https://www.corrieredellacalabria.i...ei-labate-e-il-controllo-del-territorio/the criminal history
'Ndrangheta, the rise of the Labate and the control of the territory
From the 'ndrangheta wars to criminal domination over the richest area of ??Reggio. The DDA investigations into the Labate premises
Published: 13/05/2025 – 16:27
REGGIO CALABRIA In the circles of the 'Ndrangheta, and also in Reggio Calabria and its province, Antonino (75 years old), Pietro (74 years old, the most charismatic, placed under house arrest a few days ago due to serious health problems), Michele (69 years old) and Franco Labate (58 years old), are known by the nickname "Ti mangiu". A nickname that well defines the criminal profile of the four brothers , whose family has dominated business, both legal and illegal, for almost a century in the southern outskirts of Reggio Calabria. According to the investigations, the Labate local (vertical territorial unit on which the individual clans predominate) is framed in the division of the territory on the Roman cardo pattern - from North to South - starting from the eastern bank of the Calopinace torrent, up to touching the fence of the airport of the Strait: viale Galileo Galilei, with a natural continuation on viale Aldo Moro, viale Calabria and via Sbarre Centrali - the cardo, in fact - conclude their linear development close to the Sant'Agata torrent, the northern limit of the airport area.
The judicial history
The Labates have been known since the 1930s in the judicial chronicles, and like other members of the 'Ndrangheta of Reggio – until the 1950s – they were essentially interested in livestock breeding and trade, extortion, illegal guarding of agricultural land, cattle rustling and clandestine slaughter. A cluster of crimes that, however, was radically replaced by the rapid transformation of their territory of competence: in 1960 Omeca (formerly Ansaldo Breda, now Hitachi Rail, which employs around six hundred people) opened its doors, the assault of illegal building on agricultural land began, an entire neighborhood of council houses was built – the “ Gebbione ” –. The feverish economic activity, the opening of small commercial and service businesses, paved the way for the Labate clan's opportunities for 'modernization'. Along the three cardi, there is a continuous flourishing of construction sites, bars, restaurants, butchers, artisanal businesses, the ideal trigger to increase the coffers of the 'Ndrangheta, which soon gets its hands on every business, with preventive requests for bribes and proposals to 'form a partnership' with people linked to its exponents.
Control of the territory
Antonino, Pietro, Michele and Franco Labate – as the investigators state – adopt a suffocating control of the territory , moving with intelligence and firmness in the tangle of precarious balances of the 'Ndrangheta district of Reggio centre: above all, they avoid getting involved in the 'Ndrangheta war of the '80s between the 'cartel' led by De Stefano-Tegano-Libri-Latella , opposed by the 'families' Condello-Imerti-Serraino, which will leave the streets of Reggio Calabria and its province – from 10 October 1985, the date of the killing of the boss Paolo De Stefano, to 9 August 1991, the date of the murder of the judge Antonino Scopelliti – with around a thousand people killed. A non-alignment, this, that will push up the economic power and criminal prestige of the Labate family that – as the acting prosecutor Giuseppe Lombardo states – will transform the “Gebbione” into the richest entrepreneurial area of ??Reggio Calabria. ( Agi )
