Police have arrested 18 members of a secret
‘Ndrangheta mafia cell operating in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, after their
meeting was filmed in secret
By Josephine McKenna, Rome
5:27PM BST 24 Aug 2014
Into the dimly-lit room, with its heavy wood panelling
and outdated furnishings, strides a man, who shakes hands silently with the
others, one by one.
He sits down among the dozen or so others, all
positioned around a long table. And then he starts speaking – about honour,
dignity, tradition and respect. And business – cocaine, extortion, trafficking.
It is a scene which could be straight out of the 1970s
film The Godfather. But these men are not acting, and this is not
Hollywood, but a small town in Switzerland
The men, alleged leaders of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta,
were secretly filmed by Italian and Swiss police in the tiny town of Frauenfeld, 30 miles north of Zurich, during
a two-year investigation that led to the arrest of 18 people on Friday.
The video has given investigators a rare and valuable
insight into the private rituals of the Calabrian Mafia and the often discreet
expansion of its international operations.
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The presumed boss, Antonio Nesci, nicknamed
“Cucchiaruni” – Calabrian dialect for the “Swiss mountain” – is heard telling
his colleagues the local cell has been active in the Frauenfeld for 40 years,
before telling the younger members there is room for plenty of growth.
“There’s everything. 10 kilos, 20 kilos a day, I will
bring it to you personally but I don’t want to know any more about it.”
In a chilling reminder of the Mafia’s uncompromising
violence, the boss says decisions about “murders and extortion” must be
referred to those who are specifically designated to carry out those tasks.
Nesci says the organisation has been established in
the Swiss town since the 1970s and urges the younger ones to respect the
“clean” reputation that the Mafia, sometimes referred to as the “Honoured
Society”, has built in Frauenfeld, a town of only 23,000 inhabitants.
“For those who know us well, (we are) clean, clean,
clean, it took us years to build this reputation,” he says.
“We made our reputation. You young ones (should) do it
so that the 'society’ is respected. I repeat again, the 'society’ of Frauenfeld
is one of honour, wisdom and dignity.”
Just days after a European Union-backed study claimed
Italy’s major mafia groups were expanding in Aberdeen and London, police
arrested 16 people in Switzerland and two in Italy, including Nesci, after the
lengthy joint investigation named Operation Helvetia, which began in January
2012.
Italian anti-mafia prosecutors argue that it took the
brutal execution of six Italians in a mafia feud outside a restaurant in the
city of Duisburg in 2007 for German law enforcement authorities to realise the
expansion of the Calabrian ’Ndrangeta, and they believe more should be done to
stop its spread in Europe.
In the video viewers may also be surprised to see the
signs of the Mafia’s strict standards of loyalty.
Nesci asks those gathered if all are “compliant” to
the organisation, to which they respond they are.
He refers to the ’Ndrangheta’s regulations dating back
to 1830 and also draws inspiration from three knights as he blesses the room
and the members, saying: “As they were baptised with irons and chains, with
irons and chains I baptise you.”
According to police the Swiss cell was linked to two
clans based in the “toe” of Italy: the Fabrizia clan of Vibo Valentia, and the
Mazzaferro clan from the town of Marina di Gioiosa Ionica. The Swiss cell, like
the two clans, was directly answerable to the organisation’s ruling hierarchy
in Calabria.
Police allege Nesci reported to the head of the
Fabrizia clan, Giuseppe Antonio Primerano, and had obtained his authorisation
to extend the clan’s operations in Singen in southern Germany.
Primerano - convicted to 13 years in prison in July
2013 - was also said to be directly linked to Domenico Oppedisano, the
83-year-old head of the Calabrian mafia.
The equivalent of the "boss of bosses" in
the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Oppedisano had been serving as so-called
"Capocrimine" - leader - of the organisation for a year when he was
arrested, police said at the time.
Oppedisano was reportedly appointed head of
'Ndrangheta, now Italy's most powerful mafia, at a wedding on August 19, 2009,
and assumed his powers at a feast at a shrine to the Madonna on September 1.
He was arrested with 300 others by police in a major
swoop called Operation Crimine in 2010, and is now is serving a 13-year
sentence for Mafia association.
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