Camorra
Encyclopedia


The Camorra is a Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

-type criminal organization
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

, or secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...

, originating in the region of Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

 and its capital Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.

Background

The origins of the Camorra are not entirely clear. It may date back to the 16th century as a direct descendant of a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 secret society, the Garduña
Garduna
The Garduña is said to be a secret criminal society in Spain in the late Middle Ages. It was essentially a prison gang that grew into a more organized entity over time, involved with robbery, kidnapping, arson, and murder-for-hire. Some have claimed to have found documentation listing clients,...

, founded in 1417. Officials of the Spanish Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

 may have introduced the organization to the area, or it may have grown gradually out of small criminal gangs operating among the poor in Neapolitan society near the end of the 18th century.

The first official use of the word dates from 1735, when a royal decree authorised the establishment of eight gambling houses in Naples. The word is almost certainly a blend of "capo
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo, is a term used in the Mafia for a high ranking made member of a crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization...

" (boss) and a Neapolitan street game, the "morra". (In this game, two persons wave their hands simultaneously, while a crowd of surrounding gamblers guess, in chorus, at the total number of fingers exposed by the principal players.) This activity was prohibited by the local government and some people started making the players pay for being “protected” against the passing police.

The Camorra first emerged during the chaotic power vacuum in the years between 1799-1815, when a Neapolitan Republic was proclaimed on the wave of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 and the restoration
Restoration
Restoration may refer to:-Historical examples :* Kemmu Restoration * Restoration * Portuguese Restoration War...

 of the Bourbon dynasty. The first official mention of the Camorra as an organisation dates from 1820, when police records detail a disciplinary meeting of the Camorra, a tribunal known as the Gran Mamma. That year a first written stature, the frieno, was also discovered, indicating a stable organisational structure in the underworld. Another statute was discovered in 1842 including initiation rites and funds set aside for the families of those imprisoned. The organisation was also known as the Bella Società Riformata, Società dell’Umirtà or Onorata Società.

The evolution into more organized formations indicated a qualitative change: the Camorra and camorristi were no longer local gangs living off theft and extortion; they now had a fixed structure and some kind of hierarchy. Another qualitative leap was the agreement of the liberal opposition and the Camorra following the defeat in the 1848 revolution. The liberals realized that they needed popular support to overthrow the king. They turned to the Camorra and paid them, the camorristi being the leaders of the city’s poor. The Camorra effectively had developed into power brokers in a few decades.

The Camorra was never a coherent whole, a centralised organization. Instead it has always been a loose confederation of different, independent groups or families. Each group was bound around kinship ties and controlled economic activities which took place in its particular territory. Each family clan took care of its own business, protected its territory, and sometimes tried to expand at another group’s expense. Although not centralized, there was some minimal coordination, to avoid mutual interference. The families competed to maintain a system of checks and balances between equal powers.

One of the Camorra’s strategies to gain social prestige is political patronage. The family clans became the preferred interlocutors of local politicians and public officials because of their grip on the community. In turn the family bosses used their political sway to assist and protect their clients against the local authorities. Through a mixture of brute force, political status, and social leadership, the Camorra family clans imposed themselves as middlemen between the local community and bureaucrats and politicians at the national level. They granted privileges and protection and intervened in favour of their clients in return for their silence and connivance against local authorities and the police. With their political connections, the heads of the major Neapolitan families became power brokers in local and national political contexts, providing Neapolitan politicians with broad electoral support and in return receiving benefits for their constituency.

Activities

Compared to the Sicilian
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 Cosa Nostra's pyramidal structure, the Camorra has more of a 'horizontal' than a 'vertical' structure. As a result, individual Camorra clans act independently of each other, and are more prone to feuding among themselves. This however makes the Camorra more resilient when top leaders are arrested or killed, with new clans and organizations germinating out of the stumps of old ones. As the Galasso clan boss Pasquale Galasso
Pasquale Galasso
Pasquale Galasso is a former boss of the Galasso clan, a clan of the Camorra, the Neapolitan crime organization. Since August 1992, he has been a pentito , collaborating with the Italian justice. He revealed many intricate secrets about the Camorra...

 once stated in court; "Campania can get worse because you could cut into a Camorra group, but another ten could emerge from it."

In the 1970s and 1980s Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo is an Italian crime boss and the charismatic leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , an organisation he built to renew the Camorra. Cutolo has a variety of nicknames including "'o Vangelo" , "'o Principe" , "'o Professore" and "'o Monaco"...

 made an attempt to unify the Camorra families in the manner of the Sicilian Mafia, by forming the New Organized Camorra
Nuova Camorra Organizzata
The Nuova Camorra Organizzata was an Italian Camorra criminal organization founded in the late 1970s by a Neapolitan Camorrista, Raffaele Cutolo, in the region of Campania. It was also known by the initials NCO...

 (Nuova Camorra Organizzata or NCO), but this proved unsuccessful. Drive-by shooting
Drive-by shooting
A drive-by shooting is a form of hit-and-run tactic, a personal attack carried out by an individual or individuals from a moving or momentarily stopped vehicle without use of headlights to avoid being noticed. It often results in bystanders being shot instead of, or as well as, the intended target...

s by camorristi often result in casualties among the local population, but such episodes are often difficult to investigate because of widespread Omertà
Omertà
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honour and a common definition is the "code of silence". It is common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations defined as Mafia such as the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, and...

 (code of silence). According to a report from Confesercenti, the second-largest Italian Trade Organization, published on October 22, 2007 in the Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...

, the Camorra control the milk and fish industries, the coffee trade, and over 2,500 bakeries in the city.

In 1983, Italian law enforcement estimated that there were only about a dozen Camorra clans. By 1987, the number had risen to 26, and in the following year, a report from the Naples flying squad reported their number as 32. Currently it is estimated there are about 111 Camorra clans and over 6,700 members in Naples and the immediate surroundings. Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...

, an investigative journalist and author of Gomorra
Gomorrah (book)
Gomorrah is a book by Roberto Saviano published in 2006.-The book:The book describes the clandestine particulars of the business of the Camorra, a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization...

, an exposé of the activities of the Camorra, says that this sprawling network of Camorra clans now dwarfs the Sicilian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta and southern Italy's other organised gangs, in numbers, in economic power and in ruthless violence.

In 2004 and 2005 the Di Lauro clan
Di Lauro clan
The Di Lauro clan is an Italian crime clan, part of the Camorra in Naples. The clan operates in the neighbourhoods of Secondigliano, Scampìa, Miano, Marianella, Piscinola, and in the adjacent municipalities of Casavatore, Melito, Arzano, Villaricca and Mugnano...

 and the so-called Scissionisti
Scissionisti di Secondigliano
The Scissionisti di Secondigliano is a Camorra clan from the Secondigliano district of Naples, headed by Raffaele Amato and Cesare Pagano. They are also known as "Spagnoli" because of their endless trips ferrying cocaine from Galicia in Spain...

 fought a bloody feud which came to be known in the Italian press as the Scampia feud
Scampia feud
The Scampia feud was a feud between the Camorra gangs in the neapolitan quartiere of Scampia and it broke out in 2004 and 2005...

. The result was over 100 street-killings. At the end of October 2006 a new series of murders took place in Naples between 20 competing clans, that cost 12 lives in 10 days. The Interior Minister Giuliano Amato
Giuliano Amato
Giuliano Amato is an Italian politician. He was Prime Minister of Italy twice, first from 1992 to 1993 and then from 2000 to 2001. He was more recently Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the new European Constitution and headed the Amato Group. He is commonly...

 decided to send more than 1,000 extra police and Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...

 to Naples to fight crime and protect tourists. It didn't help much – in the following year there were over 120 murders.

In recent years, various Camorra clans have been forming alliances with Nigerian drug gangs
Nigerian organized crime
Nigerian organized crime, or Nigerian OC, may refer to a number of fraudsters, drug traffickers and racketeers of various sorts originating from Nigeria...

 and the Albanian Mafia
Albanian mafia
The Albanian Mafia or Albanian organized crime are the general terms used for criminal organizations based in Albania or composed of ethnic Albanians. Albanian organized crime is active in Albania, the United States, and the European Union countries, participating in a diverse range of criminal...

, even going so far as to intermarry. For instance, Augusto La Torre
Augusto La Torre
Augusto La Torre is an Italian criminal and former Camorra boss. Up until his arrest and subsequent collaboration with Italian justice on January 2003, La Torre was the head of the La Torre clan, a powerful Camorra organization whose vast lucrative criminal empire stretched from its base...

, the former La Torre clan boss who became a pentito
Pentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...

, is married to an Albanian woman. It should also be noted that the first foreign pentito, a Tunisian, admitted to being involved with the feared Casalesi clan
Casalesi clan
The Casalesi clan is a clan within the Camorra, an Italian criminal organization, operating from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno.Formed by Antonio Bardellino, it is a confederation of clans in the Caserta area...

 of Casal di Principe
Casal di Principe
Casal di Principe is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 25 km northwest of Naples and about 20 km southwest of Caserta....

. The first town that the Camorra gave over to be completely governed by a foreign clan was Castel Volturno
Castel Volturno
Castel Volturno is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 35 km northwest of Naples and about 35 km west of Caserta on the Volturno river.-History:...

, which was given to the Rapaces, clans from Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...

 and Benin City
Benin City
Benin City, is a city and the capital of Edo State in southern Nigeria. It is a city approximately twenty-five miles north of the Benin River. It is situated 200 miles by road east of Lagos...

 in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

. This allowed them to traffic cocaine and prostitutes before sending them across the whole of Europe.

Garbage crisis

Since the mid-1990s, the Camorra has taken over the handling of garbage disposal in the region of Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

, with disastrous results for the environment and the health of the general population. Heavy metals
Heavy metals
A heavy metal is a member of a loosely-defined subset of elements that exhibit metallic properties. It mainly includes the transition metals, some metalloids, lanthanides, and actinides. Many different definitions have been proposed—some based on density, some on atomic number or atomic weight,...

, industrial waste
Industrial waste
Industrial waste is a type of waste produced by industrial activity, such as that of factories, mills and mines. It has existed since the outset of the industrial revolution....

, chemicals and household garbage
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...

 are frequently mixed together, dumped near roads and burnt to avoid detection, leading to severe soil and air pollution.

With the assistance of private businessmen known as "stakeholders", the numerous Camorra clans are able to gain massive profits from under-the-table contracts with local, legitimate businesses. These "stakeholders" are able to offer companies highly lucrative deals to remove their waste at a significantly lower price. With little to no overhead, Camorra clans and their associates see very high profit margins. According to author Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...

, the Camorra employs children
Child labor
Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries...

 to drive the waste in for a small price, who do not complain about the health risks as the older truckers might.

As of June 2007, the region has no serviceable dumping sites and no alternatives have been found. Together with corrupt local officials and unscrupulous industrialists from all over Italy, the Camorra has created a cartel that has so far proved very difficult for officials to combat.

Efforts to fight the Camorra

The Camorra has proven to be an extremely difficult organization to fight within Italy. At the first mass trial against the Camorra in 1911-12, Captain Carlo Fabroni of the Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...

 gave testimony on how complicated it was to successfully prosecute the Camorra: "The Camorrist has no political ideals. He exploits the elections and the elected for gain. The leaders distribute bands throughout the town, and they have recourse to violence to obtain the vote of the electors for the candidates whom they have determined to support. Those who refuse to vote as instructed are beaten, slashed with knives, or kidnapped. All this is done with assurance of impunity, as the Camorrists will have the protection of successful politicians, who realize that they cannot be chosen to office without paying toll to the Camorra."

The trial that investigated the murder of the Camorrista Gennaro Cuocolo was followed with great interest by the newspapers and the general public. It led to the conviction of 27 leading Camorra bosses, who were sentenced to a total of 354 years of imprisonment, including the head of the Camorra at the time, Enrico Alfano
Enrico Alfano
Enrico Alfano , known as "Erricone", was considered to be one of the chiefs of the Camorra, a Mafia-type organisation in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy, at the turn of the 20th century...

.

Unlike the Mafia, which has a clear hierarchy and a division of interests, the Camorra’s activities are much less centralized. This makes the organization much more difficult to combat through crude repression. In Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

, where unemployment is high and opportunities are limited, the Camorra has become an integral part of the fabric of society. It offers a sense of community and provides the youth with jobs. Members are guided in the pursuit of criminal activities, including cigarette smuggling, drug trafficking, and theft.

The government has made an effort to combat the Camorra's criminal activities in Campania. The solution ultimately lies in Italy’s ability to offer values, education and work opportunities to the next generation. However, the government has been hard pressed to find funds for promoting long term reforms that are needed to improve the local economic outlook and create jobs. Instead, it has had to rely on limited law enforcement activity in an environment which has a long history of criminal tolerance and acceptance, and is governed by a code of silence
Code of silence
A code of silence is a condition in effect when a person opts to withhold what is believed to be vital or important information voluntarily or involuntarily....

 or omertà
Omertà
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honour and a common definition is the "code of silence". It is common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations defined as Mafia such as the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, and...

 that persists to this day.

Despite the overwhelming magnitude of the problem, law enforcement officials continue their pursuit. The Italian police are coordinating their efforts with Europol
Europol
Europol is the European Union's criminal intelligence agency. It became fully operational on 1 July 1999....

 at the European level as well as Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

 to conduct special operations against the Camorra. The Carabinieri and the Financial Police are also fighting criminal activities related to tax evasion, border controls, and money laundering. Prefect Gennaro Monaco, Deputy Chief of Police and Chief of the Section of Criminal Police cites "impressive results" against the Camorra in recent years, yet the Camorra continues to grow in power.

In 1998, police took a leading Camorra figure into custody. Francesco Schiavone
Francesco Schiavone
Francesco Schiavone is a member of the Camorra, the Neapolitan organized crime syndicate, and the head of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno...

 was caught hiding in a secret apartment near Naples behind a sliding wall of granite. The mayor of Naples, Antonio Bassolino, compared the arrest to that of Sicilian Mafia chief Salvatore Riina
Salvatore Riina
Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...

 in 1993. Francesco Schiavone is now serving a life sentence after a criminal career which included arms trafficking, bomb attacks, armed robbery, and murder.

The arrests in the Campania region demonstrate that the police are not allowing the Camorra to operate without intervention. However, progress remains slow, and these minor victories have done little to loosen the Camorra's grip on Naples and the surrounding regions.

Camorra in the United States

The Camorra existed in USA between the mid-19th century and early 20th century. They rivaled the defunct Morello crime family
Morello crime family
The Morello crime family is the direct ancestor of the Genovese crime family, the oldest of New York City's Five Families.-From Corleone to America:...

 for power in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. Eventually, they melded with the early Italian-American Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

 groups.

Many Camorra members and associates fled the internecine gang warfare and Italian Justice and emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the 1980s. In 1993, the FBI estimated that there were 200 Camorristi in the United States. Although there appears to be no clan structure in the United States, Camorra members have established a presence in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...

. The Camorra is the least active of all the organized crime groups in the United States. In spite of this, the US law enforcement considers the Camorra to be a rising criminal enterprise, especially dangerous because of its ability to adapt to new trends and forge new alliances with other criminal organizations.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

:
"In the 1970s, the Sicilian Mafia convinced the Camorra to convert their cigarette smuggling routes into drug smuggling routes with the Sicilian Mafia's assistance. Not all Camorra leaders agreed, leading to the Camorra Wars that cost 400 lives. Opponents of drug trafficking lost the war. The Camorra made a fortune in reconstruction after an earthquake ravaged the Campania region in 1980. Now it specializes in cigarette smuggling and receives payoffs from other criminal groups for any cigarette traffic through Italy. The Camorra is also involved in money laundering, extortion, alien smuggling, robbery, blackmail, kidnapping, political corruption, and counterfeiting. It is believed that nearly 200 Camorra affiliates reside in this country, many of whom arrived during the Camorra Wars."


In 1995, the Camorra cooperated with the Russian Mafia
Russian Mafia
The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....

 in a scheme in which the Camorra would bleach out US $1.00 dollar bills and reprint them as $100s. These bills would then be transported to the Russian Mafia
Russian Mafia
The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....

 for distribution in 29 post-Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

 countries and former Soviet republics. In return, the Russian Mafia paid the Camorra with property (including a Russian bank) and firearms, smuggled into Eastern Europe and Italy.

Camorra in the United Kingdom

Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 has had its brush with the Camorra. Antonio La Torre
Antonio La Torre
Antonio La Torre is an Italian restaurateur and member of the Camorra. He is the brother of Augusto La Torre, the former head of the powerful La Torre clan from Mondragone...

 of Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 was the local "Don" of the Camorra. He is the brother of Camorra boss Augusto La Torre of the La Torre clan which had its base in Mondragone
Mondragone
Mondragone is a comune or municipality in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region of Campania. It is located about 45 km northwest of Naples and about 40 km west of Caserta.-History:...

, Caserta
Caserta
Caserta is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial comune and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Campanian Subapennine mountain range...

. The La Torre Clan's empire was worth hundreds of millions of euros. Antonio had several legitimate businesses in Aberdeen, whereas his brother Augusto had several illegal businesses there. He was convicted in Scotland and is awaiting extradition to Italy. Augusto would eventually become a pentito
Pentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...

 in January 2003, confessing to over 40 murders and his example would be followed by many of his men.

Two Aberdeen restaurateurs, Ciro Schiattarella and Michele Siciliano were extradited to Italy for their part in the "Aberdeen Camorra". A fourth Scottish associate named Brandon Queen who made history by becoming the first foreign member of the Camorra is currently serving a jail sentence in the UK. It has been reported that he also receives a monthly salary, legal assistance and protection, something only members of the Clans receive. Neapolitan writer and expert on the Camorra, Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...

, states that the Camorra has created a branch in Aberdeen and that it is the focus of the La Torre clan's British operations.

Saviano alleges that from the 1980s, Italian gangsters ran a network of lucrative businesses in the city as well as many illegal rackets. Saviano said Scotland's third city, with no history of organized crime, was seen as an attractive safe haven away from the violent inter-gang bloodletting that had engulfed their Neapolitan stronghold of Mondragone. Saviano claims that before the Italian clans arrived, Aberdeen didn't know how to exploit its resources for recreation and tourism. He further states that the Italians infused the city with economic energy, revitalised the tourist industry, inspired new import-export activities and injected new vigour in the real-estate sector. It thereby turned Aberdeen into a chic, elegant address for fine dining and important dealings.

The hub of La Torre's UK empire, Pavarotti's restaurant, now under different ownership, was even feted at Italissima, a prestigious gastronomic fair held in Paris. The restaurant was even advertised on the city's local tourist guides. Saviano further claims to have gone to Aberdeen and worked in a restaurant run by Antonio La Torre. The Camorristas operated a system known as "scratch" where they used to step up illegal activities if their legitimate ventures were struggling. If cash was short they had counterfeit notes printed; if capital was needed in a hurry, they sold bogus treasury bonds. They annihilated the competition through extortions and imported merchandise tax-free. The Camorra were able to run all sort of deals because the local police had virtually no experience in dealing with organized crime. Although they broke the law, there were never any guns or serious violence, due to lack of rivals.

However, the suggestion that the city remains in the grip of mobsters has been strongly denied by leaders of the 300 strong Italian community in Aberdeen. Moreover, Giuseppe Baldini, the Italian government's vice-consul in Aberdeen denies that the Camorra still maintains its presence in Aberdeen.

In popular culture

  • Camorra is a 1972 movie
    Film
    A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

    , directed by Pasquale Squitieri, starring Fabio Testi
    Fabio Testi
    Fabio Testi is an Italian film actor, notable as the star of, among many other films, First Action Hero.Born in Peschiera del Garda, Italy, the 1.84m tall actor started his film career as a stuntman in his college years...

     and Jean Seberg
    Jean Seberg
    Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including Breathless , the musical Paint Your Wagon and the disaster film Airport ....

    .
  • Il Camorrista (1986), directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
    Giuseppe Tornatore
    -Life and career:Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at least the age of 16 and put on works by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo.He worked initially as a freelance photographer...

    . Vaguely inspired by the real story of NCO boss, Raffaele Cutolo. Cutolo is played by Ben Gazzara
    Ben Gazzara
    -Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...

    , with the Italian voiceover done by Italian actor Mariano Rigillo.
  • The 2006 book by Roberto Saviano
    Roberto Saviano
    Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...

    , Gomorra
    Gomorrah (book)
    Gomorrah is a book by Roberto Saviano published in 2006.-The book:The book describes the clandestine particulars of the business of the Camorra, a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization...

    , investigates the activities of the Camorra in Italy
    Italy
    Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

    , especially in the provinces of Naples
    Province of Naples
    The Province of Naples is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital city is Naples, within the province there are 92 Comuni of the Province of Naples.-Demographics:...

     and Caserta
    Province of Caserta
    The Province of Caserta is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta. The former royal palace of Caserta is located near to the city.It has an area of 2,639 km², and a total population of 879,342...

    . The book has also been adapted to film with the title Gomorrah by Matteo Garrone
    Matteo Garrone
    Matteo Garrone is an Italian film maker.Born in Rome, the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone and a photographer, in 1996 Garrone won the Sacher d'Oro, an award sponsored by Nanni Moretti, with the short film Silhouette, that became one of the three episodes that are on his first long film ...

     in 2008.
  • The opera The Jewels of the Madonna by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
    Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
    Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as Il segreto di Susanna...

     features the Camorra as part of the plot.
  • The story of Raffaele Cutolo also inspired one of the most famous songs of Fabrizio De André
    Fabrizio De André
    Fabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter.Known for his sympathies towards anarchism, libertarianism, and pacifism, he also was a convicted atheist , and his songs often featured marginalized and rebellious people, prostitutes and knaves, and attacked the Catholic Church...

    , entitled Don Raffaé (Clouds of 1990).

See also

  • Naples waste management issue
    Naples waste management issue
    The Naples waste management crisis was a series of events surrounding the lack of waste collection in the city of Naples that peaked in the summer of 2008, but carries on to the present day.-Background:...

  • Triangle of death
    Triangle of Death
    The Triangle of Death is a name given during the 2003–2010 occupation of Iraq by U.S. and allied forces to a region south of Baghdad which saw major combat activity and sectarian violence from late 2004 into the fall of 2007.-Description:...

  • List of Camorra clans
  • Mafia
    Mafia
    The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...



Towns with a strong influence of Camorra in their economic life (according to a 2000 report of the Italian Parliament):
  • Marigliano
    Marigliano
    Marigliano is a town and comune of the province of Naples, Campania in southern Italy. It is part of the Agro Nolano plain.-Geography:The town lies 19 km from Naples...

  • Naples
    Naples
    Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

  • Nola
    Nola
    Nola is a city and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines...

  • Torre Annunziata
    Torre Annunziata
    Torre Annunziata is a city and comune in the province of Naples, region of Campania in Italy. It is located at the Gulf of Naples at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius.-History:...

  • Ercolano
    Ercolano
    Ercolano is a town and comune in the province of Naples, Campania . It lies at the western foot of Mount Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples, just southeast of the city of Naples. The medieval town of Resina was built on the volcanic material left by the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the ancient...

  • Villaricca
    Villaricca
    Villaricca is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 10 km northwest of Naples...

  • Caserta
    Caserta
    Caserta is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial comune and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Campanian Subapennine mountain range...

  • Casal di Principe
    Casal di Principe
    Casal di Principe is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 25 km northwest of Naples and about 20 km southwest of Caserta....

  • Acerra
    Acerra
    Acerra is a town and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the Province of Naples, about 20 km northeast of the provincial capital in Naples. It is part of the Agro Acerrano plain.-History:...

  • San Giorgio a Cremano
    San Giorgio a Cremano
    San Giorgio a Cremano is a primarily residential town and comune in the province of Naples, in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is located on the foothills of Mount Vesuvius to the west of the volcano, and is six kilometres to the south east of the centre of Naples...

  • Quartieri Spagnoli
    Quartieri Spagnoli
    Quartieri Spagnoli is a part of the city of Naples in Italy. The Neapolitan language is stronger here than anywhere else. It is a poor area, suffering from high unemployment and strong influence of Camorra. The area, encompassing c...

    the Spanish Quarters in Naples

Sources


External links

Camorra Articles by Roberto Saviano published on Nazione Indiana
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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