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Drug trafficking and money invested abroad. The “supremacy” of the ‘ndrangheta in the world, while San Luca is “left to die”
The identikit of the clans in the report of the Anti-Mafia Commission. The money transferred via Chinese couriers and the links with the South American cartels
Published: 03/17/2025 – 10:54
ROME A " family-based structure " that has allowed the 'ndrangheta to take root and expand beyond its original borders. " Founded on solid blood ties ", the criminal organisation has seen "the possibilities of 'betrayal' by its members greatly reduced, meaning that when the State became aware of its dangerousness and began to fight the gangs through the action of the judiciary and the police, it was only able to marginally avail itself of the valuable contribution of collaborators of justice and has, therefore, reconstructed only the most striking aspects of a much larger and more insidious criminal phenomenon". This is the identikit drawn by the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission in the report containing analyses and conclusions regarding the case of the Aspromonte municipality visited on 19 and 20 June. The document also speaks of "an initial underestimation of the dangerousness of the 'ndrangheta and the seriousness of its operations", given the widespread conception of the Calabrian organisation as "a typical phenomenon of backwardness", as "rough and archaic, confined to Calabria or even just in Aspromonte in the monoculture of kidnappings". All elements that have allowed the 'ndrangheta to impose its supremacy "on a global level", especially in the drug trafficking sector . The report refers to huge proceeds reinvested in activities in Europe and the world, while it is clear - writes the commission - "at the end of the mission, the situation of poverty in which the municipality of San Luca finds itself, where there is no trace of the impressive wealth moved by the exponents of the mafia families and who reside there, nor of entrepreneurial initiatives or even the slightest commercial, real estate or other investment. This is despite the fact that, from the information provided by the interviewees and from the results of the investigations carried out in the territory, in more recent times as in past years, it is evident that the local gangs have a very strong influence on the life of the country and that they are interested in the modest resources of the municipal administration and in every sector of competence of the territorial body".
READ ALSO: San Luca and Locride, «non-development trap»: the bleak picture described by the Anti-Mafia Commission
"Supremacy" in global drug trafficking
As has emerged in numerous anti-mafia operations, one of the most important in recent years called “Eureka” , the clans of the Ionian coast of Reggio have shown particular interests in international drug trafficking. Clans capable of “interacting and establishing ties with the homologous districts of the center and Tyrrhenian area, as well as with other Italian and foreign criminal organizations, starting with the South American cartels producing cocaine, with which the families of San Luca have woven solid relationships because they are considered extremely reliable interlocutors, in criminal terms”. An operation that provided a paradigmatic picture of the modus operandi of the 'ndrangheta of San Luca, making clear – writes the Anti-Mafia Commission – « the supremacy of this at a global level in the field of illicit trafficking of substances and narcotics and revealing the «glocal» character of the 'ndrangheta, strongly rooted in traditional areas and equally present in the world: operational articulations of the most influential 'ndrine of the small town of Aspromonte (Strangio, Nirta, Mammoliti, Pelle) have been detected on the national territory and beyond the border in Brazil, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Romania and Slovenia ».
The enormous economic power and investments abroad
The investigations have shown how the clans were able to launder millions of euros of drug trafficking proceeds into the legal economy of foreign countries. The report speaks of the "enormous economic power of the Calabrian clans, connected to the hegemonic role they play in international drug trafficking". During the hearings, the Provincial Commander of the Guardia di Finanza highlighted that "in the last four years, 50 tons of cocaine have been seized in the port of Gioia Tauro and added that the Calabrian organizations purchase the narcotic substance directly from South American producers at a price of 1,000 euros/kg and then put it on the market at prices thirty times higher, achieving huge profits". And again: " the sums of money are transferred from Locride abroad by means of Chinese couriers, in multiple tranches of 500,000 euros , modest amounts for the levels of business of the organization but so determined to avoid huge losses in the event of checks". The payment of the illicit transactions – the “Eureka” investigation has shown – took place through hidden forms of payment, carried out through the contacts of members of the association with citizens of different ethnic groups (Chinese and Albanian) dedicated, even in an organised way, to the transfer of large sums of money in a clandestine and untraceable way (so-called pick up money). « Very high proceeds» , which are not even minimally invested in the Aspromonte municipality, «left to die from an economic point of view» and which are, instead, used in the most varied sectors of the national economy and in the purchase of real estate and commercial activities (ice cream parlors, restaurants) in other parts of Italy and especially abroad (in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain).
