 | This article needs to be updated.(November 2010) |
 | This section needs expansionwith: more notable events in each year; June only has one. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011) |
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| This article needs to be updated.(November 2010) |
| | This section needs expansionwith: more notable events in each year; June only has one. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011) |
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The 'Ndrangheta is a prominent Italian Mafia-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society based in the peninsular and mountainous region of Calabria and dating back to the late 18th century. It is considered one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the world. Since the 1950s, following wide-scale emigration from Calabria, the organization has established itself worldwide. The 'Ndrangheta is the only one of the Italian mafia-type organizations to have maintained its ancient rites, passing them down orally and through secret codes. It is characterized by a horizontal structure made up of autonomous clans known as 'ndrine, based almost exclusively on blood ties. Its main activity is drug trafficking, on which it has a monopoly in Europe, but it also deals with arms trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, extortion, loan sharking, and prostitution. The 'Ndrangheta has enjoyed, for decades, a privileged relationship with the main South American cartels, which consider it the most reliable European partner. It is capable of heavily influencing local and national politics and infiltrating large sectors of the legal economy. In 2013 they purportedly made € 53 billion according to a study from Demoskopika Research Institute. A US diplomat estimated that the organization's narcotics trafficking, extortion and money laundering activities accounted for at least three per cent of Italy's GDP in 2010.
The Camorra is an Italian Mafia-type criminal organization and criminal society originating in the region of Campania. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 17th century. Unlike the pyramidal structure of the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra's organizational structure is divided into individual groups also called "clans". Every capo or "boss" is the head of a clan, in which there may be tens or hundreds of affiliates, depending on the clan's power and structure. Consequently, as Camorra clans act independently, they are more prone to feuding among themselves. The Camorra's main businesses are drug trafficking, racketeering, counterfeiting, and money laundering. It is also not unusual for Camorra clans to infiltrate the politics of their respective areas.
Sacra Corona Unita also known as fourth mafia is a Mafia-type criminal organization and criminal society from the Apulia region in Southern Italy, and it is especially active in the areas of Brindisi, Lecce, and Taranto.
A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activities. In its strictest sense, a family is a criminal gang, operating either on a unitary basis or as an organized collection of smaller gangs. In turn, a family can be a sole "enterprise" or part of a larger syndicate or cartel. Despite the name, most crime families are generally not based on or formed around actual familial connections, although they do tend to be ethnically-based, and many members may in fact be related to one another.
The Scampia feud was a feud between the Camorra gangs in the Neapolitan quartiere of Scampia which broke out in 2004 and 2005. The fight was between the Di Lauro clan, from Secondigliano, and the so-called "secessionists", a breakaway faction in the northern suburbs of Naples that tried to assert its control over drugs and prostitution rackets in the area.
Pasquale Condello is an Italian criminal known as a member of the 'Ndrangheta. He is also known as Il supremo for his role at the top of the crime syndicate. He was a fugitive since 1990 and included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy until his capture in February 2008. Investigators called him the "Provenzano of Calabria" – a reference to Bernardo Provenzano, the Sicilian "boss of bosses" who was arrested in 2006 after some 40 years as a fugitive.
Salvatore Miceli is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was on the "Most wanted list" of the Italian Ministry of the Interior from 2001 until his arrest in Venezuela in June 2009. Some Mafia turncoats (pentiti) referred to Miceli as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, due to his frequent trips abroad. Others called him "the chicken that lays golden eggs", referring to his lucrative drug business.
Giuseppe Coluccio is an Italian criminal and a member of the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type organisation in Calabria. He was a fugitive since 2005 and included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy until his capture on 7 August 2008, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Edoardo Contini is an Italian Camorra boss. He is the founder and head of the Contini clan, a Camorra clan with its central base in the Arenaccia, that also operates in the Poggioreale, Vasto, Mercato and San Carlo all'Arena suburbs of Naples.
Raffaele Amato is an Italian Camorra boss and head of the Amato-pagano clan, a Camorra clan from Naples. He is known by multiple nicknames in the Neapolitan criminal underworld, including "Lo Spagnolo", "'o Lell", "Lell o' chiatt'" and "'a vecchiarella".
The De Stefano 'ndrina, or the De Stefano family or De Stefano-Tegano family, is one of the most powerful clans of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. The 'ndrina hailed from the Archi neighbourhood in Reggio Calabria. Several of its members were included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy. According to prosecutor Salvatore Boemi, the De Stefanos are the representation of the manager-criminal controlling a crime multinational with joint ventures with Raffaele Cutolo from the Camorra and Nitto Santapaola and Francesco Ferrera from Cosa Nostra in Catania.
Marco Di Lauro is an Italian Camorrista and member of the Di Lauro clan from Naples. After having been a fugitive for 14 years and been included on the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy, he was captured in Naples on 2 March 2019.
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from the actual trade in drugs by several layers of staff. The prosecution of drug lords is therefore usually the result of carefully planned infiltration into their networks, often using informants from within the organizations.
The Bellocco 'ndrina is a clan of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. The 'ndrina is based in Rosarno, on the Tyrrhenian coast, and belongs to the locale of that town, particularly very active in drugs trafficking, arms trafficking, extortion and control of commercial and entrepreneurial activities.
In 2010, a number of events took place in the organized crime world. On the very first day of the year, reporter Jose Luis Romero was kidnapped for reporting on the Mexican Mafia. While investigating the kidnapping, policeman Jesus Escalante was killed. Due to the Mexican Drug War, Mexico is one of the most active countries for organized crime activity. The Mexican Drug War is an armed conflict taking place between rival drug cartels and government forces in Mexico. Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for quite some time, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States. Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States.
Roberto Pannunzi, also known as Bebè (Baby), is an Italian criminal from Rome linked to the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type organisation in Calabria. He is one of the top cocaine brokers for the Sicilian Mafia and the 'Ndrangheta with the Colombian cocaine cartels. He has been described as "Europe's most wanted drugs trafficker", and the "biggest cocaine trafficker in the world", the equivalent of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Colombian Medellín Cartel. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the drug trafficking activities of Pannunzi have been documented for over 30 years.
The Polverino clan is a Neapolitan Camorra clan operating in the town of Marano di Napoli. The clan is present also in Villaricca, Quarto, Pozzuoli, Qualiano and in the district Camaldoli of Naples. Outside Italy, the clan has a strong presence in Spain, in particular in Barcelona, Málaga and Alicante. According to the investigations, the Polverinos are considered the successors of the Nuvoletta clan.