This really suprised me
Aberdeen revealed as the British power base for Italy's most deadly crime family.
THE prospect of waking up with a severed seagull's head on your pillow may not be as chilling as the grizzly equine warning issued by the Corleone clan.
But Aberdeen has been revealed as the UK power base of the deadly Neapolitan mafia.
Undercover journalist Roberto Saviano infiltrated the all-powerful Naples-based Camorra and his account of his time with the mob has sold more than one million copies in Italy alone.
His book, Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia, has now been translated into English and makes the sensational claim that the Granite City was – and may still be – the focus of the crime clan's British operations.
Saviano alleges that from the 1980s, Italian gangsters ran a network of lucrative businesses in the oil-rich city as well as many illegal rackets.
The 29-year-old, who now lives in hiding under police protection, also claimed that a native Scot was the first non-Italian to become a kingpin of the criminal fraternity – said to have killed more people than any other terror group in Europe.
But the suggestion that the city remains in the grip of mobsters has been strongly denied by Italians in Aberdeen, who say it is an insult to the city's 600-strong Italian community.
Saviano claims he went to Aberdeen and worked in a restaurant run by Camorra crime lord Antonio La Torre, who was arrested in 2005 and jailed in Italy for extortion and racketeering.
Former Aberdeen restaurateur Michele Siciliano, who is said to have looked after La Torre's finances following his extradition, reportedly gave himself up to anti-mafia prosecutors the following year.
Another city restaurant boss Ciro Schiattarella is facing 26 years in jail after being extradited to Italy to face mafia- related charges.
Saviano said Scotland's third city, with no history of organised crime, was seen as an attractive safe haven away from the violent inter-gang blood-letting that had engulfed their Italian stronghold of Mondragone, north of Naples. "Aberdeen is the door to Great Britain," he said. "Before the Italian clans arrived, Aberdeen didn't know how to exploit its resources for recreation and tourism. It was dark, dirty and grey with people packed into pubs once a week.
"The Italians infused the city with economic energy, revitalised the tourist industry, inspired new import-export activities and injected new vigour in the real-estate sector. Aberdeen became chic, an elegant address for fine dining and important dealings."
The hub of La Torre's UK empire, Pavarotti's restaurant, now under different ownership, was even feted at Italissima, a prestigious gastronomic fair held in Paris.
Back in Aberdeen, it is claimed the Camorristas operated a system known as "scratch" where they used to step up illegal activities if their legitimate ventures were struggling. He said: "If cash was short they had counterfeit notes printed; if capital was needed in a hurry, they sold bogus treasury bonds. They annihilated the competition through extortions and imported merchandise tax-free."
The young Italian investigator claims that a native Scot, who is not named in the UK edition for legal reasons, made history by becoming the first foreign affiliate.
"La Torre's trustworthy ally, the Scottish Camorrista, effortlessly dissolved any residual relations in order to join the Mondragonesi.
… (He was] unquestionably the number one foreign Camorrista in Italian criminal history."
Saviano claims the tartan mobster continues to receive a monthly salary, legal assistance and protection from the crime clan.
The Camorra, a loose affiliation of family crime networks, is believed to be responsible for more than 3,600 deaths since 1975 – more than the IRA, ETA or their Sicilian counterparts La Cosa Nostra.
But one Aberdeen restaurant worker, who declined to be named, stressed that the Doric dons never resorted to such violence. He said: "
They were able to run all sort of deals because the police here had virtually no experience in dealing with organised crime. Although they broke the law there was never any guns or serious violence. Because they had no real rivals they could concentrate on making money."
Giuseppe Baldini, the Italian government's vice-consul in Aberdeen, said Saviano's exposé was being widely read there.
"His version of events may or may not be true, but it reads like the plot of a crime novel written by John Grisham or Ken Follet," he said. "But what is for sure is that there is no longer, if there ever was, any mafia involvement in Aberdeen. They are gone now. The most painful thing for me is that the entire Italian community in Aberdeen has been labelled as criminals and gangsters.
Why do the rest of us, who are hard-working, law-abiding citizens, have to suffer because of this?
"In other cities the Muslim community is treated with suspicion because of the actions of a tiny minority and I sympathise with them because that is what has happened to us."
Saviano, dubbed Italy's Salman Rushdie for the price on his head, stands by his work and remains unrepentant for standing up to the mob. "I'm not afraid of what could happen to me and I believe that what I've done in writing this books has been worth it," he said.
"I'm nostalgic for all the things that I can no longer do, but I would write it all over again if I were given the choice."
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Dons-on-the-Don.3715394.jpAn offer you cannae refuse
The top 10 Aberdeen-based mobster classics:
• The Codfaither
• Mock Chop and Two Smoking Kippers
• Raging Gull
• Oil Capone
• Don-nie Brasco
• Mean Streets
• Coldfellas
• Buttery Malone
• The Lang Guid Fry-day
• Sairface
