https://www.smh.com.au/national/dru...-strawberry-scandal-20180921-p505b8.html

Drug trafficker owns operation at centre of strawberry scandal

http://www.nan.ng/news/9-accused-of-mafia-connections-refuse-to-speak-in-court/

9 accused of mafia connections refuse to speak in court

Bitter beauty: A Pilgrimage to the Birthplace of the ‘Ndrangheta

https://www.occrp.org/en/blog/8624-bitter-beauty-a-pilgrimage-to-the-birthplace-of-the-ndrangheta

Italy's famed anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri could swing his focus to Australia after receiving a secret dossier of alleged Calabrian organised crime. The Mafia files detail 'Ndrangheta’s hold on Australia.

Italian police on Friday arrested three people on suspicion of murdering a 'Ndrangheta boss in a hit near Reggio Calabria last July.
Domenico Fioramonte, 41, the alleged hitman, and Giuseppe Domenico Laganà Comandé, 20, and Saverio Rocco Santaiti, 58, were arrested for the murder of Fabio Giuseppe Gioffrè, a livestock farmer and the leader of the Gioffrè clan, on July 21. Police said the murder was a reaction to a series of extortions by the clan. A 10-year-old Bulgarian boy was hurt in the hit. Santaiti is a member of the historic 'ndrina who ruled Seminara.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...alabrian-Mafia-entrenched-Australia.html

Drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion: How Italy's feared Calabrian Mafia became entrenched in Australia

https://fr.sputniknews.com/international/201809211038179353-mafia-france-criminalite/

France is drowning in cocaine


The increasing number of cocaine seizures in France indicates that traffickers are redoubling their efforts to satisfy growing demand. What are their networks? How to fight them? Fabrice Rizzoli, a specialist in serious crime and David-Olivier Reverdy, Alliance's national investigative referent, spoke to Sputnik.

September 15th, port of Le Havre. Intrigued by a container from South America that they targeted for "suspicion of transport of narcotics", the French customs had a thin nose. It is not less than 752 kilos that will not end up in consumers' nostrils after the authorities have discovered them in several sports bags. A catch of an "exceptional" quantity, according to the Ministry of the Action and the Public Accounts. Yet this kind of "police success" may well become a habit.


According to the figures of the annual report of the Information, Intelligence and Strategic Analysis of Organized Crime Service (SIRASCO) of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ), the seizures of white powder have increased by 105 % in 2017 to reach 17 tonnes. Traffickers seem to work hard to satisfy more and more consumers in France. According to the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), cocaine has 2.2 million "experimenters" and 450,000 "users" regular in France. Increasing numbers But who makes all these tons come in?

By sea, land and air

According to several sources, the Ndrangheta , named after the Calabrian mafia, would have made the cocaine business in Europe thanks to the alliances it has forged with the cartels of South America. A journalist from France 24 wrote in 2013 that "it would control 80% of the importation of white powder into Europe". "With the support of the South American cartels, the Calabrian mafia is hand-in-hand on the cocaine trade in Europe, of which it holds the quasi-monopoly today", launched last March Franceinfo. This criminal network, born in the poorest region of Italy, would it snow and good weather in France? Certainly not, for Fabrice Rizzoli, specialist in organized crime, corruption and economic crime and professor at Science-Po:

"I totally dispute these numbers. The drug market is so complex, so huge, there are so many drugs and consumers, how do you think that only one criminal organization controls even 80% of the importation into Europe? It's totally impossible, it's a pipe. It would take important work, academic, transversal between journalists, researchers and why law enforcement to really shed light on the drug trafficking, which is done very little in France unlike countries like the Italy."

Drug authorities are targeting three main routes of entry for cocaine into France. The sea comes first. Just for the port of Le Havre, in 2017, no less than 3.5 tons were seized. This is far from the 42 tons of the port of Antwerp in Belgium, but the container ships are not the only ones to load the "white".

"The sources are multiple. Sometimes we see cocaine transport vessels under the French flag. The drugs transit a lot by some overseas departments, such as the French West Indies or Guyana, "said David-Olivier Reverdy, national investigative reference Alliance Alliance police.

In early September, a French-flagged sailboat was intercepted in the Azores archipelago by Portuguese police. On board? 840 kilos of cocaine. In July, French customs discovered a ton and a half of "white powder" in a sailboat off Martinique.

"French organized crime is quite capable of carrying out cocaine trafficking. This includes both the crooks of the Corsican milieu and the men of the cities. They have relays in the Caribbean, where are Guadeloupe or Martinique.
Traffickers can easily recruit tourists, adventurers, globe-trotters or people who have gambling debts and that we will push to carry cocaine to Europe with sailboats for example. You can see a lot of seizures on French boats, especially on the site crimorg.com which I recommend reading daily to my students, "says Fabrice Rizzoli.

The organized crime specialist is also targeting vehicle procurement from the Netherlands. According to him, it would feed a large part of the traffic, especially in the cities:

"You also have another sector in Rotterdam, which remains the first port in Northern Europe for the entry of narcotics and especially cocaine. Several types of smugglers will provide, including residents of difficult neighborhoods, who will then distribute it in the cities. I am convinced that this phenomenon is very important and that a multitude of these individuals feed the French market. "

To sort through all these traffickers who buy in the Netherlands, Fabrice Rizzoli divides the "smugglers" or smugglers into several profiles, depending on the quantity purchased. The "consumer-resellers" who buy for about 30 grams and decide to keep some for their own pleasure and sell the other. The "small semi-wholesalers" who will supply themselves for 100 or 200 grams and finally the "semi-wholesalers" who leave with half a kilo. "Then they bring it back to all the cities of France whether in Chartres, Evreux, Paris, Brittany or elsewhere," he continues.

Air transport is also to be watched for the authorities. In 2017, 1.7 tons were seized by the only national police at airports and the majority of aircraft came from the French territories of the Caribbean and Guyana. These overseas departments, close to the main producing countries of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, are considered as "rebound zones" towards the metropolis. SIRASCO reports that 608 smugglers, including 250 "mules" who had ingested the drug were arrested at the departure or arrival of Guyana last year


But French traffickers sometimes do business with powerful criminal organizations that are likely to benefit from their connections in South America. If Fabrice Rizzoli refuses to make the Calabrian mafia the main supplier of cocaine in France, he does not deny the implication:

"The Calabrian mafia plays its role, but more through joint ventures with French organized crime. That is to say, the Ndrangheta is not the entity that pours tons of cocaine into France, but the one that seals alliances. You have four or five French clans who put money together and call on individuals from the Calabrian diaspora in France, especially in the south-east, before ending up in Spain and importing cocaine. "

Several cases of this type have shaken Provence in recent years. In February 2017, fourteen people appeared before the Criminal Court of Marseille . In question? A drug trade between the Caribbean and the PACA region that involved local thugs and individuals suspected of being close to the Calabrian mafia.

Other data that adds to the complexity of the problem: the diversification of traffic. Many criminal groups who had built their wealth on the sale of cannabis gave in to the white sirens, attracted by larger profits, as David-Olivier Reverdy recalls:

"This diversification of traffic is a big problem for us. These networks become established and in many cases the trafficking of cocaine can be paralleled with that of cannabis, which are often managed by the same individuals. This reflects a diversified supply of traffickers, but it also means more competition for market share. "

The ex-laboratory price in South America is around 1,000 euros per kilogram. In France, on the market of half-big, it exchanges on average with 30.000 euros. What to whet appetites. In Marseille alone, 29 people lost their lives in 2016 in settling accounts, mostly related to drug trafficking. 14 last year. On September 17, a 16-year-old was killed in a shootout in Saint-Denis. According to city councilor Stéphane Peu who spoke to our colleagues Franceinfo , the area of ​​the drama is a place known for drug trafficking.

Is the war on drugs lost?

How does the police fight against these trafficking? If, unsurprisingly, David-Olivier Reverdy refused to go into details, he gave us some information on the subject:

"We rely heavily on informants, the so-called" uncle "jargon. It is also a real ant work to bring back the information through wiretapping, the crossroads of records. Sometimes, we can also be lucky and fall on documents that are left by small dealers fleeing and that will allow us to go back tracks and get their hands on larger networks.
We also have contacts in South America, notably via the Central Office for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugsin the Caribbean, intelligence officers, liaison officers. It is also thanks to the international cooperation that takes place between the different police of the world. There is bound to be information circulating between states. "

Cooperation that seems more important than ever. South America is still producing more cocaine. Colombia remains the world's leading producer with 171,000 hectares in 2017 (+ 17% compared to 2016) for an estimated production capacity of 1,379 tonnes (+ 31%). The market value of such a stock is $ 2.7 billion. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this is a record since the organization began its measurements in 2001.

"There is a war on drugs and more cocaine is being produced. When coca production goes down, technological advances make it possible to make more cocaine with fewer leaves. And then you have effects of communicating vessels. When you make war on a particular cartel in one country or another, and you manage to reduce production for a while, it increases in another country. The war on drugs does not work. It is lost, "says Fabrice Rizzoli.

cocaine
CC0 / SAMMISREACHERS
It snows on France ... The market of the cocaine in full explosion
An article in Le Monde, dated 2016, estimated the expenses of the fight against drugs and its trafficking at 1,000 billion dollars (883 billion euros) per year. According to the daily newspaper, the narcotrafic generates a turnover of 300 billion dollars globally. In 1998, at a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, the slogan "A world without drugs: we can do it" was launched. 18 years later, at the session held in New York from 19 to 21 April, the tone was for the recognition of defeat and a shift towards less repression and more prevention.
"The war on drugs is absolutely not lost. It is not because we can not stop a traffic that we have to give up. Tomorrow what? We will legalize because we are unable to stop the traffic and the settling of accounts that result? Because we can not end the struggles for drug sales and greed? We are talking about miraculous amounts amassed by the traffickers. Legalization is the weapon of those who abandon the fight, "says David-Olivier Reverdy. He appeals in particular to the public authorities:

"To give ourselves the means is not to be afraid to carry out controls at all costs, especially on container ships in ports or cities when the drug has already arrived at its destination. It is also possible to complete territories, to build files much more easily. It is also to provide legal and legislative means in terms of criminal law and procedure, to simplify the work of the investigators and not to make it more complex as at present we tend to do so. Finally, it is to pronounce very strong penalties for the traffickers without possibility of development or delivery.

On 20 September, a major network of "coke" traffic was dismantled in Marseille. Ten people were arrested. A manufacturing laboratory was also discovered in an apartment in the northern neighborhoods of Marseille, as well as 12 kilos of cocaine, three handguns and 400,000 euros, including 200 in cash.
The interregional director of the judicial police, Eric Arella, welcomed it at a press conference: "This is the largest cocaine trafficking dismantled since the beginning of the year in the Bouches-du-Rhône. But it's certainly not the last.

A vast operation of the Carabinieri has been underway since the early hours of this morning, in execution of a detention issued by the DDA against members of the ´ndrangheta of Sinopoli, accused of mafia-type association, extortion, fraud aggravated, fraudulent transfer of values, aggravated by the mafia method and purposes.
Also arrested the mayor of Delianuova, Francesco Rossi, elected 3 years ago. According to the investigators, he would have been in all respects involved in the Alvaro clan whose main illegal enrichment activities would have been linked to public works contracts. The investigations of the police have shed light on the criminal interests of the Alvaro, one of the most aggressive groups of the Tyrrhenian mandamento of 'ndrangheta reggina, able to infiltrate public bodies and local governments to influence their choices and illegally procure public procurement and funding. In all 18 people were arrested.

https://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/missing-girls-mafia-relatives/3532845/

Missing girl’s mafia relatives

Today´s arrests from the Alvaro family.

A farmhouse served as the nerve center of the Alvaros. At the Scifà farmhouse, the presence of exponents of the province of Reggio Calabria was recorded, such as the "PELLE-Gambazza" of San Luca, the "MOLLICA" of Africo, the "RUGOLINO" of Catona, "TETTO" of Natile di Careri, "CONDELLO" of Varapodio, "CALLEA of Orti," MORABITO "(" DE STEFANO ") of Archi," SCOPELLITI " of Melia di Scilla, the" GUADAGNINO "and PAPALIA” of Delianuova, “MAZZAGATTI” of Oppido Mamertina and “LAROSA” of Giffone.

https://www.thelocal.it/20180925/18-arrested-on-mafia-charges-in-calabria

18 arrested on mafia charges in Calabria

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...82609d5-9ad6-480a-998b-52a7ced42b80.html

Priest nabbed for judge threats
'Stay away from windows, they know where son goes to school'

http://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/x...an-mafia-became-entrenched-in-australia/

How Italy’s Calabrian Mafia became entrenched in Australia

Rocco Barbaro, 46, was arrested by the Carabinieri in Careri. Barbaro, a resident in the Milan hinterland, has to serve four years for extortion and robbery on behalf of the ´ndrangheta.

http://theconversation.com/how-the-mafia-uses-violence-to-control-politics-103031

How the mafia uses violence to control politics

Last week the officers of the police station of Bovalino (Rc) arrested Paolo Nirta, 41, of San Luca (Rc), already a fugitive, considered a leading exponent of the gang Nirta-Strangio, operating in the center aspromontano and in the surrounding areas.
During the subsequent search, the police found and seized cocaine weighing 521 grams.
The search was extended to the man's home, where a Beretta caliber 9 short pistol with an abraded serial number, 150 cartridges of different caliber and other material was found and seized.

Italian police on Tuesday arrested five suspected members of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia in Milan on suspicion of drug trafficking and extortion. The five allegedly brutally beat a Milan businessman to make him cough up last year.

Bishop Francesco Oliva of Locri-Gerace calls on ´ndrangheta members to renounce the culture of death and the obligation to keep silent.
Pentiti who renounce their Mafia past can receive a relief this weekend when they go on pilgrimage to the popular Marian Sanctuary of Nostra Signora dello Scoglio in Calabria. According to ecclesiastical law, on that occasion they must ask for forgiveness of sins in a personal confession, receive the communion and pray for the pope.

The indulgence for temporary sins was announced by Bishop Francesco Oliva of Locri-Gerace. With his initiative, he wants to encourage members of the Mafia to break any ties with the crime organization and turn away from the culture of death, which has signed their lives in the past as a mafia. Such a mentality is at odds with the Christian faith, according to the bishop.

The region of the Marian Sanctuary is one where the 'Ndrangheta , the Calabrian mafia, is the most active.

https://www.romania-insider.com/italian-mafia-boss-arrested-in-romania/

Italian mafia boss arrested in Romania

Amazing video Hollander , enjoyed every second of it! Thank you for sharing. There is also episode about Paolo DI Lauro , but no english subtitles

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...0fbd223-18bd-48fa-b5e8-ade2c6db2545.html

Calabria ex anti-corruption chief nabbed

Italians should have supplied Swiss weapons for the Ndrangheta –
switzerland Nation, switzerland

On Tuesday, the federal correctional court asked a member of the Calabrian Ndrangheta by means of a videoconference as witnesses. The man provided details about the role of the accused before the Federal Criminal Court.

The witness confirmed individual points of indictment, but not the membership of the suspect in the Ndrangheta. The man from Calabria sat in a courtroom in Calabria during the interrogation. He was only filmed from behind. The man is currently serving a long prison sentence.

Hide weapons in the car

He confirmed that the defendant had grown up with the large, historic families of the Ndrangheta – but without being a member of the Mafia. The suspect used to have nightclubs and betting salons.

The witness is a friend and compatriot of the accused. He confirmed that he had illegally bought weapons in Switzerland at the request of the Lombard Ndrangheta. The defendant then transported part of it to Calabria itself.

"He dismantled the weapons and hid them in the car he used for these transports," said the witness. There was always a strategy for the transport of weapons from Switzerland to Italy, the man specified.

He also confirmed that the defendant was assisting the Mafia and guarding the drug trade for guarding hemp fields in the Canton of Bern.

Process in Italian

On Tuesday, the lawsuit against the 61-year-old defendant began at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. He had previously explicitly demanded that the trial be conducted in Italian because he spoke no other language. The man who lives in the Canton of Bern is accused, among other things, of participating in a criminal organization.

The married family man himself comes from Calabria. The federal prosecutor's office (BA) accuses him of having been involved in various actions of the Ndrangheta in Switzerland and Italy in the period from 2003 to 2011.

The Italian is still accused of participating in numerous meetings of the Ndrangheta in Lombardy and Calabria – at reception ceremonies of new Mafia members. In 2003 and 2004 he had been actively involved in operations of the Calabrian mafia, who came in and around Turin to take bloody actions.

The suspect must also answer for the transport of several kilos of cocaine and hashish for violations of the narcotics law. (Sep / SDA)

Created: 09.10.2018, 14:18

https://navva.org/switzerland/nation/italians-should-have-supplied-swiss-weapons-for-the-ndrangheta/

The boss Rocco Papalia.

'Ndrangheta Lombardy capo gets 16 yrs
Rocco Barbaro convicted of mafia association

(ANSA) - Milan, October 10 - Rocco Barbaro, the capo dei capi of the Calabria-based 'Ndrangeta mafia in Lombardy, got 16 years in jail for mafia association on Wednesday.
Barbaro, 53, nicknamed U Sparuto (The Disappeared) for his life on the run from a narcotrafficking charge, operated out of a bar he owned in Milan, not far from the famed Duomo.

The Barbaro-Papalia clan has been the most powerful in the north for decades, he's a son of the godfather Francesco Barbaro. His father was sentenced to life three years ago at the age of 88!
His sister married Giuseppe Pelle, one of the four sons of Antonio Pelle, the 'Ndrangheta boss from San Luca, securing a tight alliance between these two powerful families. The marriage was attended by 2,000 people. Giuseppe Pelle was captured in April.

Process Aemilia, the repentant Valerio: "La 'ndrangheta is reorganizing"
From Iacchite - 11 October 2018

The tones used are as usual histrionics and over the top, but they do not make the messages lighter. Antonio Valerio , volcanic collaborator of justice and a key witness to the prosecution in the maxi Aemilia trial against the 'Ndrangheta, and' returned this morning to take the floor to reply to the lawyers of the accused, who during the whole phase of the preliminary investigation tried to to demolish its credibility.

Reading for more than an hour a memorial (that will deliver to the judges) Valerio instead points out the unassailability of his reconstruction of the underworld association rooted in Reggio Emilia and dependent on the Grande Aracri family of Cutro . But moreover, talking about the "past, present and future of the 'ndrangheta in Reggio Emilia", hypothesizes possible scenarios that do not leave peacefully. First of all, accepting the definition of "Pythagorean" that a defense lawyer has given him, Valerio says of himself: " I am sure that even Tommaso Buscetta would get up from the coffin to congratulate Valerio because he was a regret too far ahead for the mafia of that historical period. Today is the same historical moment of the 'ndrangheta here in Reggio Emilia and the voids of wonder and amazement and bewilderment, like those of the first men who looked at the world Valerio filled them with the guide and with the truth ".

Where there was a murder, underlines the repentant, "I put names and surnames, authors and facts as they took place. On the association I have made hundreds of names and surnames of participants in the 'ndrangheta ", with evidence" precise serious and concordant and not only for the blood facts of '92 ". But today there is a new phase, summarizing, that of a 'ndrangheta in Reggio Emilia "autonomous, evolved and technological".

A 'ndrangheta "5.0" in which "the old dogmas and the new go hand in hand but it is the new one that advances". Hence the warning from Valerio: " Do not deceive yourself that the 'Ndrangheta ended with the Aemilia operation. It is reorganizing itself with new methods and there is no lack of young talent. I myself met at least twenty in the Muto brothers 'Revolution' bar . In Reggio Emilia you are all, no one excluded, under a stage of siege and subjugation 'ndranghetistico that has no equal because even the terrorists did not come so much. Nothing's finished ".

Valerio continues: "The power does not give up and the command line is there. After Carmine Sarcone there is Beppe (Giuseppe) Sarcone and the Amato (Alfredo and Francesco, sinti imputed in the trial) create instability in the coterie, but they can wait, they have to wait. Or they have to shoot if they want the command like we did cutres in '90 ". According to the collaborator then "now the women are in charge of this association since their husbands brothers and sisters-in-law are in prison" and "the apartments in exchange are the cryptocurrency expendable cash of the 'ndragheta. Better than bit coins ". Valerio also mentions why he fired his previous defender Alessandro Falciani: "I did not share anything of his line and he was removed".

Finally, he throws a jab to the defendants, who have been defended several times claiming to be discriminated against their southern origins: "Our origins are not discriminating - Valerio speculates - but what we are: mafiosi and 'ndranghetisti and damn organized"

Police arrested 15 members of the 'Ndrangheta 'locale' based in the town of Lonate Pozzolo, in the northern province of Varese (Lombardy),

Like we have seen before in some places the boss Emanuele De Castro is a Sicilian from Palermo.