Posted on 06/16/2012 3:58:24 PM PDT by AtlasStalled
The 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia has emerged as the world's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade in Europe, and it further has become entrenched in Australia, Canada and the United States with surprisingly little push back from law enforcement in those countries.
Indeed, Nicola Gratteri, a top anti-Mafia prosecutor in Italy warns that "this mafia is quickly spreading in the United States, particularly in Florida and New York" as reported by Beatrice Borromeo for The Daily Beast:
Gratteri's latest operations have led to the sentencing of 34 'Ndrangheta members and have uncovered a new route in the mafia's international drug trade, centered in New York City, where the crime syndicates can secure easy access to cocaine shipped in by Mexican cartels. Gratteri relies on the support of local intelligence for his operations, and he's been able to make more international arrests of 'Ndrangheta members than any other Italian prosecutor in large part because he's gained the trust of colleagues overseas. "Gratteri is a great investigator; it's a pleasure to work with him and nobody knows the 'Ndrangheta better than he does," says an FBI special agent who works in New York. "The 'Ndrangheta has become one of our top priorities in recent months, and we need to be able to rely on people like Gratteri to face it."
Some mob watchers believe that Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia clans from New York City and Quebec are responsible for the ongoing mob war against the Rizzuto clan from the Sicilian Mafia in Montreal, QB Canada for control over the drug trade.
The Rizzuto clan allegedly is headed by Vito Rizzuto who currently is incarcerated at the supermax facility in Florence, CO on a 2007 racketeering conviction involving the 1981 New York City murders of three Bonanno capos during an internal power struggle. While serving his time Vito's son Nick Jr. got whacked in 2009 and his father Nicolo in 2010. The Rizzuto clan allegedly pushed back last November by murdering former Bonanno boss Salvatore Montagna who some suspect had aligned with the 'Ndrangheta clans in the power play for Montreal.
Gratteri says the war on drugs generally and the war on the 'Ndrangheta specifically is unwinnable:
"I am simply being realistic," Gratteri says. "No matter how many investigations we carry on in the world, we recover less than 10 percent of the cocaine that arrives in Europe. 'Ndrangheta members are so many: strong, clever, determined people. Secrecy is their motto and, moreover, they don't have a godfather that leads on everyone, which means that no arrest can really threaten the existence of the organization. Eradicating the 'Ndrangheta? Impossible."
Of course, it's going to be hard for U.S. law enforcement to land even a blow against the Calabrian Mafia unless the country first gets over its terrorism hysteria and once again dedicates resources to the real threat from organized crime.
Spreading to the US? Really, when did they leave? The ‘mob’, ‘costra nostra’, ‘mafia’, ‘the family’ whatever you call them have been in the US for decades upon decades, they are not just arriving.
“Obscene profits?” Maybe that will motivate the Democrats to stamp it out.
And if do you beat them? Always someone else waiting in the wings to provide this high profit service.
And the reason why the Untouchables were necessary?
Prohibition was well nigh unenforceable.
Muscling in on the cartels of the Zetas, the Sinaloa and the MS-13 territories, are they? Those guys play HARD, and the Calabrian Mafia stand to be in for quite a turf war.
Are they sure they want this?
The “mob†has been around for a 100 years longer than the other groups you mentioned. They will not start anything they can not win and it will not be pretty. They are also a lot more subtle than a street war.
The ‘mob’ has been around for a 100+ years longer than the other groups you mentioned. They will not start anything they can not win and it will not be pretty. They are also a lot more subtle than a street war.
My 90 year old mother in law is first generation Italian. Her family is from Naples. She always complains about how her dad hated the Calabrese.
They haven’t gone anywhere. They just got a PR person.
My ‘family’ is from Palermo, they immigrated around 1915. They never said anything negative about any of the groups.
My mother in law is/was a Rizzuto.... the family genealogist made some interesting connections :0
My maternal grandfather came from Piopo, which is in Palermo province, at the turn of the century. His father was assassinated by the mafia, in front of the whole family.
Yes, the genealogies are fun.
I think Calbria is where Nancy Pelosi’s family is from. Oy vay
wow.
They are powerful.
My grandfather when he was nineteen, started a taxi cab company in NY....really 19?
The ‘mob’ is part of Sicily currently and historically.
The other side of my wife’s family is from Poland. Again first generation. I’ve been with the family almost thirty years. I am still looked upon with suspicion because I am not Polish. They never say anything good about anyone else.
Well, it says “spreading in the US”, not “spreading to the US”. Also, this is about the Calabrian mafia, not the Sicilian mafia, which has been the dominant force in the American branch of the Italian mafia for the better part of a century, at least. They are two separate organizations, sometimes they collaborate, other times they war with each other.
Did you read the story? They are setting up in NYC because they are able to purchase from the cartels directly there. They are partners, not competitors, at least at this point.
My GF came over at 17, and by the time he was 20 he had brought his brothers and mother over, and had a ranch in santa clara county, Ca that consisted of all of the arable land east of the coyote river, north of the town of Coyote, and south of Beryessa.
They lost it all to the bank in the depression.
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