The Italian mafias conquer Germany: the 'Ndrangheta dominates
JAN 29, 2024
There are over a thousand Italian mafiosi active in Germany. This was made known by the German Interior Ministry in response to a question presented by the Green group to the Bundestag. According to data from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), in 2022 “ 1,003 suspected members of Italian organized crime permanently resident ” were identified. Of the total, 519 alleged mafiosi belonged to the 'Ndrangheta, 134 to Cosa Nostra and 118 to the Camorra. Compared to 2021, there was an increase of 87 subjects.
The exponents of Italian organized crime were mostly employed in the catering, food trade and automotive sectors. Among the crimes committed by mafiosi are drug trafficking, money laundering and tax fraud. The illicit proceeds from the criminal activities of these individuals amount to approximately 2.3 million euros, of which 683 thousand have been seized. The German Ministry of the Interior did not provide information on the number of criminal cases against the Mafia underway in Germany or the amount of actual profits of criminal organizations.
Marcel Emmerich, Green MP in the federal parliament, underlined that " the Mafia today weaves its web in Germany as in much of Italy, increasingly managing to build relationships with politics and the economy under the guise of entrepreneurs apparently serious ." However, as highlighted by the ecologists, the Mafia continues to be underestimated in Germany, " the washing machine of Europe's criminals ". According to estimates, over 100 billion euros are laundered in the country every year. For Emmerich, the illicit proceeds of the Italian mafia seized in recent years by the German authorities “ are just the tip of a gigantic iceberg ”.
The justice collaborator Gaspare Mutolo said that already in the 1980s there was an order to invest capital on German soil because they had been informed that the Berlin Wall would soon fall .
Over the years the gangs, strengthened by the substantial underestimation of the German ruling class, have evolved to the point of interfacing, as Lombardo had explained, with " infidel " subjects located in the " main strategic areas: political, institutional, professional, informational, financial, entrepreneurial, healthcare, banking and economic ".
All this requires, as the investigations of the anti-mafia district directorate of Reggio Calabria also reveal, a " very sophisticated chain of command" hinged on a "top-down vertical structure" capable of coordinate (as described in the 'Eureka' operation ) various criminal associations.
The leadership of the 'Ndrangheta, explained PC Lombardo, therefore does not stop at that structure, but expands to become part of "an expanded criminal system that also includes Cosa Nostra, the Camorra and other criminal structures that operate following methods , and for purposes, typically mafia. Here is the true essence of the strategic direction, which is no longer exclusive to a single criminal component but which exists in relation to all historical mafias".
In other words, "the 'Ndrangheta no longer exists as a criminal organization of Calabrian origin, Cosa Nostra no longer exists as a typically Sicilian criminal organization, the Camorra no longer exists as a Campania organization. The mafia-type criminal system, in its top secret components, becomes something different, considerably more dangerous and infiltrated into the legal fabric ."
