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'Ndrangheta drug lords "assault" the port of Livorno
Data from the Report of the Regional Observatory of Legality of Tuscany. The Livorno port is a "hub of illicit trafficking at an international level"
Published: 10/06/2025 – 18:05
FLORENCE Drug trafficking is «one of the direct sources of income» that guarantees cooperative relationships between Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra with the supply of large quantities on a large scale. In this context, the port of Livorno represents a «strategic hub», «one of the main entry points for drug trafficking, mainly operated by the 'Ndrangheta, the wholesaler of Europe» . This is what emerged this morning in Florence at the presentation of the report of the Regional Observatory of Legality, which shows a mix of interests in Tuscany between various Italian and foreign mafia and criminal organizations, as is also highlighted in the Report for the year 2023 of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate. «Among the criminal forms to be taken into close consideration», we read in the Report, there is the one of Chinese origin, which led to the so-called “war of the crutches”, with attempted murders, incendiary bombs in Italy and Spain. Episodes that have led, in the last few months alone, to six arrests in Calabria, Sicily and Veneto.
Among the most active clans are the Calabrian, Campanian and Sicilian groups, but also Albanian, Romanian, Chinese, Maghrebian and North African ones. The role played by the 'ndrangheta is significant, especially in drug trafficking. The Calabrian criminal organisation – as emerges from the Report – represents for the Sicilian one a «preferential channel» especially for the purchase of cocaine .
The port of Livorno is a “strategic hub” for drug trafficking
Specific chapter for the port of Livorno, considered "an international hub for illicit trafficking" , attributable to the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta, Sicilian mafia clans, and organizations from Puglia and Lazio". And "there is no lack of foreign organizations, especially Albanian, for drug trafficking, and Nigerian ones". Regarding trafficking in the port, it is also highlighted that it is "in line with the ports of Central and South America", but also "with the ports of Genoa and Gioia Tauro". Significant - as highlighted in the report - is the operation conducted by the Guardia di Finanza and the anti-fraud unit of the Customs office which "hit drug trafficking along the Ecuador-Livorno axis managed by Albanian clans with the seizure of over two tons of cocaine". The president of the Observatory, Don Andrea Bigalli
, raised the alarm on this point during the presentation, underlining, with regard to the port of Livorno, how it has been « for a long time one of the main entry points for drug trafficking, especially by the 'ndrangheta, the wholesaler of Europe ». «I have been asking the Region for a long time – he said – to finance, also through the work of the various Observatories, not least the one I preside over, a serious analysis of the relationship between foreign mafias, Italian mafias and local foreign communities, because, it must always be remembered, foreign mafias act only under the aegis of national mafias ». ( mr )
