According to the Italian authorities, "the Neapolitan Mafia community of the Camorra is a criminal, well-organized and armed structure, the scale of which is unparalleled in Europe." Translated from Italian, the word camorra has two meanings: "fight, noise, hubbub" and "gang, clique." But recently, the term "Camorra" has been interpreted unambiguously as a "gang of gangsters."
Operation intimidation
- How are we doing? What's new yesterday? - with these words, Guido Casalezi, the boss of the mafia that controls the city of Caserta (the administrative center of the province of Campania), every morning addresses his assistant Antonio Schilacci, whose duty is to inform the boss about all incidents.
On that June day in 2017, Antonio was forced to voice the not-so-good news:
- Drug dealers from Nigeria don't want to pay tribute to our guys.
- They don't want to pay, you say? Well, deal with them! Today. So that others are discouraged! Let them remember that this territory belongs to our clan - the Casalezi clan. And no one has the right to get in our way.
The same evening, the guys from the Casalezi clan, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, drove up in a black "jeep" to a small cafe on the outskirts, where Nigerians usually rested. The leader of the Italians Antonio Schilacci ordered:
Promotional video:
- Do not spare cartridges! Will treat niggers lead!
Without hiding their faces, dressed in impeccable dark suits, the mafiosi entered the cafe and opened indiscriminate fire at visitors from machine guns. Screams and moans mingled with the clink of bullet-shattered bottles in the bar. It was over in a minute. Looking around the room, Skilacci grunted with satisfaction:
- And now let's leave!
Half an hour later, he reported to his boss that the intimidation operation was successful.
And such bloody "operations" the Neapolitan Camorra conducts regularly. She is rightfully considered the most brutal not only in Italy, but throughout Europe.
Ruthless killers
According to police, the drug business brings Camorra bosses $ 300 million a month. It is known that since the 1970s, the mafia syndicate has firmly controlled all drug traffic in the southern regions of Naples. Those who try to establish their own drug business on this territory are ruthlessly shot by the killers. In 2017 alone, the Camorra was marked with two hundred murders, and in total, the Casalezi family has more than five thousand deaths over the past thirty years. Given that mafiosi often generously sponsor local police officials, many of the gangsters' crimes remain unsolved.
Only when public protests against the actions of the Camorra develop into powerful demonstrations of many thousands do the authorities resort to extreme measures. They bring special forces units into cities, as well as hundreds of police officers from other regions of Italy. They arrest the most notorious clan leaders and confiscate their property worth hundreds of millions of euros, acquired by far from righteous labor.
But even harsh court sentences cannot stop the mafiosi. The retired ones are immediately replaced by new ones. It is known that the Camorra has long been established in almost all spheres of the economy of southern Italy. Moreover, the Neapolitans established close contact with bandits from Eastern Europe. Currently, the Camorra's sphere of activity includes not only the drug trade, but also the proliferation of weapons, the illegal transportation of toxic waste and their disposal, and prostitution. The running "live goods" are delivered to Italy by Polish, Ukrainian and Moldovan criminal groups.
The girls are recruited ostensibly to work as models, but in fact end up in underground Neapolitan brothels. These establishments are roofed by the guys from Camorra.
Lead for the "rat"
In their official statements, law enforcement agencies promise to "crush the Neapolitan mafia hydra."
- The criminals must hear the decisive warning voice of the authorities, those who continue their gang activities in the Camorra will be imprisoned. Only then will civilians get rid of the eternal fear of dying under bullets! - said the prosecutor Massimo Spaletti.
But even the trials of arrested Camorra members are far from safe for law enforcement. In the past five years alone, Camorra killers have killed a dozen witnesses and three lawyers who had the courage to speak out against the mafiosi right in the courtroom.
The death sentence awaits those who encroach on the clan's property. Once, fourteen-year-old boys from Caserta became accidental witnesses of how bandits lay another batch of illegal weapons in a secret cache. When they left, the boys entered the cache and stole three machine guns and four pistols. During the week, they enthusiastically shot at empty bottles in the forest, feeling like the heroes of Westerns. Having discovered the loss, the bandits quickly went on the trail of the kidnappers. Under torture, the boys told where they hid their weapons, and then they were shot.
A terrible punishment awaits the corrupt entrepreneurs who violate the laws of the Camorra. The protégé of the Neapolitan mafiosi, Guido Mancini, was engaged in transporting and dumping toxic waste from hazardous industries into abandoned mines. At the same time, he bribed local officials and police to turn a blind eye to such "pranks", as well as to the fact that irreparable harm is caused to nature and residents of nearby settlements. For the time being, Guido honestly gave all the proceeds to the mafia boss, but then the virus of greed hit Mancini. He began to withhold part of the proceeds and put it in his pocket. Upon learning of this, the boss, without hesitation, pronounced the death sentence on the "rat", which was carried out that evening.
Orders for the mafia
The history of the Camorra dates back to the 16th century. It was then that the Neapolitan robber bands began to gradually unite into large clans. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Camorra grew sharply and was already a state within a state. A special gangster jargon was formed, in which mafiosi communicated and which was incomprehensible to the law-abiding man in the street. The Camorra were already distinguished by clear organization and iron discipline. The word of the boss was the law for ordinary bandits. Given the strength of the Camorra, the Italian authorities were simply forced to enter into a tacit alliance with the mafia structure. Queen Maria Carolina (1752-1814), for example, generously distributed orders to mafia bosses and patronized well-known ringleaders of bandit clans. The bloody robber Gaetano Mammon, who was considered a real vampire, she called “my brave friend,my dear general”and turned a blind eye to the actions of his criminal gang. But the Camorra did not remain in debt - she supplied the government with reliable spies and reliable executioners. It is interesting that Camorra never tried to transform itself into a party, at different times she simply joined one or another political group. It depended on what preferences the political leader promised to the leaders of the Camorra.
In the 19th century, the bandits became so bold that they began to tax any trade deal in the controlled territories. They occupied the markets and robbed the merchants. Those who refused to pay tribute were punished mercilessly. The Camorra penetrated all strata of Neapolitan society. As a result, both an ordinary artisan and large landowners, bankers, lawyers, police officers and government officials could be in its ranks. Therefore, often criminal cases against members of the Camorra settled under the cloth of dishonest investigators.
In the 21st century, the Camorra continues to operate. At the same time, the mafiosi's capital acquired by criminal means are invested in legal profitable business in different countries of the world. For example, the Neapolitan mafioso Antonio Rigi and his brothers led an international syndicate of dozens of companies.
In 2016, the Italian authorities dealt a heavy blow to this empire and seized property worth 250 million euros, including 28 pizzerias, bars and restaurants in Italy. But it turned out that the Riga family has a business not only in European countries, but also in China, Japan, Singapore, where the hands of Italian prosecutors cannot reach. This explains the persistence of the Camorra. “The Camorra will never die. She will live forever! - this is the motto of the Neapolitan bandits.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №20, Vladimir Vladimirov