‘Ndrangheta: hunt for members of the mafia larger than La Costa Nostra – 60 minutes

It may not look like ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Goodfellas’, but southern Italy is in the grip of a crime syndicate that is much larger than the Cosa Nostra, the inspiration for the films. It is called ‘Ndrangheta’ and its members maintain a much lower profile while they control an estimated 50% to 80% of the European cocaine trade.

That modest lifestyle was seen when 60 minutes + with law enforcement entered the forest in Calabria, a region that had the Ndrangheta in a stranglehold. Members of an elite hybrid military police force called the Cacciatori – which in Italian are ‘hunters’, showed Seth Doane a small hideout with an earth merging into the side of a mountain. An Ndrangheta member on the run was caught there making his morning coffee.

“This is another feature of the ‘Ndrangheta’,” said Antonio Nicaso, who grew up in Calabria and is an expert on the group. He told Doane: “When you go to Calabria, you do not see places that show the wealth of a gang. I once said to a former gang, ‘How can you live such a life underground?’ And the answer was, “Yes, I lived like a mouse, like a rat. But I could appoint the people of power in an important position.” Money comes and goes – but power – that is the ultimate goal. ‘

The power was tied in the 1980s with a large investment in drug trafficking. The ‘Ndrangheta – meaning’ brave men ‘, now earns an estimated annual revenue of more than $ 50 billion, more than half of which comes from cocaine.

The prosecutor of the anti-mafia, Nicola Gratteri, is trying to cut through the complex structure of the group and take legal action. This is a dangerous task, but Gratteri is well acquainted with the risks and is regularly reminded of two famous lawyers against mafia who were killed before him.

“I’ve been a target since 1989 when they shot at my fiancé’s house one night,” Gratteri told Doane. “And then they called her at 2:00 in the morning and told her she was marrying a dead man.”

See the report on 60 Minutes +, which is currently only streamed on Paramount +.

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