ORGANIZED CRIME IN ITALY I: THE POLITICAL DIMENSION

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SUBJECT: ORGANIZED CRIME IN ITALY I: THE POLITICAL DIMENSION

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CLASSIFIED BY: J. PATRICK TRUHN, CONSUL GENERAL, AMCONGEN
NAPLES, STATE.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

1. (SBU) Summary and introduction: This is the first of a
three-part series; this message offers some background on
organized crime in Southern Italy and examines its political
dimensions. Organized crime is one of Southern Italy's greatest
challenges to economic growth and political stability, and yet
Italian politicians, for various reasons, are unable or
unwilling to address it in an effective manner. The major
organized crime groups based in Southern Italy all negatively
impact on U.S. interests. They weaken an important ally by
contributing to corruption and stagnant economic growth, and
they traffic in drugs (thereby indirectly providing resources to
terrorist groups in Colombia and Asia) and pirated movies, music
and software. The Sicilian Mafia maintains ties with organized
crime groups in the United States, historically providing the
American Mafia with recruits. Organized crime influences
Italian politics, according to numerous experts, either by
ensuring the election of their associates, or by keeping corrupt
politicians, bureaucrats and law enforcement officials on their
payroll. This corruption is a major component of the vicious
cycle of poverty and the breakdown of the state in southern
Italy. Part two of this series will examine the economic impact
of organized crime, and part three will suggest why the United
States should pay greater attention, and will offer
recommendations for a broader strategy to deal with the
phenomenon. End summary and introduction.


2. (SBU) Organized crime is a deep-rooted phenomenon afflicting
southern Italy, but affecting the economy of the entire country
and extending its tentacles internationally. Contrary to common
misapprehensions, in Italy the mob is not one unified
organization, but three main groups, each originating in a
different region and each very different from the others. All
of them impact negatively on U.S. interests. In Sicily, the
Cosa Nostra has a long history of ties to organized crime in the
United States. In Campania, the clans collectively known as the
Camorra help flood European markets with counterfeit and pirated
goods, including American-made software, music and movies. And
from its base in Calabria, the 'Ndrangheta runs a lucrative drug
trafficking business that extends beyond Italy. (There is also
a smaller group in Apulia, the Sacra Corona Unita, which
operates on a lesser scale, mostly via the protection racket;
successful law enforcement operations in recent years have
largely dismantled the group.) Despite their differences, all
three major organized crime groups have some activities in
common, including running protection rackets and money
laundering. They do business with each other; for example, the
Cosa Nostra and Camorra clans purchase narcotics from the
'Ndrangheta. They also have close ties with Chinese, Turkish
and Balkan mobs (particularly Albanian and Bulgarian).
According to a 2005 FBI intelligence assessment, there have been
numerous instances of "opportunistic interaction" between the
three main Italian organized crime groups and Islamic
extremists. And all three have the ability to influence
politics and politicians, and use that ability to varying
degrees, contributing to corruption at various levels of the
Italian government. In public documents, the FBI notes that all
three groups have members and/or affiliates in the United States.

Cosa Nostra: Unified Structure in Sicily
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3. (SBU) Sicily's Cosa Nostra operates throughout the island
with a unified, hierarchical structure. Inter-clan violence is
rare; the last major war between "families" was over twenty
years ago (the conflict resulted in the emigration of members of
the Inzerillo family to New York, where they joined the Gambino
clan). Membership in the Cosa Nostra is selective, and the
organization has recruited personnel from all socioeconomic
classes, including professionals. The unified structure works
well as long as members maintain their vow of secrecy. The Cosa
Nostra's principal sources of income are the protection racket,

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drug distribution, rigging of government contracts, trafficking
in persons, loan sharking and illegal construction.

Camorra: Gang Wars in Campania
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4. (C) The groups that operate in Campania are traditionally
known as the Camorra, but, as one expert, former MP Isaia Sales,
tells us, the label mistakenly gives the impression that there
is some unified structure. In fact, many different rival clans
operate in Campania, mainly in the provinces of Naples, Caserta
and Salerno. There is no central organization or even a
confederation; attempts by some bosses to unify some of all of
these clans have failed miserably. Thus, there is no single
"Camorra"; in fact, mobsters do not even use the word,
preferring "O Sistema," Neapolitan for "The System." The clans'
enterprises are conducted within territorial boundaries, which
are constantly being tested, leading to almost continuous gang
violence. Unlike the Cosa Nostra, membership in Camorra clans
is open to virtually anyone, as each family seeks to build an
ever-larger army. The "soldiers" come from the lowest
socio-economic echelons (the "urban sub-proletariat," according
to Sales),who often find crime to be their only avenue to
regular employment. Many wind up in prison or die violently,
factors that contribute to Camorristas' risky behavior. The
clans' principal sources of income are the protection racket,
illegal transport and dumping of toxic waste, drug trafficking,
production and distribution of pirated and counterfeit products,
illegal construction and trafficking in persons. Money
laundering is rampant, consisting largely of investments in
hotels, restaurants and small stores that also serve as a sort
of life insurance policy for family members. Franco Roberti,
the top anti-Mafia prosecutor in Naples, tells us that the
powerful Casalesi clan, based in Caserta, has huge interests in
the construction industry in northern Italy. Roberti adds that
Camorra clans are making more money than ever from drug
trafficking, partly because of purer and less expensive cocaine,
and partly because they have eliminated middlemen and now deal
directly with Colombian suppliers. The Camorra pays cash for
drugs, or trades cocaine for hashish and heroin.

'Ndrangheta: The Most Dangerous of All
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5. (C/NF) Our contacts both in and outside of the
law-enforcement sphere agree that the 'Ndrangheta is the most
successful and dangerous organized crime group in Italy. The
'Ndrangheta has come a long way since its founding by villagers;
according to University of Cosenza sociologist Giap Parini, in
the last thirty years the group has established ties with
Colombia's FARC and suppliers of heroin and hashish in Central
Asia, providing them with arms and cash, and has extended its
reach throughout Western Europe. And according to
Calabria-based Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Santi Cutroneo, the
'Ndrangheta is far more sophisticated and international than
most people believe, maintaining bank accounts in Monte Carlo
and Milan, and transplanting operatives to Colombia, Spain,
Germany, the Balkans, Canada and Australia. The Italian
Parliament's Anti-Mafia Committee recently characterized the
'Ndrangheta as having an international structure similar to that
of Al-Qaeda. 'Ndrangheta membership is based exclusively on
family (including marital) ties, making it extremely difficult
to penetrate; arrested members almost never reveal information
about their colleagues, as they are relatives. There is no
central structure, as in the Cosa Nostra; autonomous 'Ndrangheta
clans operate within well-defined geographic boundaries, and
territorial disputes are settled through peaceful negotiation or
arbitration. Parini asserts that these clans control the
economy, politics and society in Calabria. The 'Ndrangheta's
main sources of income (according to law enforcement contacts
and open sources) are drug trafficking, the protection racket,

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rigging government contracts, illegal construction, loan
sharking and trafficking in persons. Both Parini and Reggio
Calabria Prefect Salvatore Montanaro told the CG that the
'Ndrangheta pays the Colombian FARC for drugs with both cash and
arms. (Comment: Neither of these sources is a law enforcement
official; their comments on links to the FARC may be
speculation. DEA investigations in both Italy and Colombia have
turned up no evidence to support this allegation. End comment.)
During a May 2008 visit to Italy, U.S. Deputy Attorney General
Mark Filip declared to the media that the 'Ndrangheta is a
growing threat to the United States with a presence primarily in
the U.S. Northeast.

How Organized Crime Influences Politics
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6. (C/NF) All three organized crime groups influence politics
in Italy. Camorra clans have been known to "get out the vote"
for local political figures, but often prefer bribes and
kickbacks to trying to influence elections. If they want
someone elected, though, they will buy votes; up until this
year, when Parliament banned the use of cellphones and cameras
in voting booths, the cost of a vote was reportedly a $75 cell
phone. According to sociologist Amato Lamberti, the Camorra can
move up to ten percent of the vote in Naples province. The Cosa
Nostra has a reputation for being able to deliver votes in
Sicily; a number of analysts attributed the success of Silvio
Berlusconi and his Sicilian allies in 2001 to the influence of
organized crime (the accusation, whether true or not, is not
that there was vote fraud, but that the mob was able to
influence voter turnout in Berlusconi's favor). The vice
chairman of the Italian parliament's Anti-Mafia Committee, Beppe
Lumia, claims that the Cosa Nostra controls around 150,000
votes, enough to determine whether a party achieves the minimum
eight percent required for a Senate seat. According to
'Ndrangheta expert Parini, it is organized crime that decides
who holds elected office in southern Calabria, creating a web of
dependencies to ensure election victories for inept politicians
that are guaranteed to produce policies favorable to organized
crime. Anti-Mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri states that in
some parts of the region, the 'Ndrangheta controls up to 20
percent of the votes. It is clear from our meetings with
elected officials in Calabria that they are a step down in
quality from those in other parts of Southern Italy; some are so
devoid of energy and charisma that it is hard to imagine them
mounting -- let alone surviving -- a real electoral campaign.
According to former Senator Lorenzo Diana, an organized crime
expert based in Naples, 34 of 50 regional assemblymen in
Calabria have problems with the law. The corruption of elected
officials and bureaucrats allows organized crime to win
government contracts and sub-contracts, and to obtain permits
and certificates to conduct illegal construction and
transportation of toxic waste, among other things. In the end,
even elected leaders without direct ties to organized crime
often come to some sort of accommodation with the mob; as the
GOI's chief prosecutor in Naples, GianDomenico Lepore, tells us,
"The decision to live with the Mafia is a political choice, as
is the decision not to make fighting the Mafia a priority."


7. (C/NF) In addition to the corruption of elected officials,
organized crime in Italy has successfully recruited law
enforcement and judicial personnel through a combination of
bribery and intimidation. Many judges, prosecutors, police and
customs officials have been exposed for collaborating with the
Mafia. This corruption allows the various clans to evade
justice, as well as to ensure that authorities look the other
way when illegal activities are being conducted. One need look
no further than the port of Gioia Tauro on Calabria's Tyrhennian
coast for an example. Europe's busiest transshipment port is
outfitted with the tightest security measures, yet according to
public sources, the port is used as a drug entry point. The

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port is also used in the illegal arms trade; there have been
several seizures of assault weapons in recent years. Logic
would dictate that the 'Ndrangheta could not move narcotics and
arms without the acquiescence of customs authorities and
Treasury Police. Honest politicians and judicial personnel who
stand up to the mob are routinely assassinated (among the higher
profile cases were the killings of anti-Mafia prosecutors
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992, and the Vice
President of the Calabria Regional Council, Francesco Fortugno,
in 2005).


8. (C) The pervasiveness of corruption -- Italy ranked 41st on
Transparency International's 2007 Corruption Perception Index --
has led to a breakdown of the state in large portions of
Southern Italy. The central government has little control over
large areas of Sicily, Calabria and Campania, where organized
crime maintains a tight grip over even mundane aspects of daily
life, such as renewing a driver's license. And this perception
of corruption dissuades investment in the South, which further
aggravates poverty and unemployment, which in turn feeds
organized crime as it recruits desperate young men with no job
prospects. A report issued in May 2008 by the think tank
Eurispes classifies all provinces in Campania, Calabria, Sicily
and Apulia for their susceptibility to Mafia penetration.
Naples heads the list (probably because of the number of city
governments dissolved by the courts) with a whopping index of
68.9 percent, followed by Reggio Calabria (60),Palermo (41.9)
and Catanzaro (33). The reaction of Southern Italy's
politicians to organized crime, even at the highest levels,
seems to be one of either denial or defeatism. Campania
Regional President Bassolino and then-Sicily Regional Assembly
President Micciche both assured the Consul General last fall
that their regions had largely licked the problem of organized
crime. Countless other politicians argue that organized crime
is so pervasive that there is no point even in trying to do
anything about it. (One told the Ambassador that to defeat
organized crime, Italy would have to go to war against the mob
and suspend personal liberties in the process, but that to say
this publicly would be political suicide.) Even Sicily's upbeat
Industrialists Federation President Ivan Lo Bello, when asked in
early 2008 whether it was plausible for a serious candidate in
Sicily's then-upcoming elections to run on an anti-Mafia
platform, told the CG he honestly did not know.


9. (C) These groups also try to wield influence through the
media. One prosecutor told us of a newspaper in Caserta
(Campania) whose sole purpose was to serve as a way for criminal
operatives to convey coded messages to each other. A number of
journalists who have exposed criminal enterprises have been
threatened with death. Roberto Saviano, author of a
best-selling expose of the Camorra, told the CG in April 2008
that it is not his message that has made him dangerous, but the
fact that millions of readers have read and understood it.
Saviano is now on the clans' hit list and is one of about a
dozen Italian journalists under police protection, according to
the rights group Reporters Without Borders. According to Lirio
Abbate, a correspondent under protection in Palermo, "Violence
is only one means of applying pressure. Journalists can also be
corrupted and bought."


10. (C) Comment: Of all the social elements involved in
combating organized crime -- including law enforcement, business
and social groups -- the politicians, many of whom owe their
very survival to organized crime, appear to be the least
committed to finding a solution. Until this situation changes,
even the best police work (and much of it is outstanding) will
be unsuccessful in stemming the tide. "No one will win next
month's elections in Italy, especially not the nation's
citizens," warned Roberto Saviano, author of a best-selling
expose of the Camorra, in a March 2008 "Time" magazine article,
because "everyone seems dead set on ignoring the country's

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fundamental problem: organized crime." The second part of this
series of cables will examine more closely the economic impact
of organized crime in Southern Italy.
TRUHN