'Ndrangheta and drug trafficking, an inseparable link
Piero Innocenti July 10, 2021
Much of the cocaine seized every year in the ports of Gioia Tauro and in the other ports is imported by the Calabrian mafia which, for years, has also controlled some points of arrival of goods from South American countries, in Germany, Belgium and Holland.
Business is extraordinarily good judging by the quantities of seizures carried out in 2020 by the Italian police forces (13.4 tons, an absolute record, over 6 tons in these first six months of 2021 and about 40 tons in the ports of Hamburg, one of the most important in Europe and Antwerp).
To recall the dominant role of the 'Ndrangheta in the management of the international drug trafficking of cocaine towards Europe was, last June, the DCSA on the occasion of the presentation of the annual report 2021(2020 data) on the activities carried out and the results achieved in the fight against drug trafficking.
Confirmed in 2020 the stability of the current clans in the various "districts" (Ionian, central, Tyrrhenian), in the capitals of Crotone, Catanzaro, Vibonese and Cosentino, the DCSA highlights the connections of the 'Ndrangheta "... functional to the management of drug trafficking , with members of the Cosa Nostra, of the Camorra, of the Apulian criminal organizations, as well as with foreign criminal groups ” also recalling a recent hearing (April 29, 2021) of the Chief of Police before the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission.
The reality is that the Calabrian mafia is the "master" of the cocaine trade all over the world and if already in 2008 the US decided to put it on the "black list" of drug trafficking to try to prevent the pollution of the American economic and financial system, more recently (September 2020) Europol “has evaluated the threat of the 'Ndrangheta as the most relevant, indicating it among the most qualified criminal organizations in the world”.
The Calabrian mafia is particularly rooted in Holland, Belgium and Germany "... where through direct territorial desecrations, it manages the arrival, storage and distribution of cocaine".
In Germany, in particular, it has been noted for years "... the pervasive presence of the Calabrian criminal structure in the cities of Duisburg(remember the 2007 Duisburg massacre, ed ) , Erfurt, Munchen, Leipzig, Neurkirchen-Vluyn, Dizisau, Bous and Bochum ”. The German Interior Minister himself, in response to a parliamentary question (published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , 2020), supported an active presence throughout the national territory of about twenty Calabrian criminal structures (with about 800 / 1,000 affiliates in total) , faithful reproduction of the structure of origin with which they maintain consolidated connections.
The increased information exchange of recent times (finally!) In the context of the "Italy-Germany" task force and investigative acquisitions have also made it possible to detect the existence of"... relational reciprocity between the leaders of the" Balkan cartel " , also settled in Germany, and leading exponents of the Calabrian gangs, who have consolidated profitable channels of criminal collaboration, creating a large-scale joint venture".
A general criminal situation that will have to face investigative and judicial apparatuses also struggling with many problems connected to an increasingly violent predatory crime.
(July 5, 2021)