Anti-mafia priest sent pig's head in Godfather-style warning

An Italian priest who campaigns against the mafia was sent a severed pig's head, in a scene straight out of The Godfather.

The pig's mouth was stuffed with a wad of cloth in what was interpreted as a clear warning to the clergyman by the 'Ndrangheta mafia.

The bloody head was left outside Father Ennio Stamile's home in the town of Cetraro in Calabria, the 'Ndrangheta's stronghold.

The macabre gesture had chilling echoes of a famous scene in The Godfather in which a Hollywood producer who refuses to do business with Don Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando in the 1972 film of the same name, wakes up to find the severed head of his favourite racehorse at the end of his bed.

It was the second threat received by the priest in five days – last week his car was vandalised.

Fr Stamile has been prominent in speaking out against organised crime in Cetraro, which gained notoriety for its high rate of mob-related murders.

Full Story (Telegraph)

Pope condemns 'Ndrangheta mafia in their Calabrian lair

From the Guardian

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned Italy's "ferocious" 'Ndrangheta mafiaduring a visit to the group's heartland in Calabria, days after police seized a suspected mob shipment of more than half a tonne of cocaine at a local port.

Addressing 40,000 people at a disused industrial site in Lamezia Terme, the pope said the crime families in Calabria, in the toe of Italy, were "tearing at the social fabric" in a region "which seems to be in a constant state of emergency".

In a region noted for chronic unemployment, poor healthcare and corruption, the 'Ndrangheta has used its drug connections with Colombia and its quiet stranglehold on many businesses in northern Italy to overtake Sicily's Cosa Nostra and rack up revenue of €44bn (£37bn) a year, according to a 2008 study.

The pope's denouncement was welcomed by Father Giacomo Panizza, a Roman Catholic priest who works with the disabled in Calabria and has been forced to travel with a police escort after he clashed with local crime bosses.

'Ndrangheta Mafia Explodes Bomb at Top Prosecutor's Home in Calabria

The ’Ndrangheta mafia of Calabria planted a bomb in the doorway of the building where the region’s top prosecutor lives, the second bomb attack aimed at prosecutors there this year.

In January, a woman wearing high heels drove a scooter and helped a man plant an explosive at the courthouse entrance, according to a surveillance video. Salvatore Di Landro, the prosecutor targed by today’s bomb, blamed organized crime for the attack.

“They evidently want to make me pay for the fact that I’ve always, in every circumstance, done my duty as magistrate,” Di Landro said, according to la Repubblica newspaper’s website.

57 wanted in mafia sweep across Italy

ROME (AP) — Local politicians, bankers and businessmen were among 57 people wanted Wednesday in connection with a mafia sweep across Italy targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets, police and news reports said.

A local mayor and a tourism official from the southern region of Calabria were among those detained in early morning raids, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.

The raids were focused on the southern region of Calabria — home of the 'ndrangheta organized crime syndicate — and Umbria, in central Italy, the carabinieri paramilitary police said.

The investigation, code-named Naos, uncovered an association between the 'ndrangheta and the Naples-based Camorra mob, with members working outside their traditional territories and alongside local criminal groups, a police statement said.

The ring focused on drug trafficking and extortion rackets, with money reinvested in construction projects, particularly hydroelectric utilities and tourism buildings in Calabria, reports said.

A mafia family feud spills over

The killing of six Italians in the German city of Duisburg has thrust into the spotlight the shadowy world of the 'Ndrangheta, whose tentacles have spread far beyond their rural origins in Calabria, in southern Italy.

The six men, one of whom was reported to be only 16 years old, were sprayed with machine gun bullets moments after they left a pizzeria in the western German city.

Based on the strong blood ties between interlinked families, membership of the 'Ndrangheta - which means "Honoured Society" - is believed to number in the tens of thousands.

"It is disturbing - firstly because of the sheer number of dead," the acting director of Italy's National Anti-Mafia bureau, Carmelo Petralia, told the BBC news website.

Bulgaria Linked to Most Powerful Italian Mafia 'Ndrangheta

The Italian 'Ndrangheta crime circle works in cooperation with Bulgarian organized crime groups, a report of the Italian anti-mafia directorate states, as cited by Giornale di Calabria newspaper.

The report warns of the 'Ndrangheta's constantly growing power and its links with Bulgarian crime bosses, who are backed by the even more powerful Russian mafia.

The report comes just two days after six Italians were shot dead near a train station in Duisburg, western Germany. All of them are believed to be members of the 'Ndrangheta crime group based in Calbabria. Police believe the motive for the killings is the result of a feud stemming from the Italian town of San Luca.

Ever more often Italian mafia bosses go to court together with Bulgarians and this is just one of the many examples that prove the links between Bulgaria and the Calabrian mafia, the report says.

Six Italians killed in mafia vendetta in Germany

DUISBURG, Germany (AFP) - Six Italian men were shot dead here on Wednesday as a powerful mafia clan exported a bloody vendetta to Germany.


Italy's Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said the victims, who ranged from 16 to 38 years old and included two brothers, were caught up in a feud between mafia families in the Calabria region of southern Italy.

A police patrol alerted by a passerby discovered four of the victims in a Volkswagen Golf hire car and two in an Opel delivery van, which were parked near the central rail station of the industrial western city of Duisburg early Wednesday.

Heinz Sprenger, the officer leading the German police investigation, said all six victims had "multiple gunshot wounds".

"These men were shot at indiscriminately," he told a press conference.

Sprenger said some of the victims showed signs of life when they were found by police, but although one survived longer than the others, doctors were unable to resuscitate him.

Police said the men had been celebrating the 18th birthday of one of the victims in a pizza restaurant near the scene of the shooting where some of the men worked.

60 arrested in anti-mafia swoop

ROME – Police in southern Italy arrested 60 people on Tuesday in a swoop on the local mafia known as the 'Ndrangheta, suspecting them of crimes ranging from smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants to national insurance fraud.

The 'Ndrangheta, based in Calabria south of Naples, has outgrown its more famous Sicilian counterpart, the Cosa Nostra, thanks to clan loyalties ensured by blood relationships and arranged marriages.

A police spokesman said the 'Ndrangheta clan targeted by the police operation were also believed to have backed candidates for regional and provincial councils, showing how deeply they influenced local politics and business.

"According to the estimate we have come up with, six million euros would have shortly been taken from the national insurance funds," the spokesman said.

Anti-mafia prosecutors were also investigating those held for crimes including extortion, loan-sharking, illegal transport and possession of weapons and explosives.