Italian mafias set their second residence in Spain

Spain is a second home for many criminal groups and, in particular, for the Italian mafias.

The arrests, at the beginning of August, barely two days apart, of two important gangster bosses of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta - Domenico Paviglianiti, who was hiding in Madrid after being released in Italy for a judicial error - and of the Neapolitan Camorra - Maria Licciardi, who was on his way to Malaga - have once again made that reality clear.

Mafia gangs from Italy have established their tentacles in Spanish territory and have contributed to turning it into a laboratory for organized crime.

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Italian investigators have long been warning of the growing interest in Spain from the different mafias of the transalpine country and especially from the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta, which controls the cocaine trafficking in Europe. Although this phenomenon is not new, the pandemic has provided a new opportunity to deepen the roots of

malavita

on Spanish soil. The Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi maintains that the clans will take advantage of the crisis caused by the pandemic to buy bankrupt companies in the tourism sector throughout the continent, particularly on the Spanish coast and in France. “Crises are always an opportunity, especially for those who, like the mafias, have huge sums of money to invest and spend. The Mafia Has Acquired Entrepreneurship And A

Holding

Mindset

”, Says Gian Maria Fara, president of the Institute for Political, Economic and Social Studies (Eurispes), based in Rome.

Investments, especially in the real estate market or in the tourism sector with the purchase of hotels, through shell companies or front men, are for the mafias the best method of camouflaging drug money in the legal economy.

They are not overly complicated operations in much of Europe.

“It is an advantage for the criminals and a problem for those who fight them,” says Antonio Nicaso, a renowned expert on the Calabrian mafia.

And he adds: "The brick in the mentality of the drug traffickers continues to be a reserve of values ​​that guarantees that the initial investment is not lost."

Attractiveness of Spain

The attractiveness of Spain for organized crime is explained by the confluence of several factors, including its strategic position as a link with Latin America and Africa for drug trafficking, its guarantee justice and a less severe prison system than in Italy or Colombia , the related language and culture for Italians and Latin Americans, or the possibilities it offers for money laundering. “Spain is a great drug trafficking bazaar where the interests of many criminal organizations are concentrated. We realized its strategic importance during the first confinement, when a kind of diversification of drug routes was verified. While fewer shipments arrived in Italy, the unloadings in Spain multiplied, ”says Nicaso.

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And he cites several operations in which the police confiscated thousands of kilos of hashish and cocaine between March and May 2020 in places like Cádiz, Algeciras, Galicia, Valencia, Barcelona or Malaga.

“There are those who say that the Costa del Sol could be defined as 'the

cosca

del sol' [in reference to the Italian term used to name the clans or gangsters]”, ironizes Isaia Sales, writer and professor of history of the mafias , specialized in the Camorra.

And he reviews the infinite list of rowdy bosses arrested in Spain and that includes, among others, Raffaele Amato, accused of eight homicides, nicknamed

El Español

because he controlled the cocaine trade between Galicia and Italy and that he fled to Spain in 2005 after provoking a war between clans in Naples that resulted in 60 deaths; Pasquale Brunese, who was hiding in Valencia, where he worked, under a false name, in a restaurant near the sea; Lucio Morrone, arrested while he was going to withdraw money from a Benalmádena post office, or Patrizio Bosti, promoter of a criminal macro-group that brought together several clans of the Camorra, among them, that of the Licciardi, led by Maria Licciardi, the

arrested

godmother.

last week in Rome when I was going to travel to Malaga.

"Those who have fled from Italian justice see Spain as a welcoming place, they feel comfortable, they can understand the language and take their relatives easily," adds Sales. “The fact that a Calabrian capo has been captured in Madrid indicates that the mafias are infiltrated in the territory: there is a control, a protection network that allows the main figures to hide. This happens in the heart of Europe, not in immeasurable places where the degree of attention and control is much less, as in Latin American countries, for example, ”says Fara, who specializes in mafia phenomena in Italy and abroad.

Spain, strategically, is one of the most important countries for drug trafficking and one of the main entry points to Europe for cocaine from Latin America and hashish from Africa. "Spain guarantees contacts with those who manage Colombian drug trafficking, the mafias are on Spanish soil to define and close negotiations, seal alliances, plan the distribution of merchandise throughout Europe and manage the immense wealth of drug trafficking," explains Nicaso, also the author of numerous specialized books, some together with Magistrate Nicola Gratteri, such as

Blood Brothers

. And he adds: "It is also a kind of laboratory for organized crime where gangs exchange experiences and carry out experiments, such as the increasingly frequent exchange of Moroccan hashish for Colombian cocaine, for example." He also speaks of a criminal microcosm "where the drug traffickers speak a common language, they understand each other regardless of their origin, as if they had invented a kind of criminal Esperanto", and added: "It is a case worth studying."

Outside the Italian borders there is a curious phenomenon: bands that are usually enemies or that are involved in bloody wars on Italian territory, in Spain they are allies and collaborate. "They consider themselves entrepreneurs who are going to do business abroad, violence is used in Italy, while in Spain calm reigns, it is their fundamental condition to be calm and go unnoticed," says Sales.

Mafiosi and drug traffickers also see in Spain an opportunity to take refuge from the justice of their countries and, in any case, they prefer the Spanish prison system, more benevolent than the rigid Italian 41 bis, for example, which practically supposes an isolation regime for the convicted by gangsters. In fact, Maurizio Prestieri, one of the great capos of the Camorra, accused of having organized more than 30 murders, arrested in Marbella in 2003 and who after four years in prison decided to collaborate with justice and uncover the ins and outs of the clans, defined the Spanish prison as "an all-inclusive vacation city."

The anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, who has instructed in Calabria the largest trial against organized crime in Italy since the 1980s, has pointed out that the problem of the mafias is "a European drama" and not just an Italian one. “Europe is not up to the task to fight the mafias and money laundering. If I leave Italy with two suitcases full of euros and go to another country to buy a car for 80,000 euros in cash and then return to Italy, no one asks me where I got that money ”, he pointed out. And he has defined Europe as "a great meadow" for organized crime that neglects security. “The rest of the States do not want to recognize that there are mafias there. Saying that there are mafias means discouraging foreign investors ”, he criticized.

The Deputy Director of the Police, Vittorio Rizzi, recently announced that Italy intends to put its experience in the fight against mafias at the service of its community partners and has invited them to Rome to do so. “The arsenal of instruments that our country has against the mafias is very effective. The problem is to see what will happen in other countries and if they are prepared to withstand this onslaught ”, he has launched.