Cobra's are notorious and illegal here they are used by both fireworks enthusiasts, at the end of the year, as underworld to send a message. Police is worried.
Cobra manufacturer: mafia and Chinese copy my fireworks Rop Zoutberg
Correspondent Italy
On a wall in Di Blasio's Elio Fireworks office are requests for his cobras from around the world. Most of the production goes abroad, director Elio Di Blasio agrees. It mainly goes to Eastern Europe. He does not export anything to the Netherlands, where controls on the import of fireworks are strict. "The transport would also be far too expensive."
He sighs when asked how his fireworks bombs appear in the Netherlands. There are two ways, says Di Blasio. Or illegally from eastern Europe. Or imitated by at least four Chinese manufacturers who copied his cobras.
"But the mafia around Naples also does that. The fireworks that end up in the Netherlands with my name on them could also have been made by the Camorra ."
The Dutch police suspect that there are at least twenty different types of cobras in circulation, some of which are fakes. This makes setting off illegal fireworks a Russian roulette: you never know exactly what is in the bombs.
On the office table is the range of fireworks made in Di Blasio's Italian factory. There are fourteen types of his cobras, each heavier than the other. The Cobra 8, wrapped in silver paper, contains one hundred grams of explosive (measured in NEC, Net Explosive Content). That's more than enough to blow up containers, bridge railings and even cars, as shown in videos posted by users on the internet.
Di Blasio shrugs when asked why he makes such extreme fireworks. "It is intended for fireworks shows, for professionals. I am not responsible for sixteen-year-old boys using my fireworks incorrectly."
Moreover, the market demands that the fireworks become increasingly heavier. "In Eastern Europe they only want this kind of fireworks. The heavier, the more attractive it becomes. I make it. And then everyone wants it."
The Neapolitan mafia also imitates my fireworks.
Elio Di Blasio A little later, Di Blasio shows the location of his factory, where the cobras have been made by thirteen employees for almost twenty years. The sheds are hidden behind a local road, without any indication. “That is for security reasons,” Di Blasio continues to repeat.
"The government requires us to make our fireworks far outside the villages and towns." But it remains a guess what the warehouses look like from the inside, because Di Blasio keeps his visitors at a great distance from the factory.
NOS The Cobra 3 and 6 Only when the microphone is turned off does he tell how he went to investigate in Chinese department stores in the Czech Republic and saw his counterfeit fireworks everywhere. He also knows how the rival mafia blew up a nearby fireworks factory a few years ago. “They stop at nothing.”
He looks grimly at his visitor. And suddenly the danger of the cobra seems much greater than just the explosion caused by a fireworks fanatic.
