The trial is being held in a converted call center in the city of Lamezia Terme in Calabria, with defendants placed in metal cages and rows of desks for the hundreds of lawyers, prosecutors, journalists and spectators.
Many of the accused are white-collar workers, including lawyers, accountants, businessmen, local politicians and police officers, who Chief Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri said he willingly helped ‘Ndrangheta build up his crime empire.
Gratteri spoke to reporters when he entered court, saying the investigation encouraged locals to speak up.
“Over the past two years, we have seen an increase in lawsuits from oppressed entrepreneurs and citizens, victims of usury, people who have lived under the threats of the ‘Ndrangheta’ for years,” the prosecutor said, the fight has been the gang.
The state will call 913 witnesses and use 24,000 hours of intercepted conversations to support the myriad charges.
Gratteri said he expects the trial will take a year to complete, and the court will sit six days a week.
Another 92 suspects opted for a speedy trial in the same case, with their trials later in January, while a much smaller group of accused will stand trial in February on five murders – including the murder of a mafia hitman. prosecutors who were shot dead because he was gay.
The last time Italy tried hundreds of suspected mafiosis at the same time was in Palermo in 1986, in a case that was a turning point in the fight against Cosa Nostra, which was the beginning of the group’s sharp decline.
The trial had a huge impact because it was aimed at numerous mob families. The Calabrian trial focuses mainly on just one group – the Mancuso tribe from the province of Vibo Valentia – which leaves much of the Ndrangheta’s top hierarchy untouched.
“The road ahead is still very long, but we must not give up because there are thousands of people who believe in us. We can not let them down,” Gratteri told Reuters.