The FBI believes that money obtained from drug trafficking carried out by the Italian Mafia mobs Ndrangheta and Camorra is financing armed groups from Colombia and Afghanistan, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. The newspaper has also published a new WikiLeaks document about the reasons why the US is involved in the anti-Mafia fight.
According to the document, US diplomatic corps say that the Mafia mobs la Cosa Nostra, la Ndrangheta and la Camorra are a “dangerous and powerful criminal syndicate”, as translated from the Spanish newspaper El Pais. The document also states that it is necessary to fight those groups in a more effective way because the groups “help terrorist groups from Colombia and Afghanistan through drug trafficking, prevent economic development in southern Italy, distort the markets, violate the rights of US artists and companies, support organised crime in the US and put the health of thousands of military men and government employees that live in the south of Italy at risk”.
Lorenzo Bodrero, spokesperson for Freedom, Legality and Rights in Europe (FLARE), an international network for the social fight against organised crime and corruption, told The Fresh Outlook that the indirect relationship between the Mafia and terrorist groups isn’t a surprise: “There is evidence of a very tight relationship existing between Italian organised crime syndicates, especially Ndrangheta, and Colombian drug trafficking,” he said.
According to Mr Bodrero, the Mafia has been always involved in very profitable forms of business, such as the trafficking of weapons, urban construction, waste disposal and even the football industry. The business of weapons trafficking goes some way to explaining the links between Mafia and armed groups.
This news arrives just one day after the “largest co-ordinated arrest in FBI history. Yesterday morning, 127 members of the Mafia were arrested in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. More than 500 FBI agents took part in the most important Mafia takedown to date. “By 11 am, more than 110 of the 127 subjects charged had been taken into custody”, claimed the FBI.
However, this success doesn't mean that the situation has been resolved. The members of New York's ‘Five Families’ – the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Luchese crime organizations- are still “extremely strong and viable,” said Dave Shafer, the FBI’s supervisor of organized crime investigations in New York.
“The arrested members will probably be replaced by now,” suggests Mr Bodrero. He continued: “It was a deep blow; the numbers are historical but, in our experience, it doesn't really matter how many people are arrested, they can be replaced rapidly.” However, Mr Bodrero maintains that it is important to continue working in this direction.
Eradicating the Mafia is not an easy job because they are infiltrated everywhere. Mr Bordero states: “It is harder to define nowadays what a 'Mafioso' is. The main gangs are involved with the biggest businesses; they have lots of connections and can easily fill those gaps between the companies and “la Familia.”
However, organisations such as FLARE implement the fight against organised crime through two main paths. Firstly, through hitting the Mafia's financial power by confiscating their goods by order of the State and, secondly, by introducing a cultural change into society. Mr Bordrero explains: “There is still a lot of consensus in numerous parts of the world, such as Mexico, Colombia, Russia, the Balkan region, Italy etc, where local citizens think that the Mafia is more reliable and more efficient than the State. We need to break this belief.”
By Eva Fernandez
According to the document, US diplomatic corps say that the Mafia mobs la Cosa Nostra, la Ndrangheta and la Camorra are a “dangerous and powerful criminal syndicate”, as translated from the Spanish newspaper El Pais. The document also states that it is necessary to fight those groups in a more effective way because the groups “help terrorist groups from Colombia and Afghanistan through drug trafficking, prevent economic development in southern Italy, distort the markets, violate the rights of US artists and companies, support organised crime in the US and put the health of thousands of military men and government employees that live in the south of Italy at risk”.
Lorenzo Bodrero, spokesperson for Freedom, Legality and Rights in Europe (FLARE), an international network for the social fight against organised crime and corruption, told The Fresh Outlook that the indirect relationship between the Mafia and terrorist groups isn’t a surprise: “There is evidence of a very tight relationship existing between Italian organised crime syndicates, especially Ndrangheta, and Colombian drug trafficking,” he said.
According to Mr Bodrero, the Mafia has been always involved in very profitable forms of business, such as the trafficking of weapons, urban construction, waste disposal and even the football industry. The business of weapons trafficking goes some way to explaining the links between Mafia and armed groups.
This news arrives just one day after the “largest co-ordinated arrest in FBI history. Yesterday morning, 127 members of the Mafia were arrested in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. More than 500 FBI agents took part in the most important Mafia takedown to date. “By 11 am, more than 110 of the 127 subjects charged had been taken into custody”, claimed the FBI.
However, this success doesn't mean that the situation has been resolved. The members of New York's ‘Five Families’ – the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Luchese crime organizations- are still “extremely strong and viable,” said Dave Shafer, the FBI’s supervisor of organized crime investigations in New York.
“The arrested members will probably be replaced by now,” suggests Mr Bodrero. He continued: “It was a deep blow; the numbers are historical but, in our experience, it doesn't really matter how many people are arrested, they can be replaced rapidly.” However, Mr Bodrero maintains that it is important to continue working in this direction.
Eradicating the Mafia is not an easy job because they are infiltrated everywhere. Mr Bordero states: “It is harder to define nowadays what a 'Mafioso' is. The main gangs are involved with the biggest businesses; they have lots of connections and can easily fill those gaps between the companies and “la Familia.”
However, organisations such as FLARE implement the fight against organised crime through two main paths. Firstly, through hitting the Mafia's financial power by confiscating their goods by order of the State and, secondly, by introducing a cultural change into society. Mr Bordrero explains: “There is still a lot of consensus in numerous parts of the world, such as Mexico, Colombia, Russia, the Balkan region, Italy etc, where local citizens think that the Mafia is more reliable and more efficient than the State. We need to break this belief.”
By Eva Fernandez
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