug trafficking ring busted
Organisation 'run by son of Maniero's former right-hand man'

(ANSA) - Padua, June 15 - Italian police on Friday broke up a suspected international drug-trafficking ring based in the northeastern city of Padua and linked with the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia.

Some 20 arrests were made in the regions of Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Puglia.

Police said the organisation was headed by the son of the former right-hand man of notorious former 'Brenta Mafia' chief Felice 'Angel Face' Maniero, who was freed in 2010 after serving 16 years in jail.

The gang brought Colombian cocaine into Italy using Ecuadorian couriers, police said, and relied on Casalesi enforcers to make sure it got its money.

The Casalesi clan's death threats have forced writer Roberto Saviano, whose 2006 expose' Gomorrah described their criminal empire, into round-the-clock police protection.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...ed_7040360.html

[Carmelo]

Two men, Francesco Gaiola, 58, and Ciro Abrunzo, 29, gunned down by Camorra in Napoli on June 21



http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/...4411447.shtml#4

[Junior]

Naples Fascinates With Garbage, Mafia, Ruined Glory
By Manuela Hoelterhoff, Bloomberg News
June 21, 2012

After a brief visit to Naples decades ago, I spent a week recovering on the Lipari Islands.

What a stressful city this is: Vesuvius looming in the distance, disappearing garbage collectors, crumbling monuments and a hydra-headed mafia.

Once a must-see city on the Grand Tour of the cultivated gentleman, Naples could use a few more friends these days.

“Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay,” an engaging travel history by Benjamin Taylor, brings out the darkness and light of a death-defying city glinting under the grime. I was happy to visit vicariously.

We spoke at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters a few days before he was off to France to start a new book on Marcel Proust.

Hoelterhoff: Say I want to go back to Naples. What’s your favorite hotel?

Taylor: I often stayed at Grand Hotel Parker’s, which was the headquarters of the German high command.

A more famous hotel on the water is the Excelsior, which is in many movies like “Dodsworth.” You can see the smoking volcano in the background as he drives along the via Partenope.

Berlin Orders

Hoelterhoff: What about the Nazis?

Taylor: They decided not to fight for Naples but to leave. A specific order came from Berlin to destroy the medieval archives and the Germans sent a detachment to burn these documents in the last days.

As so often in the Third Reich, there was a passionate attention to symbols.

Hoelterhoff: It reminds me of Hitler’s order to burn Paris -- the vindictive obsession to eradicate the past if you can’t own the future. Yet Naples was badly destroyed.

Taylor: Yes, by the Allies, though I never heard any local utter a bitter word.

Hoelterhoff: What’s your first memory of Naples?

Taylor: Like so many, I came to go elsewhere: to see Pompeii and Capri. Then I met the author Shirley Hazzard, who said: “What’s the most interesting is what is hidden here.” That intrigued me.

Hoelterhoff: And what was that?

Taylor: These are a people for whom the tragic nature of history is simply a given. Events are not favorable to you. In a sense, it’s the opposite of what it feels to be a fortunate American. I was impressed by the deep civilization inherent in ordinary people.

What Happened?

Hoelterhoff: Yet for a long time, Naples was considered one of the great cities of Europe.

Taylor: The second city of Europe after Paris. The Grand Tour culminated here. Then with the unification of Italy, the standard of living doesn’t change in the south. But the north has a different trajectory.

Hoelterhoff: I liked the cameos, whether of the repulsive Tiberius or the strangely chic opera lover, who turned out to be a cross-dresser.

Taylor: She was treated as if she were mentally ill. The south is more conservative in our sense.

Hoelterhoff: La Camorra. Is it visible?

Taylor: Invisible but everywhere. The shops, the hotels, all are paying protection. The Camorra controls the political economy. I think the Camorra accounts for one third of the southern GDP.

It’s sophisticated and internationally ambitious. They take their ill-gotten gains and put them into legitimate companies.

Hoelterhoff: So they are behind those periodic garbage strikes?

The Garbage

Taylor: They are not exactly strikes, but a demonstration of power. It is announced that “the receptacles for garbage are full.” They are not.

The Camorra is misunderstood as a family like the Gambinos. It’s a network of several hundred families with spheres of autonomy and interest and occasional turf wars. It’s involved in all forms of trafficking including bodily organs.

You see the young members in the restaurants. They’re profoundly influenced by the “Scarface” movie and love to go tanning and wear their pants high. They’re repulsive.

Hoelterhoff: Were you ever scared?

Taylor: Not for a minute. But I wasn’t writing about crime in Naples. I was there to sing the song of praise to its immense antiquity.

[Junior]

Mafia godmother 'big female kitten' arrested
By Nick Pisa in Rome, The Telegraph
26 June, 2012



Raffaella D'Alterio, 46, was held along with 65 other suspects in a series of dawn raids by armed officers who also used helicopters and sniffer dogs in the operation.

Ms D'Alterio allegedly took over the reins of the Italian Pianese-D'Alterio clan after her husband Nicola Pianese was murdered by rivals six years ago aged 45.

Three years later she suffered gunshot wounds herself after she was targeted by fellow mobsters jealous of her control of lucrative drug cartels in the crime ridden southern port city of Naples.

Her son Raffaele was also injured and at the time of the attempted murder the family's lawyer Pasquale Russo said: "Being the wife and son of a boss does not automatically make you a criminal or the leader of a clan. My client Raffaella has one conviction for a false statement to the council while her son has been cleared of possession of a weapon."

Pianese was nicknamed "o mussutto" which in Neapolitan dialect means "the big lipped one" while his wife is known as "a miciona" which translates as "the big female kitten."

Pianese's daughter Caterina has also been arrested in the past in connection with organised crime but today it was not immediately known if she and her brother were among those held in the latest operation.

The city and surrounding area is the heartland of the local Mafia known as the Camorra and there is a bloody turf war ongoing between rival factions with shootings and murders a daily occurrence.

Within the last 24 hours two people have been shot dead in the city including an 18 year old man lured to a rendezvous and then gunned down while the other was a bar owner in his 40s killed as he opened up his business.

Police said both were the victims of organised crime although there was no connection with D'Alterio's clan officers said.

She and the others were held on allegations of extortion, possessing illegal arms, robbery and dealing drugs.

She and her crime family are also said to have used violence and intimidation to tackle competition from rivals over an extortion and counterfeit money trafficking ring.

Police also seized properties and goods owned by the suspects, including car dealerships, bars, supermarkets, houses, fast cars and bank accounts.

She is also accused of building up ties with other clans in the Camorra, which has a vast international network that generates billions of pounds in profits from drug trafficking, counterfeit goods, waste disposal and construction.

[Carmelo]

A PROMINENT Neapolitan crooner known as "The King" has been arrested for drug trafficking.

Tony Marciano has accused mafia traitors of "bringing down the empire" in his songs.

"I've never seen this many cameras, even at my concerts!" Mr Marciano quipped as he was dragged away by police from his home near Naples yesterday.

The slick 46-year-old was one of 22 people arrested in a crackdown against the Gionta clan of the powerful Naples mafia, the Camorra.

"Tony Marciano is suspected of financing drug trafficking over the past three years," a spokesman for the Carabinieri police said.

He is suspected of trafficking in marijuana and powerful hallucinogenics.

Born Ciro Marciano, the singer began his career in the 1980s.

In 1986, he sold 150,000 copies of his album "Io Sono Meridionale" ("I Am From the South"), the Corriere del Mezzogiorno daily reported.
He also sang the duet "Me and You" with famous Neapolitan actress Maria Nazionale, who played a mafia boss's wife in the award-winning film "Gomorra".

In one of Marciano's latest numbers "Nun Ciamm Arrennere" ("We Won't Give Up" in Neapolitan dialect), he attacked mafia turncoats.

"They've lost the code of silence," he crooned and even admitted in the song that he had been on the run from police for more than a year.

http://www.news.com.au/world/mafia-crooner...v-1226417346002

[Carmelo]

Brother of Casalesi kingpin arrested near Naples
Giuseppe Iovine 'was trying to rebuild' anti-Saviano clan

(ANSA) - Caserta, July 6 - Italian police on Friday arrested the brother of jailed Neapolitan Camorra mafia superboss Antonio Iovine.

Giuseppe Iovine, 50, had been trying to rebuild his brother's notorious Casalesi clan since his brother's arrest after 14 years on the run in late 2010, police said.

Giuseppe, who is accused of a range of mafia crimes including extortion, was caught in his home in a town north of Naples, police said.

Antonio, 48, was caught on November 17, 2010 in Casal di Principe, the town north of Naples that spawned the Casalesi, whose criminal empire was exposed by writer Roberto Saviano.

Antonio Iovine's arrest left Michele Zagaria, 54, as the only top Casalesi boss not in custody - until police caught up with him in December 2011.

Antonio Iovine, like Zagaria, was on Italy's 30 most wanted list along with other superbosses like Cosa Nostra chief Matteo Messina Denaro.

Over the last four years Italian police have carried out a string of successful operations against the Camorra, Cosa Nostra and the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.

Saviano is under round-the-clock police protection because of death threats from the Casalesi after his 2006 bestseller 'Gomorra' (Gomorrah), a pun on 'Camorra', which was later turned into an award-winning film.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...es_7150346.html

[Carmelo]

Camorra gunmen kills 37-year-old in Naples

14 JUL 2012

(AGI) Naples - A man was killed in another camorra attack in Naples continuing the feud between the Abete group and the Magnetti group for the control of criminal activities i the neighbourhoods of Scampia and Secondigliano.

Gunmen ambushed 37 year-old Vincenzo Ciletti, presumably close to the Abete clan, outside a bar in via Roma close to Scampia, around midnight yesterday. The man was fatally shot in the head shot, back and shoulders.

http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/el...r_old_in_naples

[Carmelo]

Mozzarella king arrested for alleged criminal association
Investigators link cheese group to Casalesi clan

(ANSA) - Naples, July 17 - Police in Naples arrested the owner of one of Italy's leading mozzarella companies on Tuesday for alleged criminal association and counterfeit production of the Campania region's trademark cheese.

Giuseppe Mandara, third-generation mozzarella producer and company head of Mandara Group, was allegedly in partnership with the notorious Casalesi clan of the Camorra Mafia whose criminal empire was described in Roberto Saviano's 2006 book Gomorrah, later turned into an award-winning 2008 film of the same name.

Police also seized assets worth 100 million euros and arrested a number of the company's employees.

Mandara is a major global exporter of buffalo mozzarella and its products are sold throughout Europe, Japan and the US.

Investigators also allege that the company falsely produced batches of mozzarella with cheaper cows' milk instead of the buffalo milk that is required by law to keep its protected origin status (DOP).

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...on_7197356.html

[Carmelo]

Mafioso killed execution style in broad daylight near Rome
Camorra 'lieutenant' shot five times

(ANSA) - Rome, July 24 - A member of the Naples-based Camorra mafia was shot to death in broad daylight outside Rome on Tuesday.

Modesto Pellino was reportedly shot five times execution style in the center of Nettuno, a beach-side town south of the capital.

Considered a lieutenant of the Moccia clan, Pellino, 45, was arrested in 2010 after two years on the run for mafia-related charges including extortion, drug peddling and illegal-arms possession.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...me_7231787.html

[Carmelo]

Ambush near Naples, 1 person killed and 1 injured

27 JUL 2012

(AGI) Naples - One person killed and 1 injured, most likely a passer-by, after an ambush occured at Torre Annunziata, near Naples.The incident occurred at 3.30 pm in Piazza Imbriani, a very central and crowded area of town. Police are investigating.

The body of Antonio Iapicca, 48, killed in Torre Annunziata; reputed member of the Gionta clan at war with the Gallo-Cavalieri crime family





Attached Image (Click thumbnail to expand)

[Junior]

The mammas of the Italian mob
By Paul Badde, Worldcrunch
Monday, July 30, 2012

VENICE - The click of handcuffs closing reverberates softly at dawn on the morning of June 26 in Naples. No sirens gave the godfather advance warning the police were on their way. The godfather has long blonde hair. The “he” is a she: Raffaella D’Alterio, who’s been the boss of the notorious Camorra Pianese-D’Alterio clan since her husband was murdered in 2006.

The raid along the bay at the foot of Mount Vesuvius resulted not only in the arrest of D’Alterio but of 66 other suspected members of the mafia, along with the seizure of bars, supermarkets, sports cars and bank accounts.

Charges against the blonde widow include blackmailing, drug dealing, and forgery as well as criminal activity in the construction and waste disposal sectors – and the godmother who raked in billions used all means including murder to defend her pole position.

Petra Reski is also blonde, also a godmother – but of a very different kind. For 20 years, the German journalist has been a top expert on Italy’s mafia. She doesn’t live in Palermo but in Venice, where we caught up with her in a little trattoria behind the famous La Fenice opera house.

How did she end up writing about the mafia? "Biographical reasons", she replies. "I come from a large family with roots in East Prussia and Silesia, and after we fled to Western Europe we maintained exceptionally close family ties."

Those ties marked her, she says, so when she read Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather she was interested to see how a family dynamic like that played out among the mafia. At 20, she traveled from her home in Kamen (North Rhine-Westphalia) to Corleone in Sicily to check out the scene -- and was hugely disappointed because she didn’t see anything more exciting than a bunch of old guys sitting outside their homes watching whatever went by.

Women run the show

But as her subsequent reporting and books have shown, she didn’t let the matter rest there. I ask Reski about women in the mafia. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Reski laughs. "Not at all. First of all, women run the show in the south of Italy. And it’s no different in the mafia."

She continues: "Secondly, they didn’t pick the men they’re with by chance. It’s a clear calculation, and women enjoy calculating. They’re no better than men. In fact they are the foundation of the mafia. The mafia men sit in the living room, sleep in a bed, eat at the table – and come home with bloody boots. And the women? People talk about how they keep silent, hide things, lie. How they look the other way. But they never claim that the women don’t know anything."

Every big mafia boss has a woman at his side, Reski says – and not a passive victim of the bloody clan wars, either, but a main protagonist. Women transport weapons, plan crimes, deliver messages, and also know how to use the media to advantage.

They manage clan arsenals as naturally "as if they were a chain of hairdressing salons," she says. If there is a threat of police search, they have the weapons cemented inside walls. The mafia is 50% women, according to Reski, if not more. "As in any Italian household, in the mafia the women are the unknown other half."

Just as they do for the Cosa Nostra in Sicily and the Camorra in Naples, women carry mafia culture from generation to generation in Calabria too. The women are behind the blood feuds, keeping the memory of the dead alive, and preparing their sons for life in the ’Ndrangheta, as the Calabrian mafia is called. The women of San Luca (Reggio Calabria) are no more the tolerant victims of brutal men than are their Sicilian or Neapolitan sisters. They wear disguises, hide fugitives from justice, plan murders, and says Reski "raise their kids to be time bombs."

The women are the ones who keep the lines of communication open between imprisoned male bosses and the clan, and in so doing may earn themselves the honorary title of "sorella d’omertà" or a "sister" of the mafia code of silence.

To illustrate the women’s skill at manipulating media imagery, Reski says: "After her arrest, Teresa Strangio, one of the three sisters of alleged killer Giovanni Strangio, walked down the steps of police headquarters in Reggio Calabria head held high, eyes looking off into the distance – the sorrowful mater dolorosa, in fact the handcuffs gave her an air of martyrdom."

From widow to godmother

In Naples, where the matriarchy is even more pronounced than in the rest of Italy, the role of women in the Camorra is stronger too, Reski says. Which is why nobody was surprised when Raffaella D’Alterio became godmother after the death of her husband. But there have also been female mafia bosses elsewhere. One famous mafiosa in Sicily was Antonietta Bagarella. Another was the wife of one of the best-known mafia bosses, Totò Riina.

Ninetta Riina knew her husband from when they were both children. She was from an old mafia family in Corleone, and her brother was striving to climb Cosa Nostra ranks. Reski recounts how he was murdered by his future brother-in-law. "Ninetta only found out about it after she and Riina were married, but it certainly wouldn’t have stopped her from marrying him. A woman like Ninetta from the old mafia nobility doesn’t get sentimental about things like that."

So how come all of this isn’t already better known? Why is there no "Godmother" movie? "It’s simple," Reski replies: Italy’s justice system places the family above the law. Even if a woman is married to a mafia killer for 20 years, she is not considered an accomplice. And no wife can be forced to testify against her husband.

That makes women very valuable to the mafia. "I don’t know anything about the mafia. I don’t know anything about the ’Ndrangheta. I only know about my eight children, seven sons and a daughter," said the mother of Sebastiano Nirta, one of the alleged mafia killers accused of gunning down six people in front of the Da Bruno restaurant in Duisburg, Germany.

Are there any gay godfathers? I ask. "There are gay mafiosi," Reski replies. But most are heterosexual. "Remember, Palermo is not Berlin. In Sicily, traditions last longer than elsewhere. But it probably won’t be long before there’s a gay capo."

And with that she is off, into the maze of Venice’s narrow streets.

[Carmelo]

U.S. freezes assets of leading Camorra crime bosses
'Action designed to squeeze Camorra' says Treasury

(ANSA) - New York, August 1 - The United States Treasury Department on Wednesday froze the US assets of five bosses of Italy's Camorra crime syndicate, including Antonio Iovine and Michele Zagaria, jailed kingpins of the notorious Casalesi clan.

The Treasury officially sanctioned the Camorra members by freezing assets they have within the jurisdiction of the United States and by prohibiting any transactions with them by US persons.

"This action is designed to squeeze the Camorra out of the global financial system and protect the U.S. financial system from laundering its criminal proceeds," said US under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, David S. Cohen, in a statement. "We will continue to pursue members and supporters of the Camorra, and today's action against the group's leadership will help us cast an even larger net to expose their financial facilitators and associates wherever they may operate".

US President Barack Obama in July 2011 identified the Camorra as a "significant TCO", or transnational criminal organization, and charged the Treasury with pursuing additional sanctions against its members and supporters.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...es_7276106.html

[Carmelo]

Ambush in Naples, one dead and one wounded
The police investigates

(ANSA) - Naples, 1 August - A man with criminal records was killed and another wounded in a Camorra-related ambush in the district of Forcella.

Gaetano Nembrotte Menna, 47 years, was shot dead. His son-in-law who was with him, Emanuele Tarantino, 22, was wounded. He would not life threatening, according to a first assessment. On the spot the police is leading the investigation.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/regioni/cam...to_7275953.html

[Carmelo]

Son of Camorra boss killed while going to play five-a-side

06 AUG 2012

(AGI) Naples - 48-year-old Mario Cuomo, the son of the Casola Camorra boss Catello, was killed in an ambush in Via Ogliaro, in Gragnano, Naples, at 19.30, while he was going to play a five-a-side football match.
According to a first reconstruction by the Carabinieri, two men approached Cuomo on a scooter as he was entering the football field and shot him. Cuomo tried to run for shelter inside, but he was reached and killed with 3-4 shots.
Catello Cuomo's criminal organization deals mainly with drug smuggling, but it had not been involved in the Camorra war up to now. That is why Carabinieri are investigating in all directions. However, there's no doubt it is a Camorra murder, both for the name of the victim and the modality of the ambush.

http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/el...lay_five_a_side

[Carmelo]

Suspected Camorra member shot in leg as gets off boat
Nino Spagnuolo, 35, leading figure in D'Alessandro clan

(ANSA) - Naples, August 16 - A leader of one of Naples' Camorra crime families was shot in the leg as he got off his boat in the town of Vico Equense on the night of August 14-15.

Nino Spagnuolo, 35 years old and believed by police to be one of the leading figures in the D'Alessandro syndicate, was shot by a masked gunman, who then escaped via the sea, he told authorities.

Spagnuolo was with a 20-year-old South American woman, who was injured in the foot by a piece of shrapnel. The two only reported the incident Thursday. Both were admitted to hospital and treated for slight wounds. A local unit of the Carabinieri police is investigating.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...at_7347314.html

[Carmelo]

Camorra: famous criminal Francesco Matrone captured

17 AUG 2012

(AGI) Salerno - Carabinieri of the Special ROS group and the Salerno provincial headquarters captured a dangerous fugitive.

Francesco Matrone, born in 1947, received two life sentences for double murder and other crimes and was on the list of the nine most dangerous criminals in Italy in the Ministry of the Interior's "Special Research Program".

The operation was coordinated by the District Attorney of Salerno and it is still underway with more than 100 carabinieri officers, a helicopter and several police dogs.

http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/el...atrone_captured

[Carmelo]

Beach shooting victim reportedly an organized crime boss
Gaetano Marino, killed at Terracina, 'was in Naples mafia'

(ANSA) - Rome, August 23 - Gaetano Marino, who died when a gunman fired seven shots at him at a bathing establishment south of Rome on Thursday afternoon, was reportedly a member of an organized-crime group.

A Neapolitan native, he was a boss in the local Camorra mafia, police said. Forty-eight-year-old Marino had made the headlines last February for participating as a guest on a RAI state television show his daughter was singing on.

One other person was injured in the Terracina beach shootout and the gunman may have been accompanied by a second person. The shooting took place whilst the area was packed with vacationers. Police are on the spot investigating.

Terracina is about 80 km southeast of Italy's capital Rome.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/en...ss_7372305.html