After 30 years on the run, the capo Matteo Messina was captured on January 16 in Sicily.
He is nicknamed “Diabolik” and is described as “an extremely dangerous man.”
He is considered one of the leaders of the Cosa Nostra, one of the best-known mafias in Italy and which was represented in the Godfather film saga.
The word mafia is derives from the Sicilian adjective mafiusutranslatable as “arrogant” or “bold”.
The power of the Italian mafias lies in the control and exploitation of territories and communities. The concepts of family, power, respect and territory are crucial to understand its dynamics.
According to the European security agency Europol, they are capable of manipulating elections and infiltrating their members in administrative positions even outside the territories they control.
Some Italian mafias operate globally, in competition with others such as the Russian, Chinese and Albanian.
And sometimes these gangs coordinate their crimes and share the loot.
But what are the main ones that make up the current Italian mafia?
Sicilian Mafia: Cosa Nostra
Sicilian gangs set the model for other mafias. They began by imparting local justice in the 19th century and from then on they grew in power and sophistication.
La Cosa Nostra, which means “our thing,” is considered the original mafia based on family clans.
It is famous for the “omerta”, a code of silence to show total loyalty. Anyone who does not comply is considered a traitor and risks being tortured or executed. Non-compliance can punish entire families.
It is said that Matteo Messina, hidden for three decades, he kept issuing orders to his subordinates via the pizzini system, leaving little folded paper notes under a rock on a Sicilian farmhouse.
Many Sicilians hate these family clans for “pizzo”, a form of extortion of local merchants by Italian mafias that they disguise as “protection” money.
La Cosa Nostra gained notoriety in the United States by becoming an organized crime force in Chicago and New York. It was established as the Italian mafia par excellence.
He amassed quite a bit of power by selling alcohol during the years that it was banned in the 1920s.
Its main businesses in recent years have been drug trafficking, illegal dumping of toxic waste, and money laundering.
According to FBI data, it is estimated that the Cosa Nostra and the other three major groups—the Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta and the United Sacred Crown— have about 25,000 members in total.
However, Anna Sergi, an expert researcher on mafias at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, warns BBC Mundo that any of these data are pure estimates since they are “secret organizations with secret memberships.”
La Cosa Nostra was at war with the Italian state during the leader’s reign Salvatore “Toto” Riina.
In May 1992 Riina’s men detonated a bomb that killed prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards.
Two months later, his men struck again, killing Falcone’s replacement, Paolo Borsellino, and five of his bodyguards with another bomb.
Riina died in 2017, aged 87, while serving a 26-life sentence for manslaughter.
Both society and the Italian authorities have fought against Cosa Nostra vigorously in recent years.
An anti-mafia group called Libera Terra coordinates new businesses, including hotels, with the money and property seized from the mafia.
And the police, in their siege of the recently arrested Matteo Messina, have captured several of his relatives in recent years, confiscated many of their businesses and increasingly isolated the capo.
Both the Cosa Nostra and the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, have been heavily weakened by the police in recent decades.
Neapolitan Mafia: Camorra
The Camorra comes from the Campania region and its most influential members are concentrated in Naples and Caserta.
His main business is drug trafficking and his methods are extremely brutal.
They also get extortion money from construction companies, toxic waste disposal companies and the textile industry. And his targets include workshops in which imitations of Italian fashion items are made.
The way of acting of the Camorra was documented by the Italian journalist Roberto Savianowho wrote the book “Gomorrah”, became best-seller.
Saviano currently lives with the constant protection of bodyguards after receiving several death threats.
In an interview with the US public channel, PBS, Saviano explained that the Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta were less hierarchical than Cosa Nostra, but more powerfulwith younger leaders and much more “blood”.
Another important aspect of the Neapolitan mafia is that women play an important role as messengers, accountants, and payers to members of the organization.
Calabrian Mafia: ‘Ndrangheta
The region located on the toe and vamp of the boot that is the map of Italy, Calabria is close to Sicily and the ‘Ndrangheta was originally an offshoot of Cosa Nostra.
Its name comes from the Greek “andragathia”which means courage and loyalty.
The ‘Ndrangheta has emerged as the most powerful mafia in Italy today, especially after heavy police action against the Camorra and Cosa Nostra in recent decades.
Its operations span every continent in the world, and it earns around $60 billion a year based in one of Italy’s poorest regions.
His currency is cocaine. The group is dominant in the world market and it is estimated that it controls up to 80% of the traffic of this substance in Europe.
In 2019, a massive international operation by Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria led to the arrest of 335 suspects, including lawyers, accountants and former parliamentarians.
They were all members or links of the mancuso familyone of the 150 family clans that make up the ‘Ndrangheta.
It was the biggest blow to this group in history and the trial began two years ago in Calabria. The charges include murder, extortion and drug trafficking. More than 70 have already been sentenced.
Pullesa Mafia: the United Sacred Crown
It is the smallest of the mafia groups in Italy and is known as the Sacra Corona Unida.
It is based in the Apulia region, in the south of the country.
Its members are specialized in tasks such as smuggling cigarettes, drugs and weapons.as well as human trafficking.
Apulia is a natural gateway for illegal trade from the Balkan countries.
Many of the clans in this region are believed to have close ties to criminal gangs in Eastern Europe. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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