Hundreds of alleged members of the most powerful mafia group in Italy begin to appear in court as of this Wednesday, in the largest trial against organized crime in the country in decades.
The 355 alleged gangsters and corrupt officials were accused after a lengthy investigation into the ‘Ndrangheta.
The charge sheet includes murder, drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering.
And it is expected that more than 900 witnesses offer evidence in the trial, which is expected to last more than two years.
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The process takes place in a specially modified building in the southern region of Calabria , in the heart of the ‘Ndrangheta territory.
The building, which was previously a call center in the city of Lamezia Terme, was converted into a fortified courtroom to accommodate the hundreds of people who will likely attend the process.
In Italy there has been no trial against the mafia on this scale since the decade of 1980 .
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The accused
Unlike the last great judgment of 1986 to 1986, which targeted a large number of organized crime families in Sicily, which started this Wednesday is aimed at a single group.
It is about the Mancuso family , a grouping of the gigantic ‘Ndrangheta’.
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La ‘ Ndrangheta is currently the most powerful mafia in the country, and the Mancuso clan is said to operate mainly in the Calabrian province of Vibo Valentia.
The accused also include politicians, police officers and public officials , as well as alleged members and accomplices of the mafia.
And according to the AFP agency, during a preliminary hearing it took more than three hours to read the names of all the accused.
The highest profile defendant is the alleged head of the clan, Luigi Mancuso, by 66 years, also known as “The uncle”.
And the number of accused increases to more than 400 when other 92 suspects who chose a separate expedited trial.
Among them is Giancarlo Pittelli, lawyer and former Forza Italia party senator by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Pittelli denies having connected the ‘Ndrangheta with the world of politics and other powerful institutions, such as the courts.
Most of the accused were arrested in night raids in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria in December 2019.
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The accusations
The ‘Ndrangheta is believed to control the supply of large quantities of cocaine entering Europe from South America and other l Ugares.
But the lengthy charge sheet of the hundreds of defendants goes far beyond drug-related crimes.
The list includes association with the mafia, murder, attempted murder, extortion, loan theft, disclosure of official secrets and abuse of power.
“This judgment shows how deeply rooted is the ‘Ndrangheta in society,” Federico Varese, professor of criminology at the University of Oxford, told AFP.
“It is shocking to have a criminal group so deeply rooted in the territory that it makes you take hundreds of people to trial,” he added.
The accused will appear from specially designed cells in the courtroom in Calabria. Fundamental to the case has been the most famous anti-mafia prosecutor in Italy, Nicola Gratteri , of 62 years, who has lived under police protection for more than three decades.
Gratteri has promised to end “this suffocating ‘Ndrangheta, which really takes people’s breath and heartbeats.”
But Professor Varese has warned that the judgment will not mark the end of the group.
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“You can put them in jail, but if you don’t eliminate the root causes of their existence, they will simply reproduce,” he warned.
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