Dead puppies, executions & extortion…Inside bloodthirsty Italian mafia that became worldwide crime mob with $60bn empire
THE ‘NDRANGHETA super-mafia have long terrorised Italy with their bloodthirsty crimes and shocking levels of corruption but the horror mob worth over $60billion have now gone global.
Dubbed the worlds most powerful gang they are now the only mafia to be active in every continent across the globe, with the exception of Antarctica and are believed to control a whopping 70 per cent of Europe’s cocaine trade.
The gang are thought to dominate places like Portugal, Belgium, Romania, Germany, Spain, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Colombia, Panama, Brazil and even Australia.
But up to 40 countries are believed to have links in some way.
Not happy with just being the most rich and powerful, the horror mob made up of 150 different clans is also seen as the most violent criminal organisation in the world.
Several nightmarish scenarios including murder, violent ambushes, mass weapons hoarding, torched cars and even animal attacks ranging from decapitated goats to slaughtered puppies and dolphins were all linked to the horror clan.
Brave informants, many of which were women, have tried to take down the criminal gang for decades but faced similar deathly outcomes.
One was forced to drink burning acid that shredded her insides as another had her beaten corpse dissolved in the same horror liquid.
The terror clan had no limits to who they targeted as even the children of people who wronged them were killed in displays of dominance and a distinct lack of remorse.
A young boy Matteo was blown up by a car bomb planted by the ‘Ndrangheta after his dad Francesco had been embroiled in a dispute over land with the gangsters.
The boy’s mother Sara Scarpulla remembers coming home and seeing the family pets decapitated and their heads tossed onto the roof of her home.
Some have even come out since saying how the mafia gang brings up “child soldiers” and train young men to be heartless killers when they’re just teenagers.
A gay man was also murdered for his sexuality and buried under a layer of tarmac.
In a massive criminal trial that engulfed Italy, 300 mobsters were put away and hundreds of secrets were revealed.
Witness’s and whistle-blowers went on record to give grim details of how they would dump dead puppies, dolphins, or goats’ heads on the doorsteps of anyone who wasn’t on their side.
Other horrid abuses of their power include transporting drugs in much-needed ambulances, diverting several town’s water supplies to help grow marijuana and hiding weapons in graveyards.
‘Ndrangheta also had parts of Italy completely free from punishment as they had corrupt cops littered around various towns and endless people on their payroll in agreed terms of solidarity, keeping them safe.
The die-hard loyalists in the gang are also believed to have successfully smuggled over 25,000kg of cocaine across Europe between October 2019 and January 2022.
They are considered by prosecutors to be Italy’s most powerful mafia group, easily eclipsing the infamous Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily.
Their gang name ‘Ndrangheta roughly translates to “society of men of honour” in Greek.
The mob were well known in the 80s and 90s for a string of kidnappings – one of which involved oil tycoon John Paul Getty’s grandson.
Back in 2007, the gang shot to global notoriety after they brutally eliminated six men aged between 16 and 39-years-old in a German restaurant.
Coined the Duisburg massacre, the tribe of criminals got revenge on a fellow gang after they killed a mobster’s wife a year earlier.
Over 70 bullets were reportedly found in the limp carcasses of the men after they were gunned down for revenge in the first time the ‘Ndrangheta had made themselves publicly known outside of Italy.
Businesses in the Calabria region of Italy where the gang live and patrol have long been forced to pay a “protection fee” also known as “pizzo” to avoid the mafias icy glare.
An estimated 70 per cent pay this fee as the remaining 30 per cent are already controlled completely by the organisation.
In Germany, a widespread network of restaurants, pizzerias, cafes and ice cream parlours are still being used to help them launder money, according to police.
Former top dogs in the Italian criminal underworld were Cosa Nostra, the very gang some believe Mario Puzo’s 1969 crime novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece The Godfather were loosely based on.
Cosa Nostra was the subject of a 30 year police chase as officials attempted to stop Sicily from becoming a “narco-state”.
Finally after decades, 338 gangsters, including 19 leading mafia bosses, were sentenced to a total of 2,665 years in prison in 1992, for similarly disgusting acts of killing and illegal trading.
How did the ‘Ndrangheta mafia get jailed?
Over 200 mobsters have been jailed for over 2,200 years in the biggest-ever Mafia trial in Italy this week, after 100 more were sent away in November 2021.
A total of 207 gang members were finally sentenced on November 20, 2023, after a staggering three-year-long trial.
The mega trial involved 338 defendants including mafia members, business owners, and politicians,
Facing a plethora of charges from murder, corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering, and extortion.
The ruthless gang are so violent and feared by thousands of state official in the country that the trial took place in an ultra-secure bunker courtroom in Calabria.
Metal cages were put up and the criminals on trial were forced to stand inside like caged beasts as thousands of lawyers and officials picked apart the gang members and their heinous crimes.
More than 50 former mafia operatives turned state witnesses testified against the formidable mob and told of the frightening things they’d seen carried out by the ‘Ndrangheta bandits.
Suspected gang members such as The Uncle and The Wolf, alongside other notorious names in the mafia world Fatty, Big Nose, Blondie and The Musician were all put in prison for decades.
Ex-Forza Italia MP Giancarlo Pittelli, one of the most high-profile defendants, also received 11 years for being a mafia go-between.
The bosses of two ‘Ndrangheta clans, Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, both got 30 years, according to reports.
Several others were charged with acting in complicity with the ‘Ndrangheta without actually being a member.
The huge trial focused on one of the clan’s key families – the Mancusos.
Luigi Mancuso, widely known as the family’s “Godfather” and dubbed “The Uncle”, is set to face a separate trial – with his nephew having already given evidence against the organisation.
Special forces and elite units hit the ‘Ndrangheta in December 2019, with around 3,000 officers raiding 12 Italian regions and also making arrests in Germany, Switzerland, and Bulgaria.
Millions of euros worth of properties and cash were seized, while 300 suspects were detained.
Investigators revealed 24,000 wiretaps and bugged conversations to back up charges of murder, extortion, and drug dealing.
For more than 150 years, the deadly Calabrian clan has remained practically impenetrable to law enforcement due to its members operating almost exclusively on blood ties, and the strict code of omerta — the Mafia code of silence.
Yet at the turn of this century, four Mafia women sent shock waves through the criminal underworld, becoming some of the first members ever to testify against their own.
A woman – Lea Garofalo – was one of the first to turn her back on the vicious criminal underworld after becoming a police informant and lifting the lid on a bloody civil war between two ’Ndrangheta families that left 40 dead.
After being on the run for years after confessing, Lea went back to her mobster husband Carlo Cosco before his hitmen kidnapped, tortured and killed her before dissolving the mangled corpse in 50 litres of acid in a rural warehouse.
In March 2012, Cosco and five others were sentenced to life in jail for their roles in Lea’s abduction and killing, and the disposal of her body.
Another woman who bravely gave up the mobs secrets was forced to drink a bottle of highly corrosive muriatic acid, suffering an agonising death.
Because of the heavy links to the police in Italy, the gang managed to stage many of the deaths as suicides.
Many of the gangs leaders are still free and untouched as the operations continue to try and stop ‘Ndrangheta gangs from further infiltrating countries across the globe.
Back in October, fears were growing over a potential unstoppable “super group” forming between the top three mob groups in Italy.
Pictures of senior mafiosi from the ‘Ndrangheta, Camorra and Cosa Nostra clans show the once bitter rival groups sharing pasta and wine.
Reports say that the three families had put aside their historic rivalries to form an alliance, taking advantage of business opportunities in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.
They are also suspected of making hundreds of millions of euros investing in legitimate businesses in global fashion capital Milan.
