Police carrying out a drugs raid on a cannabis farm in southern Italy have seized a stash of 235 frozen dormice - said to be a mafia delicacy. After discovering more than 700 cannabis plants, police searched outbuildings and found cages of dormice and freezers filled with carcasses. Wildlife groups say baked dormice are served to honour high-ranking gangsters at banquets.

'Ndrangheta and dormice hunting, the meaning of an ancestral rite. Here is where it is practiced in Calabria
October 16, 2021
The Lav estimates that in the municipality of Guardavalle alone 20 thousand animals are captured a year, sold for 5 euros each

Dormouse hunting has distant origins and has ancestral meanings in the 'Ndrangheta culture . The use of eating it, boiled in sauce or roasted, dates back to the Roman legionaries, who carried with them containers in which they raised rodents to have food available for times of need.
In the province of Reggio , where the carabinieri seized 200 frozen animals, the consumption of the dormouse is a sort of celebration of a symbol of power. Bringing dishes based on dormice to meetings organized to exchange favors means binding others with a pact that is difficult to escape. Several times in the interceptions of the Locride underworld there is talk of pacifying dinners based on dormice between opposing gangs.
Dormouse hunting is widespread throughout Calabria: in Cosentino on the Ionian side ( Rossano ), on the Sila plateau ( San Giovanni in Fiore ) and on the Tyrrhenian side ( Orsomarso ). In the province of Crotone in the area of Castelsilano (Sila Piccola). But it is in the "Serre", where the provinces of Catanzaro, Vibo Valentia and Reggio Calabria meet, that the most rooted tradition is found, in the territory of Guardavalle , Santa Cristina dello Ionio , Nardodipace , Serra San Bruno , Stilo and Bivongi . Lav estimates that only in the municipality of Guardavalle 20 thousand animals are captured a year, sold for 5 euros each.

The German documentary of a few months back is now in English, on mafia, actually 'ndrangheta in Germany https://t.co/eU6ezpcDKE?amp=1 - Hidden Mafia machinations in Germany’s former East | DW Documentary

OCTOBER 19, 2021
07:56
'Ndrangheta and illicit waste trafficking, 29 arrests: also the former senator of Forza Italia Pittelli
Twenty-nine people were reached by precautionary measures and five companies seized as part of the “Mala Pagna” operation signed by the Reggio Calabria DDA. The various accusations are of mafia-type criminal association, illicit trafficking of waste and other environmental crimes. Among those arrested there is also the former senator of Forza Italia Giancarlo Pittelli.

continua su: https://www.fanpage.it/attualita/nd...ate-e-29-arresti-tra-calabria-ed-emilia/
https://www.fanpage.it/

I read in the Mafia, when someone is marked for death, that person cannot be allowed to die of natural causes.

I read about the city in Sicily where he was from, Pietraperzia in the province of Enna, it's definitely Mafia-infested. I'm sure he had Cosa Nostra links as well. If I remember correctly the Pietraperzia clan in Sicily has Ndrangheta connections, could be wrong though.

Half of towns in Sicily are mafia infested, Calabria is no better.

It emerged the most influential boss is Rocco Delfino, alias "u rizzu" of the Molè-Piromalli.

Over the years, "u rizzu" has created a real empire by monopolizing the sector in Calabria, managing to obtain supply contracts with the major steel industries in the country and opening the doors of a structural and strategic industrial sector to the 'Ndrangheta with marked proportions in the international arena. All the collaborators of justice investigated (among others Russo, Mesiani, Fondacaro, Trunfio, Virgiglio) have recognized him a leading role in the field of organized crime in Gioia Tauro, rebuilding the very close relationships at first with exponents of the Molè clan, federated with that of Piromalli, up to the murder of Rocco Molè on February 1st 2008 and, after this crime that upset the internal equilibrium of the Gioiesi gangs, binding himself as a man of extreme trust of the Piromalli.

Mafia Luxury Car Gang Smashed in String of Raids Across Europe
Police descended on 46 properties in Germany, Italy and Bulgaria during an investigation into an £11 million luxury car tax racket run by the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxd...smashed-in-string-of-raids-across-europe

"Not the Ndrangheta. They’re so efficient that it is likely billions of euros of their holdings are legal at this point."

That's what I'm talking about, fuck the government.

15 held in 'Ndrangheta extortion case in Lombardy, Marche, Calabria
Reggio Calabria boss 'led mafia group in Brescia'

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 25 - Italian police on Monday arrested 15 people in connection with extortion by the 'Ndrangheta Calabria-based mafia in Lombardy, Marche and Calabria, judicial sources said.
Police said Vincenzo Facchineri, a member of a historic 'ndrina (branch) in Reggio Calabria, had set up a solid network in Brescia and had penetrated the province's economic fabric through loan sharking, threats and violence.
He had previously worked with the historic Rome crime group the Magliana gang and the Veneto crime outfit the Mala di Brenta, police said.
Separately, 16 suspected members of the Neapolitan Camorra were placed under investigation Monday for suspected extortion and drug trafficking. (ANSA).

The Facchineri are a historical 'ndrina that has been operating in Cittanova since the end of the nineteenth century. In 1916 20 people belonging to Giuseppe Facchineri's group were tried at the Gran Corte delle Calabrie.

Two killers would have been hired by a boss linked to the 'Ndrangheta to physically eliminate Sigfrido Ranucci , deputy director of Rai3 and presenter of Report : the journalist, already under guardianship for years, has seen his escort level "H24" raised .
The investigations started in July and in mid-August , when investigators better identified the sender of the message forwarded to the hit men, it was decided to intensify the escort . «My home is already under surveillance, now it is also guarded at night. In fact - explains the journalist and deputy director of Rai3 - I cannot move freely without two people following me in my movements, I have cars under the house and I cannot take anyone with me ». But for what reason this purpose of revenge? "We talked about it in transmission on more than one occasion." And how were the two foreign killers identified? "They are perhaps two Albanians, so I was told, but there is no certainty, they must have feedback, there is an investigation." And the joker? "It seems once he ordered to hit a lawyer, he was saved by a miracle by the release of a bullet, which did not touch vital organs."
Ranucci had received several death threats over the years , such as those reported by his own program last January. In the episode of January 4, the convicted Francesco Pennino had revealed that Ranucci had already been the target of threats in 2010 from circles close to the boss Beppe Madonia, after the publication of the book “Il Patto”, written with Nicola Biondo on the alleged State-Mafia negotiation.

Maxi operation against the 'Ndrangheta in Brussels, a thousand policemen on the field to find the clans
27/10/2021

Other interventions have been implemented in recent days in Liège and Antwerp, which is one of the main doors for the entry of cocaine into Europe.
The country is "at high risk of mafia infiltration" and is used as a hub for processing and sending drugs to other nations

Over a thousand policemen were employed in Brussels in a massive raid against the Ndrangheta and the Albanian mafia, in an operation of a magnitude that has not been seen for some time. Belgium is one of the gateways for cocaine to Europe and the nation, considered "at high risk of mafia infiltration" by the Italian anti-mafia directorate general, and Calabrian organized crime is now rooted in a large part of the country's economic sphere, especially in the provinces of Hainaut, Liège and Limburg.

Does any of you know whether the Piromalli ndrina are family related to the Alvaro ndrina?

Or are there just business relationships?

It's just business.

Speaking of Piromalli, many women enrolled in the Italian Army, able to fly warplanes and handle heavy weapons. Among them, 8 women from Piromalli family all with degrees in economics and commerce.

Among the collaborators of Justice is Cosimo Li Causi the pig farmer to whom they handed over their rivals to feed them to the pigs.

You sure there's even someone named Cosimo Li Causi? Can't find him anywhere.

He looks pretty obscure I came across his name just one time.

On 14 December 2014 in Vittoria , in the Province of Ragusa , Michele Brandimarte was killed in the center [42] . From 2016 onwards; after the death of Joseph Di Girolamo, (19.07. 1951 -29.05. 2016 ) at the top of the "pyramid" of the "family" Piromalli, there would be Maddalena Piromalli and her husband: Jhonny Di Girolamo (born 79), son of Joseph, the former "advisors of Don Peppino Piromalli. According to the latest collaborators of Justice, including Cosimo Li Causi the pig farmer to whom they handed over their rivals to feed them to the pigs, the top of the" dome "of the very powerful Calabrian family , it would consist only of close relatives, among which, precisely the couple with Maddalena Piromalli and Jhonny Di Girolamo (husband and wife); By Roberto Piromalli and Cristina Lo jodice (also husband and wife ), as well as the couple Denny and Jasmine Piromalli (brother and sister).

Maddalena Piromalli ( Gioia Tauro , 28 July 1994 ) is an Italian mafia . She was the head of the 'ndrina dei Piromalli of the Piana di Gioia Tauro , in which she had taken over as head of Antonio Piromalli .

Criminal activity
In the nineties the port of Gioia Tauro became the largest commercial port in the Mediterranean (it moved over 2 million containers in 1998 ). In 1994 Contship Containerlines rented the port area to start its transport business and the Medcenter Container Terminal was created, thanks to 128 billion lire of state funding; the Piromalli forced the two companies, through the vice president Walter Lugli of Medcenter and the president Enrico Ravano of Contship, to pay $ 1.5 for each container transported, which corresponded to half of the profit earned by the two companies [1] [2] .

Antonio has been in prison since he was arrested in Operation One Hundred Years of History in July 2008 [3] . Maddalena and Jhonny Di Girolamo ( 2016 ) are at the top of the "pyramid" after the death of Joseph Di Girolamo (19.07. 1951 ) [4] .

Ok thank you. Is the Mole ndrina the only ndrina with Family relationship to the Piromallis? Or have the Piromalli ndrina also Family relationships to other ndrinas?

In the 80s the Piromalli-Molé-Stillitano and Copelli were considered one "Family". Clones of the Piromalli's have been found all over Italy, but also in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Argentina.

This month the hearing for the trial against the drug trafficking of the powerful Gallace clan.

According to the indictment, the defendants had put in place a ramified transactional criminal organization capable of planning large imports of cocaine from South America (Colombia, but also Brazil) and "placing" it in Europe (Spain, Holland, England and Slovenia), New Zealand and Australia.

The Gallace clan had taken hold in the Ionian belt between the provinces of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria, with branches in the Lazio, Tuscan and Lombardy hinterland.

ON APPEAL
'Ndrangheta in Switzerland, "Helvetia" investigation. Nine suspects acquitted

All the defendants in the trial born from a branch of the "Helvetia" investigation , coordinated by the Reggio Calabria DDA , on a mafia-type criminal association operating in the Swiss town of Frauenfeld, were all acquitted on appeal . At first instance, the Locri Court had sentenced nine people to sentences of between 10 and 13 years in prison. Everyone was accused of having been part of a criminal group linked to the "Crime of Polsi" and in contact with the "society of Rosarno" and the "local" of Fabrizia, the country of origin of most of the defendants.

After the second degree trial, the Reggio Calabria Court of Appeal overturned the sentence of the Locri Court. With the formula "because the fact does not exist" were acquitted Rocco Antonio Cirillo, Brunello Nesci respectively considered local head of Frauenfeld and member of the "major company" and "day master".

The charges also fell against the alleged participants in the mafia association: Angelo Rullo, Cosimo Laporta, Giovanni Manno, Giovanni De Masi, Sandro Iacopetta, Francesco Lombardo and Giulio Nesci.

Ex-Calabrian Councillor Jailed for ‘Ndrangheta Vote Buying Scheme

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/1542...jailed-for-ndrangheta-vote-buying-scheme

Stumbling upon places and cultures: An involuntary ethnography in researching the Australian ‘ndrangheta
Anna Sergi First Published August 31, 2021 Research Article
https://doi.org/10.1177/26338076211040604
Article information
Article has an altmetric score of 3 Full Access
Abstract
In the past decade, the attention to the Calabrian mafia, the ‘ndrangheta, has been rekindled everywhere in the world. On the one hand, Italian attention to the phenomenon has increased; on the other hand, the mobility of the Calabrian clans has been the object of scrutiny in view of the clan’s wealth and ability to commit transnational criminal activities. This has also fed the presumption that (alleged) offenders of Calabrian origins around the world must belong to, and replicate the structure of, the ‘ndrangheta clans, also down under. This contribution will be a reflection on the difficulties and the complexities of a journey into researching the ‘ndrangheta in Australia from a criminological–anthropological perspective, in consideration of—but in contrast with—the mythical figures associated with the Calabrian mafia and its illicit global markets. Some of the difficulties, as well as some of the mistakes that I have made in this research, because of the involuntary (and disorganized) nature of the ethnography, directly question the narrative of the illegal global reach of this mafia and provide methodological reflections and lessons for criminological ethnographies.

READ ARTICLE: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/MHABEVVYRJNZYJRQPFHM/full#.YYJ-rtxHbFg.twitter

Mega-trial against Italian mafia: first 70 verdicts pronounced
Italian justice dealt a heavy blow on Saturday to the 'ndrangheta, Italy's most powerful mafia group. She convicted 70 members and others with ties to the crime syndicate.

Foreign editors 07-11-21, 07:22 Last update: 07:32
Judge Claudio Paris read the sentences against 91 suspects in the huge courtroom in the city of Lamezia Terme (Calabria) where the largest mafia trial since the late 1980s is taking place. No fewer than 355 suspects are on trial. It concerns members of the 'ndrangheta, but also politicians and entrepreneurs.

The suspects convicted Saturday had to answer in particular for membership of a mafia organization, attempted murder, money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion and illegal possession of weapons. They had opted for a quick process, behind closed doors. This allowed them to reduce their sentence by a third if convicted.

Noted mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri - who had to live under police protection for over 30 years for his efforts to defeat the 'ndrangheta - said everything went "very well" on Saturday. "Of the 91 accused, 70 people have been convicted," he told the Italian news agency AdnKronos, adding that the 21 acquitted were minors.

Six suspects were given the maximum sentence of 20 years demanded by Gratteri. Among them Domenico Macri of the military branch of the 'ndrangheta, Pasquale Gallone (62), the right-hand man of the alleged mob boss Luigi Mancuso whose trial is still pending, and Gregorio Niglia who was mainly concerned with obtaining weapons and extortion. Gallone helped his boss avoid the police for three years from 2014 onwards. About a third of the suspects were sentenced to ten years or more in prison.

The main suspects opted for a normal trial. These are 67-year-old Luigi Mancuso alias 'the uncle', considered to be the head of the 'ndrangheta families that controlled the province of Vibo Valentia, and the former senator and lawyer Giancarlo Pittelli (68).

The 'ndrangheta controls most of the cocaine flow entering Europe in Calabria, Italy's poorest region. This network of about 150 families competing for positions within the organization has, according to experts, at least 6,000 members and supporters in Calabria and thousands of others who support the organization worldwide.

Although the 'ndrangheta operates internationally and invests its income in the legal economy, its ability to infiltrate almost every segment of public administration in Calabria has enabled it to win lucrative contracts and consolidate its power.

More than 900 witnesses
The mega-trial takes place in a huge courtroom that can accommodate hundreds of lawyers and more than 900 witnesses for the prosecution (called by the prosecution) and 58 for the prosecution (called by the lawyers of the defendants).

This process is the culmination of an investigation that began in May 2016 with the statements of some regretful optants. Based on those statements, three anti-mafia units followed and wiretapped hundreds of suspects. The file contains the transcripts of about 24 thousand conversations. The research shows the enormous intertwining between the 'ndrangheta, the business world and politics in Calabria.

The legendary mega-trial against the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, in 1986 and 1987, dealt a heavy blow to that mafia organization with 338 convictions.

Milan well, the gray area of ??power. 'Ndrangheta, Politics, Ultra Right

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in...ndrangheta-politica-ultradestra/6384999/

'Ndrangheta. The collaborator of justice Francesco Labate was constituted in prison
The collaborator of justice Francesco Labate, known as "Checco", surrendered himself in the prison of San Pietro in Reggio Calabria. There had been no traces of him for about five days, since he practically left the protected location where he was without notifying the Central Protection Service.
The repentant, arrested as part of the "Metameria" operation, is believed to be the right arm of the boss Filippo Barreca. In the
investigative circles, the news of his estrangement given by Klaus Davi had been confirmed while investigations are underway regarding the alleged video that Labate would have sent to his wife before disappearing, letting her know that he would have retracted his statements about the father-in-law and the gang. operating in the Pellaro area.
Now the prosecutors will have to check if the choice to move away from the protected location was voluntary or if there is something more complex behind it.
11-11-2021 02:56

100 'Ndrangheta arrests in three Italian regions
Clan's infiltration of Calabrian, Tuscan and Lombard life mapped

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 16 - Italian police on Tuesday arrested over 100 people in connection with a probe into the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia in the three regions of Calabria, Tuscany and Lombardy.
The arrests were against alleged members of the Molè clan, one of the oldest and most powerful families in what is Italy's richest and most powerful mafias.
The arrests were made on warrants from prosecutors in Milan, Florence and Reggio Calabria.
Police said they had mapped the ramifications of the Piana di Gioia Tauro clan in central-northern Italy as well as abroad.
Those arrested have been charged with mafia association, extortion, illegal arms possession, drug trafficking, the production and sale of narcotics, usury, fraudulent bankruptcy, tax fraud and corruption.
Among those placed under investigation in the Lombardy part of the probe is the former mayor of Lomazzo near Como, Marino Carugati, and a former town councillorthere, on suspicion of helping the Molè clan.
Prosecutor Riccardo Targetti said the clan had forced businessmen to become their accomplices, boasting "we arrive at their homes as punctually as registered letters", according to a wiretap cited.
Targetti appealed to Italian society not to "play with fire" by flirting with 'Ndrangheta clans, saying they were capable of "taking control" of society.
Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese voiced "satisfaction" at what she called a "vast operation".
'Ndrangheta (from a Greek word meaning 'heroism' or 'virtue') once lived in the twin shadow of Cosa Nostra in Sicily and the Camorra in Naples.
While those two syndicates, notably the Sicilians, were feeding off the transatlantic heroin trade through operations like the infamous 'French connection', 'Ndrangheta was only just emerging from its traditional stock-in-trade of kidnappings in the Calabrian highlands.
It has since become a highly sophisticated global network with a chokehold on the European cocaine trade and control over swathes of its home turf where police fear to tread, Italian officials say.
As well as being the richest, 'Ndrangheta is also regarded as the most impenetrable of Italy's mafias, with its close-knit family-based organisation outdoing the Sicilian mafia in its ability to defeat police efforts to turn members into State witnesses.
The European law enforcement agency Europol has identified the 'Ndrangheta mafia as one of the "most threatening" organized crime groups on the global level, due to its "enormous financial might" and "immense corruptive power," with a presence in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, USA, Colombia and Australia, where 'Ndrangheta turf wars have gained headlines.
In Europe, 'Ndrangheta really only came into the public eye in 2007, when six clan members were gunned down on the midsummer Ferragosto holiday in the German city of Duisburg in a feud that began as a wedding spat in a small Calabrian coastal town, San Luca, in 1991.
A string of 'Ndrangheta-linked businesses have been seized in the last few years all over northern Italy, and especially in the affluent Lombard belt around Milan, and a Lombardy regional councillor was placed under investigation for buying votes from transplanted clans.
On the Italian Riviera, the town councils of Bordighera and Ventimiglia were dissolved for 'Ndrangheta infiltration in 2011 and 2012, the first non-Calabrian municipalities to be wound up because of such penetration.
In Rome, the Calabrian Mob has laundered money in a string of plum properties, as attested to by recent seizures police say are only the tip of the iceberg.
More recently, gangsters involved in a hitherto-unknown Rome crime organisation that allegedly had fingers in a web of business and political operations were said to have links to other mafias including 'Ndrangheta.
The biggest ever 'Ndrangheta trial got under way at Lamezia Terme in January.
The trial delves into the activities of the 'Ndrangheta clans in Vibo Valentia and their links to the political, institutional, economic and rogue Masonic worlds controlling all aspects of local life in Calabria.
It is the biggest mafia trial in Italy since the so-called 'maxi-trial' of Cosa Nostra in Sicily from 1986 to 1992.
The trial, which is expected to last around three years, has over 300 defendants who are facing over 400 charges.
The defendants include local politicians, businessmen, police and other institutional figures accused of helping 'Ndrangheta hold sway over Calabrian life.
That trial handed down its first sentences on Calabrian mobsters and their clients earlier this month.
In January 2015 police arrested more than 160 people in the biggest-ever operation against a northern business arm of 'Ndrangheta.
The op showed how far the one-time southern kidnapping gangs had infiltrated the economy of Italy's most affluent regions, including the thriving economy of Reggio Emilia around Bologna.
Other probes have shown the increasing 'Ndrangheta infiltration in the region around Milan, Lombardy, the region around Genoa, Liguria, and the region around Turin, Piedmont.
In February 2014 a major Italian-FBI bust showed that 'Ndrangheta was muscling in on the drug operations of one of Cosa Nostra's historic five families in New York, the Gambinos.
Before that, in July 2010, a massive police operation netted the head of the 'Ndrangheta and 300 others.
Domenico Oppedisano, 80, anointed the equivalent of the 'boss of bosses' in Cosa Nostra at a Calabrian shrine to the Madonna a year previously, was caught along with their reputed head in Lombardy, Pino Neri.
'Ndrangheta is so secretive that the replacement for Oppedisano is still not known. (ANSA).

Major police action in the middle of the night
Italy picks up 100 'Ndrangheta: sights on the infamous Molè family
Updated Today, 11:22
Today, 10:48
in ABROAD

This is reported by Italian media, including the ANSA news agency.

The arrests took place during coordinated raids on Milan, Florence, Livorno and Reggio Calabria. Police have shared images of several raids.


Justice does not see the suspects as sweethearts. They are suspected of membership of a mafia organization, extortion, illegal possession of weapons, money laundering, tax fraud, corruption and drug trafficking.

A large amount of cocaine from South America was seized in the raids, more than a ton, according to ANSA.

Molè family
The investigation mainly dismantled the Gioia Tauro clan, a syndicate in the eponymous port city at the southern tip of Italy's 'boot', with ramifications in Lombardy and Tuscany, ANSA said. They are groups with 'a certain autonomy', but they operate in 'close synergy', according to the news agency.

The Molè family is central to the research. The well-known criminal Girolamo Molè (60) is serving several life sentences, while his father Antonio Molè is seen as a historical leader of the Gioia Tauro clan.

Fratricide
The Molé clan long operated in tandem with the Piromalli clan, creating family connections. Often they were mentioned in the same breath (Piromalli-Molè clan) and together the two families have gained an iron grip on the local economy. “The Molè family is the military branch of the Piromalli clan,” said former Italian anti-mafia committee chairman Francesco Forgione.

An argument over a contract for transport in the port escalated and Rocco Molè, brother of the grumbling Girolamo, was shot dead.

The third brother, Domenico, wanted to take revenge and kill all members of the rival Piromalli clan, but Girolamo was more careful. He wanted peaceful negotiations. "We have a hundred years of history and family ties, we can't erase that," he told his brother from prison.

The Rocco Molè murder is still shrouded in mystery. Since then, the death of a cousin of the Piromalli family has been linked to the revenge from the Molè camp. It is not entirely clear how the families are now in contact, but the relations would never have gone back to the way they were.

'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta is located in Calabria, a region in the south of Italy, but is active worldwide. The organization is considered one of the largest players in the international drug trade and consists of numerous departments that interact, often along family lines.

At the center of the police investigation coordinated by three prosecutors is the young Roccuzzo Molè. Nephew of the murdered boss Rocco. He was one of the "Free to Choose" kids, but he decided to go back to clan activities. Business and traffic between Piana di Gioia Tauro, Livorno and Milan.
The chief prosecutor of Reggio Calabria, Giovanni Bombardieri: "They called themselves the New European Narcos".