Italy Sends Soldiers to South to Combat Powerful New Mafia

(Oct. 7) -- Italy is sending soldiers to Calabria in the south to fight a secretive and dangerous Italian crime network that's overtaken the fabled Cosa Nostra by expanding into cocaine trafficking around the world – with strong ties in Canada.

The decision to send in the military to square off against the 'Ndrangheta criminal organization came after what authorities said amounted to a death threat against the chief prosecutor in the city of Reggio Calabria this week: the discovery of a bazooka near the courthouse.


Luigi Varratta, the prefect for the region, told The Associated Press the army will not take over the streets. "They will deal with security for the judiciary," Varratta said.

Italian prosecutors, who say the 'Ndrangheta rakes in about $50 billion a year in international drug trafficking and local extortion, arrested 300 alleged members in a massive crackdown code-named "Operazione Crimini" in July. The organization's alleged godfather, 80-year-old Domenico Oppedisano, was arrested in the bust along with some Canadian citizens.

Eighty pages of a 2,656-page report issued by prosecutors after their investigation involved 'Ndrangheta cells in Toronto, Montreal and northern Ontario -- areas where families from Calabria have immigrated to Canada for years, Canada's National Post reported.

The big sting, which involved 3,000 police officers, was said to have "hit the heart of the organization," Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said at the time.

But members of the 'Ndrangheta, which means "honored society," have continued their retaliation against police and prosecutors.

"The 'Ndrangheta is the most powerful, dangerous and richest organization at this moment," chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone told state-run TV RAI on Wednesday. "There's a situation of extreme tension, a sign that our work is bothering someone."

With its more humble, rural origins, the 'Ndrangheta isn't well-known outside Italy, although it has had a powerful presence in Canada since the 1950s.

But over the past 10 years, as the Sicilian Cosa Nostra weakened, the 'Ndrangheta became one of the major forces in the European cocaine market. Branches of the syndicate in Canada, Australia and Argentina have sprung up and are all allied with Colombia's drug cartels.

But the group is both feared and hard to prosecute because of a tightly knit, intricate family structure that discourages breaking the code of omerta, or silence -- a code that wasn't strong enough to protect more traditional Mafia families.

Turncoats within the Cosa Nostra are generally credited with bringing down the organization's power in recent years as anti-Mafia task forces targeted the group.

Members of some of the 'Ndrangheta's most influential families live openly in Canada, the network's biggest base outside Calabria.

"There is a massive number of their people in North America, especially in Canada and Toronto," Alberto Cisterna, director of the Anti-Mafia Directorate, told the National Post. "And for two reasons. The first is linked to the banking system. Canada's banking system is very secretive; it does not allow investigation. So Canada is the ideal place to launder money. The second reason is to smuggle drugs."

One of the syndicate's most powerful leaders is reportedly Giuseppe "The Master" Commisso, 63, who runs a laundry in Siderno, Italy, while allegedly directing 96 branches of the 'Ndrangheta.

He was caught on a police wiretap explaining that he sometimes had to "break balls" to keep all his employees his line.