"The Casamonicas are no longer here, let's take the Cesano square." The ambitions of the 'ndrina in Rome
From Rome to Sicily, from North to South. The ambitions and affairs of the men of the Borghetto-Latella gang

"Whoever has drugs in Rome does what he wants and the Calabrians always have drugs", a sentence, that of a justice collaborator contained in the VI and VII report 'Mafias in Lazio', which well describes the strength of the 'ndrine in Capital and, above all, still underlines the quality of the goods they deal with. That summary, although from 2016, is still very relevant. This is illustrated by the operations which reveal the affairs of the 'Ndrangheta in Rome and which, recently, made it possible to defeat the leaders of the group in Reggio Calabria which managed the drug dealing in Rome for the Borghetto-Latella gang.

In the operation that led to the arrest of 27 people, the district anti-mafia directorate and the financial police reconstructed how the gang of Serie A drug dealers intended to take possession of a drug dealing place left vacant by the Casamonicas, because they had been arrested.

The Cesano area

The area is that of Cesano, close to the area where the Vatican Radio antennas once stood. According to the DDA, the right man to grab the Roman market would have been 53-year-old Armando Catanzariti, a true Calabrian who has now moved with his family to Trevignano Romano for years. With 'Catanza', as he calls himself, Antonio Idotta also ended up in prison in the financial blitz - among others. The 52-year-old who was instead responsible for hiding and transporting the drugs from Calabria to the province of Rome, and then dealing them in the capital.

The two men of the Borghetto-Latella gang, on the other hand, had sensed the big coup as also emerges from the interceptions: "There is no one there. There is a large square in Cesano, near the old Vatican Radio antennas. There are the Albanians but they have cheap stuff", said Catanzariti praising the quality of the cocaine from the 'Ndrangheta.


The Roman mission

The conversation dates back to 2021. Idotta and Catanzariti worked for a drug transport between May and June of that year. Trips which, according to those who investigated, were repeated, each containing hundreds of grams of cocaine.

The two converse continuously, so much so that Idotta proposes to Catanzariti to hide the drugs to take to Rome by car or bus, always with an eye on who would have to "take the goods" from Calabria to Rome: "I belong to the Africoti I don't trust them", Catanzariti's thoughts.

Quality matters

The objective, in any case, is clear: to take the square left "empty" after the operations of the police and force the pushers to sell their stuff, the quality stuff.


"There is none of these people here, among the Albanians and Romanians, who have good stuff. They all bring it Nino, but the one I brought here isn't there. No one who can compete. There are only things of second choice", explains Catanzariti who is focusing on Cesano: "If we manage to take the place there will be no one. The only ones are in custody, there is a guy with the Casamonicas. But the Casamonicas are all salty (arrested ed.), they are not there, there is no one left, so the square has remained with the Albanians". According to those who investigated, the objective was to build a monopoly. The leitmotif, moreover, is always the same: "Whoever has drugs in Rome does what he wants and the Calabrians always have drugs".