Interesting, but how on earth did Raffaele Dragone and Nicolino Grande Aracri' end up ordering murders together? Grande Aracri' ordered Raffaele Dragone's uncle Antonio killed, and the nephew is working with him now?! In the 'ndrangheta they usually give more importance to family ties than in the Cosa Nostra even, that's considered one of the reasons there aren't many informants in the 'ndrangheta. I would have expected Raffaele Dragone wanting to take revenge for his uncle's murder, and he is allied with the murderer...Maybe he too was a "beneficiary" from his uncle's death?

Seems like every week there is an Ndrangheta bust where many members gets locked up. How much longer can they hold on to the position as one of the most powerful organization in the world if no the most.

In Italy,you are guilty until its proven otherwise,a lot of arrested members gets released after short period of time,most of assets seized go on public auction where no one is willing to buy mafia assests,so its bought again by people close to them.

You have same large busts in Sicily.

If only they used the same logic for politicians in mafia investigations....Everybody else is easily replaceable, and the "key figures" in organized crime shout at slander and get money compensation by court orders all the time, from people who "dare" to say the truth about them. It's not like they need the money, it's just to give a message and teach "rebellious" people a lesson. As long as the "guilty until proven otherwise" logic is used ONLY for lower social category gangsters, it's completely useless and only underlines the untouchable status of the white collar scum....

I've read alot of busts against the Piromalli clan. Are they still the nr 1 Ndrangheta clan?

I think the Piromalli ndrina is not the most Powerful Clan in Calabria. The Clans from San Luca are just as powerful.

I think in the Ndrangheta the San Luca clans have more to say as the Piromalli.

Also the Plati Clans are very Powerful.

The Clans Mancuso, Morabito, Bellocco, Pesce, De Stefano and other also Powerful.



My question would be, you Guys think this Powerful Ndrangheta Clans are Richer and more Powerful as the USA LCN, as an example the Genovese Family?

@Dwalin2011: i completely agree,politicians,white collar criminals,freemasonry etc. very very very rare go to prison and they are brains behind mafia,as long as they are free and out of jail things will be same.The busts with 20+ people they are all easily replaceable as u said,they don't have problem finding people to do dirty work for them. And this is not only for Italy,pretty much everywhere in the world its same.

I think for now the answer is yes the ndrangheta is more powerful and by miles more than the USA LCN. But what i wonder is , Cosa Nostra throughout the whole world at its prime i dont know if it was on Lucianos time or Toto riinas time but at their prime, were they more powerful than the ndrangheta is today at their prime. Worldwide that is.

The big 'ndrangheta families have about 200-400 members and thousands of affiliates, so yes.

And not just the man power,the money big ndrangheta families have is insane.

True, about the money I read the Piromalli and Labate clans are selling some of their activities in Reggio Calabria and Gioia Tauro with the intent of investing more overseas capital.

You think te Piromalli clan for an example has the kind of money that Casalesi clan (camorra) has? I've read somewhere their(Casalesi) total assets are estimated at 30-40 billion euros.

both lcn and sicilian cosa nostra at their peak were more powerful than today 'ndrangheta

For Sicilian Mafia yes,but i wouldn't say the lcn was powerful as today ndrangheta. Ndrangheta have control of whole cities in south italy,very influential in politics in Italy,they are worldwide organization,with cells in germany,swiss,australia,usa,canada etc

yes but american mafia at its peak was the most powerful criminal group (a very powerful one) in the most powerful country
control new york or the states is more important than control italy and political connections in the states are more important than the italian one

LCN was only in USA, yes i know thats the most powerful country in the world but still. Ndrangheta is in Italy,Canada,Australia,Germany,Switzerland,Africa, South America etc etc.

lcn was also in canada, cuba and other states at its peak
ndrangheta is very strong in italy, in other countries it has cells but it is not even close to what it is in italy

The Calabrians are dominant in Australia where the drug prices are 3-4 times higher than in the US. They are dominant in Canada for now also from what ive read. In South America the main groups dealing with cocaine is Ndrangheta, Sinaloa Cartel among very few others, im talking about who eats the big pie. They pretty much control the Europe cocaine trade which is now about the same as the US trade.

calabrians are dominant in australia, in canada cosa nostra is still more powerful than 'ndrangheta, montreal is more mobbed up than toronto
anyway lcn at its peak was more powerful for the simple fact that it dominated united states underworld and it had strong political and union links in the most powerful and richest country
no matter how much cocaine ndrangheta controls, political connections in italy are not the same as the states

The 'Ndrangheta became the most powerful crime syndicate in Italy in the late 1990s and early 2000s it is still developing. Through their Masonic activity they will stay at the top of the crime world for a long time, like Cosa Nostra in Sicily and USA in the past for decades.

How will their Masonic activity help them do that? Just curious thats all

Masonic lodges in south italy = groups of very powerful and influential people,there are secret conversations recorded where you can hear top people in Ndrangheta mentioning P3 and P4.

If you don't know what P2(Propaganda Due) was,go read about it.Some of members were: important state officials, important politicians and a number of military officers, including the heads of the three Italian secret services, Silvio Berlusconi,son of last king of italy,top people from Banco Sicula including Antonio D'Alì Sr.(Matteo Messina Denaro's fathter worked for D'ALi faily). Today his son Antonio D'Alì jr. is at the Ministry of the Interior, the institution responsible for fighting organised crime and gis cousin Giacomo D’Alì is a counsellor of the Banca Commerciale Italiana.

They are linked to murder of Roberto Calvi called Gods Banker because of his close association with Vatican Bank,he was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano.

Still wondering how connections with masonic lodges can help

Yes it goes even as far that the boss Pantaleone Mancuso on wiretaps said the 'ndrangheta isn't relevant anymore it's all about the freemasons.

After a long judicial battle between the prosecution and the defense Carmelo Zagari and Francesco Crea were acquitted by the appeal court.

freemasons in italy are still powerful but less than the past they are not anymore what they used to be

Well ofcourse we will never see another P2,but still very powerful and well connected people.

United Kingdom have most powerful masonic lodges,after that goes Italy.

Can someone please explain what P2 is? And how deep was ndrangheta involved in it

It was the most powerful lodge of the freemasonry in Italy Cosa Nostra was heavily involved, the Calabrians and Camorra to a lesser extent. It was led until his death by Licio Gelli aka the puppetmaster. Succesors of P2 are called P3 and P4. Many of the current bosses of Ndrangheta are freemasons.

Ndrangheta even have another secret society in itself,called La Santa. Almost all members of La Santa are freemasons if not all of them.

P2 even had control of leading newspapers in Italy called Corriere della Sera,paper had financial trouble,they got money from P2 using funds from Vatican Bank via Paul Marcinkus(President of the Vatican Bank)

It makes sense, because when Sicily was unified with Italy in 1860, the founders of the Mafia, Camorra and 'Ndrangheta structered their organizations along the same lines as Freemasons. Much later the same thing happened with the Sacra Corona Unita and other puglia groups. The infiltration into the mainstream lodges and grand lodges started in the 1970s.