''Diario di Bordo'', Libera's report on criminal affairs in Italian ports
Free December 19, 2023
Libera presents “Diario di Bordo. Stories, data and mechanisms of criminal projections in Italian ports"

In 2022, 140 cases of crime were recorded in 29 Italian ports.

The ports are "Cosa Nostra": between 2006 and 2022, at least 54 Italian ports were subject to the interests of organized crime with the participation of 66 clans.

Maritime ports represent an opportunity for criminal groups to increase their profits and strengthen collusion. Ports, in fact, can be considered as a point of arrival, transit, exchange and intersection, in which people and goods move and are handled, generating wealth: on the one hand the businesses created by traffic, on the other the investments necessary to maintain operational infrastructure, both possible fields for the expansion of criminal interests.

Libera presented the “Logbook” report this morning in Rome. Stories, data and mechanisms of criminal projections in Italian ports" (edited by Francesca Rispoli, Marco Antonelli and Peppe Ruggiero) in which the data coming from the Assoporti press review, the reports of the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission, the DIA, of the DNAA, the Customs Agency and the Financial Police.

Business is going well
During 2022, 140 cases of crime were recorded within Italian ports, approximately one episode every three days, which occurred in 29 ports, of which 23 were of national importance. 40% of the total. The highest number of crime cases were identified in the Port of Ancona (15 cases), followed by the Port of Genoa with 14 cases and Naples and Palermo with 11. Of the 140 cases, 85.7% concern illegal activities of importing goods or products, 7.9% concern illegal export activities of goods or products, 2.9% concern seizures of goods in transit, while the remainder relates to other unclassifiable illicit phenomena.

Analyzing the activities carried out by criminal actors, we can note that only a small part concern projection into the legal economy of the port, while in 136 cases they are illicit activities. In this last case, the data that stands out most concerns the trafficking of counterfeit goods, equal to 49.3% of the mapped cases, followed by drug trafficking with 23.2% and smuggling with 11.6%. To a marginal extent, this is followed by episodes relating to currency crimes (5.8%), illicit waste trafficking (2.9%).

Ports are Cosa Nostra
By analyzing the reports of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate and the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate, published between 2006 and 2022, more than one Italian port in seven was the subject of the interests of organized crime. There are at least 54 Italian ports that have been the subject of criminal projections, with the participation of at least 66 clans, which have operated in illegal and legal business activities. Among them, the traditional Italian mafias stand out: 'Ndrangheta, Camorra and Cosa Nostra.

However, other criminal organizations of Italian origin also appear: the Magliana gang, Sacra Corona Unita and criminal groups from Bari. Furthermore, there are projections of various groups whose geographical origin is indicated exclusively (either because where they carry out their main activities, or because of the territorial origin of the members) such as Asians, Eastern Europeans, North Africans, or specifying the country of origin, Albania, China, Mexico and Nigeria.

Out of 66 clans, 41 are 'ndrangheta groups that operate in various illicit markets: waste trafficking, arms trafficking, cigarette and TLE smuggling, trafficking in counterfeit products, extortion and usury, and above all drug trafficking.


Although the mafias play an important role, they are not the only actors involved, given that the contribution of multiple subjects is often necessary, in many cases belonging to the area of ??the legal economy: port workers, public employees, entrepreneurs and industry professionals. maritime economy while for illegal trafficking, the contribution of those who produce, those who embark, those who deal with the transfer, those who recover the cargo, those who take it out of the port area and those who deal with distribution is often necessary.

“The analytical perspective used tries to highlight the dynamics of interaction between illegal phenomena and actors of the legal economy, to highlight not only the action of criminal groups, but above all the contextual conditions that allow the groups to operate . In Italy, some institutions have dealt with it, but, despite the centrality of the port system for the country's economy and the relevance of Italian organized crime on the international stage, a broader analysis of the phenomenon is lacking. In the public debate, in fact, reflections on the topic usually emerge in conjunction with major arrests conducted by the police or on the occasion of large-scale seizures of narcotics or other illegal materials. In conclusion, the airports appear to be a strategic hub of fundamental importance for criminal groups, who can exploit the infrastructure and connections for various purposes. A topic on which, however, the political debate still seems too timid.

In this sense, the strengthening of coordination between judicial authorities, law enforcement agencies, public authorities present in the port and private companies operating there seems to be one of the main needs on which to intervene, not only from a repressive perspective, but, above all, preventively. Greater awareness on the part of the actors who operate in the port sector - public and private - of the criminal and corruption risks that characterize the life of the ports, seems to be the precondition for the promotion of contexts less predisposed to illicit exchanges, as well as for the preparation of policies of development consistent with these purposes".

Gioia Tauro
The Calabrian port today is one of the strategic ports for the importation of cocaine into Europe. The numbers of seizures are huge and give an idea of ??the enormous profits made by the ndrangheta which, thanks to these businesses, is buying up half of Europe: in April 2023 the Financial Police and the Customs communicated that in the previous two years they had been seized in Gioia Tauro alone, 38 tons of cocaine, approximately 93.7% of that seized throughout Italy.

This means that if 38 tonnes were seized in two years, over 150 tonnes passed through, destined for all of Europe and not just our country. Just stop for a moment to calculate the value on the drug dealing markets of over 150 tons of coca which, once cut, are worth 600 tons to imagine the huge profits that underlie the business. Billions and billions of euros, many more than a state finance company, which drug the legal market with illegal economic flows, conditioning the systems of economic and social relations in our country and beyond.

Not just Italy
In the 2023 report, the DCSA dedicated an in-depth analysis of international cocaine trafficking by sea. According to what has been reconstructed, " in 2020, in particular, 520 cocaine seizures were made, reported by 12 EU Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal , Spain) and from 3 countries outside the EU (Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom)” .

The report goes on to claim that: “The quantity of cocaine seized amounts to 282 tonnes, found in 75 different ports, distributed as follows: 301 seizures (171 tonnes) in 35 EU ports; 11 seizures (2 tonnes) in 6 ports in non-EU countries; 206 seizures (108 tonnes) in 32 Latin American ports; 1 seizure (0.5 tons) in an African port; 1 seizure (0.5 tons) in a North American port. In essence, in 2020, 108 tons of cocaine, bound for Europe, were seized in departure ports located in Latin America and approximately 171 tons (approximately 80% of the cocaine intercepted in Europe, equal to 213 tons) were seized in the main container ports of the European Union”.
(First published: December 15, 2023)

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