I started covering this trial shortly after I started posting blogs here.
It’s crazy to think this kicked off three years ago and just wrapped up this morning.
This may not be a huge deal here in America, but it is huge news in Europe.
Mainly because the ‘Ndregheta is responsible for 80% of all of Europe’s hard drugs.
These guys did major numbers.
We’re talking nation-state GDP-bang out numbers.
$55 Billion a year in revenue is an obscene amount of money.
Especially when its mostly cash, and nearly completely untaxed.
Italian police said they expect those arrests to disrupt the groups activities in Europe temporarily.
They were the family based out of Sicily that ran shit since the beginning of time.
For starters, you might see Sicily across the Tyrrhenian Sea.
It’s right there.
The ferry ride from Reggio to Messina is shorter than the one from Woods Hole to the Vineyard.
Electricity isn’t a given, nor running water.
The economy is awful.
So awful that unemployment hovers around 40%.
Even what we would consider shit jobs.
(sidebar- there’s a major divide in Italy between the northerners and southerners.
I would compare it to racism but they’re all the same nationality so its more just straight-up prejudice.
They view them as lazy, uneducated, and basically good for nothing except crime.)
Which is where the mafia steps in.
The Mafia in Italy isn’t what it’s portrayed in American movies.
It’s much, much worse.
Their stranglehold on the country is incredible.
They not only employ more people than the government, they obviously pay much better.
Just like American gangs, they prey upon and recruit kids young and indoctrinate them
Really fucked up.
Sounds like a normal business deal except that this rate goes up anytime the mob decides it.
And the corruption runs deep.
And at the top of the scumbag pyramid sat this guy.
The ‘Ndrangheta kingpin, Luigi, “The Uncle” (il zio) Mancuso.
I urge you not to underestimate the organisation or it will be too late.
Since then they’ve just become more and more ruthless.
The Calabrian prosecutor Nicola Gratteri might have bigger balls than my eyes have ever seen before.
He helped spearhead this thing.
Sentences ranged from 10 months to 30 years and can be appealed.
The trial included thousands of hours of testimony and more than 50 former mafiosi who testified for the prosecution.
Pittelli and his lawyers couldnt be reached to comment.
It will remain to be seen if this has any major effects in hurting Ndrangheta operations.
Do the European journalists not know clickbait when they see it.
(This is the way to go).
