The elite Cacciatori unit during a night mission in the Calabrian mountains. A study by the Demoskopita Research Institute in 2013 estimated it was more financially powerful than Deutsche Bank and McDonald’s combined, with an annual turnover of €53bn (£44bn).

“What is certain is that this trial will be one for the history books on organised crime … With these proceedings, Italy will finally have the opportunity to reveal to the world the secrets of the ’Ndrangheta, which over the years has grown silently and in the shadows.”Īt one time derided by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and Campanian Camorra mafias, today the ’Ndrangheta is by far the most powerful criminal group in Italy and one of the richest in the world. “Expectations are high, and it’s obvious that the Italian authorities hope it will be a milestone in the struggle against the ’Ndrangheta,” he said. The anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri: ‘It is my hope that these proceedings can signal a true rebirth for the people of Calabria.’ Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty ImagesĪntonio Nicaso, a ’Ndrangheta expert and member of the advisory board of the Nathanson Centre on Crime and Security at York University in Toronto, stressed the importance of the trial. Nicola Gratteri, an anti-mafia prosecutor who led the investigation, told the Guardian at the time of the raids that it was the biggest operation against the crime syndicates since the 1986-92 Palermo maxi trials, when Sicilian prosecutors put 475 people in the dock.įor the trial, Gratteri’s team has collected 24,000 wiretaps and intercepted conversations to back up their charges. About 2,500 officers participated in raids focused on suspects in Vibo Valentia, Calabria, the heart of an area controlled mainly by the ’Ndrangheta’s Mancuso clan.Īn elite carabinieri unit known as the Cacciatori, literally “the hunters”, arrested several suspects hiding in bunkers located behind sliding staircases, hidden trapdoors and manholes.Ī former senator, a police chief, local councillors and businessmen accused of aiding the mafia were also arrested in Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria.

Photograph: Gianluca Chininea/AFP/Getty ImagesĪlmost all of the defendants were arrested in December 2019 after a lengthy investigation that began in 2016 and covered at least 11 Italian regions. One of the cages constructed in the high-security courtroom.

Pictures of mafia men