Ex-Mafioso: 'The Netherlands has everything that goes with a criminal life'
A former member of the 'Ndrangheta' is dropping this week in Nieuwe Revu from the school about the presence of the Italian mafia in our country. 'The Dutch have a positive attitude towards Italians.'
When the Italian Rocco Gasperoni was arrested in Scheveningen in May 2016, it was an eye-opener for many of his friends in the seaside resort. The 75-year-old Gasperoni appears to be a member of the Italian mafia 'Ndrangheta. In 2001 he was convicted in Turin for large-scale drug smuggling, but during his house arrest Gasperoni fled to the Netherlands, where he opened a well-run pizzeria in Scheveningense Stevinstraat. The fact that he could no longer manage it himself after his arrest led to disappointed reactions from the neighborhood. "He made delicious pizzas, he was a beloved neighborhood figure, we're going to miss him," that's how it sounded. That he was a mafioso did not seem to bother anyone.
Gasperoni realized like no other how important it is to not stand out. Just do it, then as an Italian criminal you can lead a normal life in the Netherlands without having to go under, so was the creed for a long time. However, that has changed now, because Gasperoni is by no means the only mafioso that has ended up behind bars in the Netherlands in recent years. On the contrary; they are regularly arrested, such as last Wednesday, when agents in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Belgium picked up ninety people during a major campaign aimed at the 'Ndrangheta. Five of them were arrested in the Netherlands.
The action is the result of a survey in 2014, when the FIOD investigative service found links to foreign countries in a money laundering case in Brabant. There were also hundreds of raids in the context of operation Pollino, of which eight in the Netherlands and 2 million euros, 140 kilos of ecstasy pills and 4000 kilos of cocaine seized. This makes Pollino even more successful than a previous operation against the Mafia in September 2017, when several Mafiosi were arrested at the Galecop shopping center in Nieuwegein, after one of the largest mafia bosses in Italy, Francesco Nirta, was arrested in his apartment earlier in the day.
But the climax was probably February of the past year, when one or two mafiosi were arrested on one morning. Prior to this, a 38-year-old Italian was arrested in Tilburg in January 2017 who led a criminal organization in Sardinia, and in December 2016 a 46-year-old member of the Neapolitan mafia was detained in Utrecht. Both men were fugitive and had a considerable prison sentence in Italy. In the Netherlands, however, they could continue their criminal walk unnoticed.
But the Italian mafia does not always try to stay under the radar in the Netherlands. In October 2017, the 44-year-old mafioso Saverio Tucci - nicknamed the Angel Face, because of his bright blue eyes - is found dead in a car in Amsterdam-West. His remains are in the trunk of a Renault Clio. He was killed with a firearm, according to forensic investigation. It is suspected that it is a retribution for the murder of Mafia boss Mario Romito in the Italian region of Gargano, also called the trace of the boot. There, mafia fans Li Bergolis and Romito have been fighting for almost ten years.
It is old-fashioned territorial drive and there are also interests in the cocaine trade. Deaths fall over and over again, with as yet low point a fourfold murder on August 9, 2017, performed by Saverio Tucci among others. The fact that Tucci had to pay his share in the attack with death is not uncommon in Mafia circles. The fact that the Italian mafia is fighting conflicts across the border is rare. In countries such as the Netherlands, which are important for the transit of drugs, the Mafia prefers to keep quiet.
They are signs that the Mafia is indeed active in the Netherlands. 'Yes', because our own national criminal investigation does not really want to. According to her, it is all along with the interference of Italian mafiosi in the Dutch criminal circuit. According to Wilbert Paulissen, head of the Detective of the National Unit, it concerns 'a small number' of people, while Italian detectives say at high and low that the Netherlands has a big problem with the Italian mafia.
The fact that the Netherlands and Italy differ on the scale of the problem is due to the fact that almost no figures are available. The most recent investigation - named Cerca Trova (who searches, will find) - carried out in 2017 by the police, tax authorities / FIOD and the Public Prosecution Service, reports that between 1992 and 2014 55 Mafiosi were arrested or found dead in the Netherlands. Of 38 Mafia members there is a suspicion that they were in the Netherlands at some point in time. The report also recognizes that the Mafia families in the Netherlands use Italian catering establishments or other companies as a safe meeting place and cover, for example for fugitives and narcotics dealers. They are also used as a meeting office, as a cover for drug transports,
Cerca Trova mentions 22 Italian catering establishments affiliated with the Mafia. "The tip of the iceberg," says Benito, a former Mafia member. Before Benito left the Mafia because of his family, he transported cocaine to the Netherlands on a large scale. 'We let it come from Colombia, directly to the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and from there it was spread throughout the European hinterland, especially to Italy. We had partners in the Netherlands, customs officers who passed containers uncontrollably and fast boys, especially Albanians, who broke the containers at night at the port site to take out the coke. The narcotics then went over the road to Italy, sometimes in passenger cars, sometimes with goods transports. '
The couriers are usually young men, with Italian, Dutch or other nationality. In the case of goods transport, the choice of perishable goods as decanting agents is to use perishable goods such as flowers or fruit. 'Sometimes we paid in cash, sometimes in kind. Then we left a few kilos of coke in the Netherlands. The rest were smuggled to Italy for the 'Ndrangheta.'
The Netherlands is also a popular refuge among fugitive Mafiosi. Cerca Trova designates the Netherlands after Spain as the most important flight port. Mafiosi 'feel completely safe', can be read in the report, which of course also mentions the reputation of the Netherlands as a transit country of drugs and the good infrastructure as reasons why Mafiosi like to stay here. But also the positive attitude of the population towards Italians plays a role, just like the fact that it is relatively easy for an Italian to set up a cover; an Italian restaurant.
"But in addition, the Netherlands also has everything that goes with a criminal life," says Benito. 'The drugs rules are liberal, the sentences for drug offenses are low, there are many brothels and money laundering is relatively easy. It is no coincidence that the Netherlands has been a major attraction for the Mafia outside of Italy for decades. They often meet here. In the past there were often wild parties with many prostitutes. And nobody was afraid of the police, who had no eye for the Italian mafia at all. '
https://www.revu.nl/artikel/ex-maffioso-nederland-heeft-alles-wat-bij-een-crimineel-leven-hoort
