'Ndrangheta, offensive writings against the parish priest of the sanctuary of Polsi
Denigrating and offensive sentences were written by unknown persons against Tonino Saraco , rector of the sanctuary of Polsi and parish priest in Ardore (RC). Someone read them on a wall along a provincial road and reported it to the religious who, upon hearing the news, went to the local carabinieri station where he filed a complaint for defamation. The incident was announced in a press release by Monsignor Francesco Oliva , bishop of Locri-Gerace, who, in his name and in the name of the diocesan church, expressed "full trust, closeness and solidarity" to Don Tonino.

The sanctuary of Polsi, located in the heart of the Aspromonte , is a symbolic role both from a religious point of view and for the meaning assumed over time for the 'Ndrangheta. Every year, in summer, on the occasion of the feast of the Madonna to which it is dedicated, the sanctuary becomes the destination of thousands of pilgrims from the province of Reggio Calabria and Sicily, but also the leaders of the clans who outline their strategies and renew their covenants.

"You should not compare this trial with the Palermo Maxi Trial," prosecutor Gratteri repeats in interviews. "This is a cornerstone of the dividing wall we are building between the 'ndrangheta and public life."

Now less big names are on trial - although Luigi Mancuso is internationally notorious. Moreover, it now mainly concerns the network in the Calabrese province of Vibo Valentia, while elsewhere in Calabria other 'ndrangheta families are active. The maxi process in Palermo at the time covered all of Sicily.

According to 'ndrangheta expert Enzo Ciconte, an important element of this process is “the key role of Masonic lodges”. The popularity of the Masonic brotherhoods in Italy is a historical legacy, Ciconte says, and goes back to the conspiracies of people who strived for the unification of Italy in the early 1800s.

Since the scandal of the secret lodge Propaganda Due in the eighties of the last century, stricter regulations have been imposed on lodges, to which official Freemasonry adheres. But justice in Calabria has discovered a large number of clandestine, unregistered lodges in that region where members or representatives of the 'ndrangheta liaise with local dignitaries and arrange all sorts of things, from multi-million dollar contracts to wage increases for friendly relations.

They call him the "Supreme" or "Uncle Luigi". Luigi Mancuso, 66, is the head of the leaders of the Vibonese 'Ndrangheta. Mancuso's “pacifist” strategy was on a collision course with the “new generation” of Vibo.
Mancuso is the boss of the bosses who - according to the prosecution - directs and organizes everything, making the most relevant decisions, "issuing orders or imposing sanctions on other associates subordinate to him, taking care of relations with the other branches of the association and the relative leaders, settling internal and external conflicts in the association he headed, commissioning or consuming extortion directly, continuing to carry out his functions as head even during detention, both within the prison , both outside ". He is the undisputed leader of the Vibonese 'Ndrangheta with solid relationships with exponents of other branches including the Reggio area, in particular with the De Stefano and Piromalli gangs, and with the “white collar” (professionals, entrepreneurs, politicians, belonging to the Freemasons).

Former boss of Italy's Mafia-style 'ndrangheta to testify
A key witness in the trial against the organized crime group 'ndrangheta in Italy is Luigi Bonaventura, who began cooperating with investigators in 2006.

https://www.dw.com/en/former-boss-of-italys-mafia-style-ndrangheta-to-testify/a-56214596

Judges seek recusal as major Italian mafia trial kicks off
https://reut.rs/2LuYRl

Heavily guarded prosecutor takes on Italy's mob powerhouse
https://reut.rs/3nHdO14

They also placed €1 million bounty on his head.

'Ndrangheta, 49 between arrests and orders: there is also the mayor of Rosarno

The operation involved the Pisano clan of the 'Ndrangheta Share January 18, 2021 There is the mayor of Rosarno, Giuseppe Idà, among those arrested in the "Faust" carabinieri operation. The operation involved the Pisano clan of the 'Ndrangheta which, according to investigations coordinated by the Reggio Calabria prosecutor Giovanni Bombardieri and the adjunct Gaetano Paci, allegedly supported Idà, elected mayor in 2016. This morning, at the first light

http://www.tellerreport.com/news/2021-01-18-%0A----ndrangheta--49-between-arrests-and-orders--there-is-also-the-mayor-of-rosarno%0A--.rkLtyrTzJ_.html

Another bust this time in the province of Crotone, the poorest region of Italy.

The Italian police have once again hit the Calabrese ‘ndrangheta, the most powerful mafia organization in the world. During a major operation called Basso Profilo (‘Inconspicuous’) at least 48 people were arrested. 35 of them are allowed to remain under house arrest.

At least 200 agents, four dog units and a helicopter were deployed throughout the country in the action. Most of the suspects are mafiosi, but entrepreneurs and politicians are also part of the investigation. They are suspected of illegally moving funds worth roughly EUR 300 million. During searches, cars, bank accounts, furniture, mail and household effects were seized.

The home of national party leader of the center-democratic UDP and former MEP Lorenzo Cesa has also been searched. He says he is innocent, but has resigned as leader of his party. A party member in Calabria who is chief of finance in the region is under house arrest.

The “Low profile” operation, taken this morning, is an important operation against the major exponents of the most important 'ndrine of Crotone."Fears were recorded by the members of the organization both towards the declarations of the collaborators of justice, from whose choice to collaborate they were distanced, and towards the prosecutor Nicola Gratteri defined by the same members of the organization as a serious person who was uncovering the 'cauldron' even if in an exaggerated way, according to them“.

Italian police on Monday arrested 12 suspected members of the 'Ndrangheta in and around the Calabrian city of Crotone.
They have been charged with 'Ndrangheta-style mafia association, murder, extortion, usury, weapons offences, robbery and thefts, and arson, all aggravated by using mafia methods.
Catanzaro Chief Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, Italy's no.1 anti-Ndrangheta magistrate, said the operation had thwarted another murder.
"They had dug up their weapons and were gearing to use them to carry out a murder," he said.
"We just couldn't wait".
Some of those arrested have been charged with the 'lupara bianca' ('disappearing') of farm hand Massimo Vona, 44, who went missing on October 30 2018 and is believed to have been the victim of the so-called 'white shotgun' after falling foul of the Calabrian Mob.
Vona's cousin Valentino Vona, 25, was killed by 'Ndrangheta in 2012.

Until now it had only been talked about in the newspapers, now the case of Teresa Merante, a Calabrian singer-songwriter, ends up in the hands of the judiciary. To announce exposures to the judiciary are trade unions and politicians . The woman is under accusation for the content of some texts that, according to her detractors, would praise the leaders of the Calabrian and Sicilian mafia . She defends herself and replies by stating that those songs are part of the cultural repertoire. Yesterday evening she released a video on Facebook in which
she talks about a "huge media fuss".

The piece «U fugitives» , she says, was not written by me, but has already been performed in the past by other folk singers. The same reconstruction also for a song on New Year's Eve, "aimed at all Calabrians who live outside", while the text of the song on Totò Riina "was written by me - she says - taking a cue from TV fiction".

Merante denies being the singer of the underworld, arguing that her family “has never had anything to do with organized crime. I do not accept being labeled as the singer of the underworld in Calabria. My interpretations in music have been songs of love, of aggregation, of joy on the beauties of Calabria and also on the underworld song that has been part of the Calabrian popular traction since the seventies.

Albanian Entrepreneur Denies Association with Ndrangheta Wiretaps
From: Exit Staff 4 hrs ago
Albanian Entrepreneur Denies Association with Ndrangheta Wiretaps
Entrepreneur Besnik Halili, whose name was mentioned in the media as ‘Niku’ in Ndrangheta wiretaps, has denied his involvement in the scandal.

In a statement to MCN TV, Halili admitted that he knew the Calabrian entrepreneur Antonio Gallo, but never cooperated with him:

“My business relationship with Mr. Gallo has been zero. There is no activity with the company I run and Mr. Gallo’s business. I have had offers regarding the products that Mr. Gallo traded, but they were not realized. “

Halili is the sole owner of the company ‘GTS-Gazra Teknike Shqiptare shpk’ and president of the group ‘Sol’. The company trades gases and other hospital supplies.

Asked about his connections with the Municipality of Tirana and construction, Mr. Halili said that he has never been involved in construction and has not had a business relationship with the Municipality of Tirana.

In the wiretaps uncovered as part of the file investigated by the Italian anti-mafia for the entrepreneur Gallo, the name ‘Nik’ and the ‘Sol company’ are mentioned in at least one conversation.

Assets worth 124 mn euros seized in 'Ndrangheta case
Companies, properties and land among confiscated assets

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/20...48ec534-e2d4-4aec-9124-b1bb835b1949.html

Many big blows to the 'ndrangheta, looks like they have now less power in Calabria.

We will see , with seized assets its always tricky , because they go on public auction and people are afraid to buy them , so they are often bought by mafia again. But definitely a lot of big blows on 'Ndrangheta last few months.

'Ndrangheta boss Domenico Cracolici arrested: captured in a cottage after 13 months on the run
He had escaped the maxi-operation "Rinascita-Scott" and also the precautionary custody order of last July: his escape ended last night, when the carabinieri surprised him in his sleep inside his hiding place in the countryside of Maida . He was included in the list of the 100 most dangerous wanted men in Italy

by Lucio Musolino | JANUARY 29, 2021
On 19 December 2019 he had escaped the maxi-operation " Rinascita-Scott " against the Mancuso clan and the other 'Ndrangheta families of Vibo Valentia . On July 21, he also avoided the precautionary custody order issued against him as part of the “ Taxation ” operation. After 13 months, the hiding of Domenico Cracolici , 39 years old and boss of the homonymous gang that controls the territory of Maierato and Filogaso , in the Vibonese area , ended tonight . Coordinated by the district management of Catanzaro, the carabinieri of the company of Serra San Bruno, of the investigative unit of Vibo and of the Hunters Helicopter Squadron have captured him in an isolated cottage in the countryside of Maida .

Domenico Cracolici was a fugitive on the list of the 100 most dangerous wanted men in Italy. The investigations, led by the prosecutor Nicola Gratteri and his prosecutors, made it possible to trace him and identify an area within which the investigators considered probable the presence of Cracolici, considered the clan leader who had the "responsibility for managing relations and the balance with the other 'Ndrangheta groups in the area ”. Together with his cousin, Francesco Cracolici , in fact, according to the magistrates, the fugitive maintained "contacts with the other components of the 'Ndrangheta and with the members of his own family".

Basically, according to the investigators, the fugitive arrested tonight and his cousin had taken the place of their parents, the bosses Alfredo and Raffaele Cracolici , victims in the feud against the Bonavota . In fact, between 2002 and 2004, Domenico and Francesco Cracolici "organized the armed reaction " against the opposing clan with which relations were then recomposed . Of the fugitive, the collaborator of justice Bartolomeo Arena said that he is a “subject engaged in illegal activities, drug trafficking and has maintained links with criminals who were linked to his father. He is to be considered the referent of the Maierato area. The Cracolici are historically linked to Mancuso , especially Peppe 'Mbroglia' and maintain relationships with Bonavota facade, which they really hate because they killed their parents. "

According to the DDA, the search for the fugitive was difficult due to the extreme mobility of Cracolici who, throughout 2020, managed to move on an area he knew well, covering his tracks and engaging the investigators in an exhausting hunt. to man. In recent months, however, there has been a turning point in the investigation. Carabinieri and anti-mafia pool had identified the area in which he was moving and in the last hours they had found the hiding place where Domenico Cracolici was surprised in his sleep, only to be accompanied to the prison of Vibo Valentia .

Justice de facto - Get the dossiers and the most important information to always be informed about everything that happens in the field of Justice

Some important recent investigations have shown that some politicians do not hesitate to turn to gangs of 'Ndrangheta to acquire electoral consensus, which is indispensable for his own success, in full awareness and willingness to make himself available subsequently where elected. Recent collaborators of justice confirm the phenomenon of the search for the 'Ndrangheta contact for electoral support by the politician and no longer, as in the past, the courtship by the' Ndrangheta of the candidate.

I just watched an interview with Gratteri, that is basically what he says is the real threat from the Ndrangheta in his opinion.

Similar to the beginning of modern OC in the US when political bosses in NYC and Chicago turned to the Mob.

Fair enough, I've heard many people across the world warn other countries and Governments of the Octopus, like Germany and Canada. I believe at one point in the P2 investigations, there were documents discovered that indicated elites in Government, Finance and Military in other countries outside of Italy, this all seems to be in harmony with that.

Authorities in Albania announced on Thursday that an official investigation has been launched for the wiretaps published by the Italian Prosecutor’s Office and by the Italian media regarding links of the Italian mafia group “Ndrangheta” with some important figures in the country.

Inside the trial against the 'Ndrangheta, Italy's biggest mafia syndicate

Guardian journalists Lorenzo Tondo and Clare Longrigg discuss the trial against the ‘Ndrangheta, the largest mafia trial in three decades. At the centre is Emanuele Mancuso, son of boss Luni Mancuso, who has been revealing the clan’s secrets after accepting police protection

https://www.theguardian.com/news/au...drangheta-italys-biggest-mafia-syndicate

18 arrests for illicit waste trafficking
'Ndrangheta boss Vallelonga nabbed, radioactive waste seized

(ANSA) - MILAN, FEB 9 - Italian police on Tuesday arrested 18 people on suspicion of trafficking in illicit waste including toxic and radioactive substances in northern Italy.
Some 10 people were taken into custody in jail and eight more were placed under house arrest, police said.
Prosecutors said they had reconstructed the activities of a mafia waste trafficking gang near Lecco north of Milan allegedly led by a top member of the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia, Italy's richest and most powerful crime outfit, Cosimo Vallelonga.
Those arrested have been charged with mafia association, conspiracy to traffic illegal waste, tax fraud, money laundering, usury and extortion.
Lecco police carried out sweeps in Lombardy, Liguria and Emilia Romagna.
They seized a consignment of radioactive waste, (ANSA).

Rebirth-Scott: the boss Luigi Mancuso and the No to the massacre strategy of Cosa Nostra
The collaborator Umile Arturi told of the 1992 'ndrangheta meeting in Nicotera Marina to discuss the requests of the Corleonesi

Collaborator of justice since 1996, Umile Arturi of Cosenza was deposed today in the Rinascita-Scott maxi-trial before the Collegial Court Arturi explained that he was part of the clan headed by Franco Pino , an ally of Antonio Sena and deployed against the Perna-Pranno-Vitelli clan. “ Franco Pino had high 'Ndrangheta skills and I was two steps below him as I had the degree of the Gospel. At the end of the mafia war at the end of the 80s we divided the territory of Cosenza with the Perna-Pranno-Vitelli clan ”

Umile Arturi then confirmed the deposition of collaborator Franco Pino in the account of the meeting in 1992, in a village of Nicotera Marina, to examine the proposal of the Corleonesi of Totò Riina and of the Santapaola to join the massacre strategy after the attack D'Amelio in Palermo cost the life of judge Paolo Borsellino and the men of the escort.

Compared to Franco Pino's deposition, however, Umile Arturi indicated among the participants in the meeting three names that had not been mentioned by the first collaborator who had indeed underlined its absence: Pino Piromalli from Gioia Tauro, Peppe Pesce from Rosarno and Giuseppe Farao from Cirò. Franco Pino had instead spoken of the presence of Nino Pesce and Silvio Farao accompanied by Cataldo Marincola (the latter name also made by Umile Arturi).

Among the others - according to the two collaborators - were present at the meeting, the "landlord" Luigi Mancuso of Limbadi and Franco Coco Trova of Marcedusa, resident in Lombardy and related to the De Stefano family of Reggio Calabria. “Luigi Mancuso - said Arturi - explained the Sicilians' proposal but clearly said he was against it as if we had adhered to the Sicilian massacre strategy we would have transferred the mess that happened in Sicily to Calabria as well and this was not convenient for the 'Ndrangheta , in addition to the fact that Mancuso supported the opposition to the killing of innocent people , including magistrates ”.

Umile Arturi then recalled the exchanges of favors between the clan of Cosenza and the Santapaolas of Catania, with the Sicilian firms reported to the Calabrians for “favor” treatments on the occasion of public works in Calabria . Finally, the admission by Umile Arturi that he had committed murders in the 1980s on behalf of the De Stefano clan, while the project of death inside the prison against the boss Franco Perna entrusted to a lifer, would then be skipped after the transfer of the prisoner.

A 212 million euro treasure confiscated by the finance police of Reggio Calabria and by Scico from the Calabrian entrepreneur Domenico Gallo, 65, accused of being close to the Piromalli and Zagari-Fazzalari 'ndrangheta gangs.

In addition to various financial resources, the confiscation concerns 13 joint-stock companies with their company assets, the shares of another company, 11 properties, including land and buildings and a prestigious villa, a car and 12 luxury watches.

Gallo, defined by a collaborator of justice as "bitumen billionaire" , managed to create, within a few years, that amalgamation with exponents of the 'Ndrangheta, men of the public administration and fixers that allowed him to grab the execution of great public works, confirming what has been highlighted by the investigations since 1985, when Gallo was indicated as a prominent emerging element of the new alliance between mafia entrepreneurship and the political-administrative world at local and national level.

He returned to Italy in the afternoon today, around 16, with a flight from Morocco, but the police were waiting for him at Malpensa: Paolo Valsecchi, from Calolzio, was therefore arrested , the last one missing to the appeal among the arrested of the alleged criminal group at the center of the latest investigation against the 'Ndrangheta in the Lecco area.

For the investigators Valsecchi was the 'armed wing' of the group headed by Cosimo Vallelonga , the trusted man of the new boss.
In addition to Vallelonga, Vincenzo Marchio, Luciano Mannarino, Danilo Monti, Alessandro Malacorda, Vincenzo Pace, Claudio Gentile, Fabrizio Motta, Benedetto Parisi and now Paolo Valsecchi ended up in prison .


An image of Paolo Valsecchi

The collaborator of justice Diego Zappia was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment for criminal association of a mafia type. The sentence was issued at the conclusion of the trial with an abbreviated procedure before the judge of Reggio Calabria, Francesco Campagna. The trial against Zappia resulted from an investigation by the deputy prosecutor of the Dda Sara Amerio following the statements made by the repentant himself after his arrest for the murder of Giuseppe Canale, the boss of Gallico di Reggio Calabria killed on 12 August of 2011. Zappia, for the murder of Canale, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Regarding the mafia association, Zappia had been acquitted in the “Erinni” trial, but his statements led to new accusations against him. In front of the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Lombardo and the prosecutor Amerio, in fact, the repentant admitted that he was "affiliated with the 'Ndrangheta" and that he was "formally baptized between 2008 and 2009".
Furthermore, in his lands of Castellace, Oppido Mamertina and Lubrichi, Zappia, between 2010 and 2011, allegedly hosted, according to the accusation against him by the Dda of Reggio, "meetings of 'Ndrangheta aimed at planning and planning the murder of Giuseppe Canale" .

Relations between the 'Ndrangheta and other criminal organizations
Compared to other criminal realities, the 'Ndrangheta developed later, but despite this, a relationship of mutual respect and equality was generally had with the other mafias, even now that it is considered one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Europe and in the world and the most powerful in Italy. It has never taken sides in the wars of other organizations. Throughout history, however, there has been a strong collaboration for the trafficking of cigarettes, drugs and all the various illicit activities. In June 2018, during the 'Ndrangheta massacre trial, Salvatore Annacondia, a prominent criminal in the Bari area and close to Cosa Nostra, deposes that: "The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta is everyone's mother", it embraced all groups in Italy: Camorra, Cosa Nostra and Puglia.