History of organized crime in the South

Camorra

It is the only mafia that has urban origins. Pervasive, obsessively checking the area and has a very high ratio of integration with the poorer strata of the population. It has strong links with political circles as evidenced by the high number of requests for authorization to proceed against parliamentarians from Campania. Currently in Campania would operate a total of approximately 111 families and more than 6,700 affiliates. Settlements of the Camorra are reported in the Netherlands, Germany, where the group would operate Licciardi-Contini-Mallard, inRomania (Alfieri), in France, with the group that was Michele Zaza, Holland and Scotland (The Tower), Spain and Portugal , where there are the "Casalesi" and with Saint Domingo, where he would operate a group of clan Bardellino.

The origins
The Camorra was born at the beginning of the last century, in the city of Naples. In a police file was found documentation of a "process" that took place before the tribunal of the camorra, the so-called "Big Mama", dating back to 1819. The Camorra has been repeatedly used by the policy, since the last century: the Bourbons against the Liberals, first; by the Liberals against the Bourbons after. Formed the Unitary State, has been named several times in the field to affect the election results. It is the only criminal organization that upon invitation has even managed to join a police force. In the course of its history, had a karst development. He wrote the Anti-Mafia Commission in 1993: "His versatility, its tight integration with society, politics and institutions, have allowed, in times of trouble long periods of camouflage in the more general lawlessness that characterizes the lives of the poorest of Naples at the end of which emerged with force. " A major study of the late nineteenth century (G. Alongi) considers it a shipwreck historian. In 1915 the then head of the Camorra Judge declares dissolved and fascism boasts of its suppression.


That spread to the districts of the city, the Camorra is required for those who practice usury, prostitution, the game of 'chance. The "protection" against payment of bribe will then be set to coachmen, porters, hawkers, merchants, innkeepers. Is thus being formed in the social landscape of Naples, a particular criminal associations, focusing on the common interest of members in the division of the proceeds of extortion generalized. The term "mafia" finally comes to designate an organization, the "Great Society Reformed", governed by a statute, the "frieno", which requires first and foremost obedience to the orders of the leaders and the maintenance of confidentiality of what is called "honored society". The "Company majeure" includes the real Camorra, while affiliandi ("lads are honored", "Picciotto", "picciotti of Sgarro" are part of the "Society minor." In each of the twelve districts of Naples operates a "society" divided into local "fishing boats" (groups with different specializations), governed by a "caposocietà" or "capintrito", assisted by the "contaiuolo", which serves as secretary-treasurer. contaiuolo The collecting the proceeds of extortion, which will start again according to societal norms. Connected to each other, but in fact independent, the "capisocietà" respect the authority of the "capintesta", a sort of supreme head of the Camorra, which governs the district of the Vicar. seems that the "frieno" at the beginning handed down orally, and then was drafted in written form around 1840. copying has come down the degree of internal hierarchy, regulates relations between subsidiaries, provides for the punishment inflicted by the "courts" Camorra. These are divided into "Mothers" (with limited jurisdiction district) and "Great Mother", responsible for the entire city and presided over by the "capintesta", in his new position called "mammasantissima."

Coletti Alexander, Mafias, history of organized crime in the South. Six, Turin, 1995, p. 24-25.


"Or how to save the city in the midst of so many elements of disorder and of impending dangers? Of all the gimmicks that were offered to my restless mind to the gravity of the case, only one seemed to me if not at least some of the tried and likely riescita . thought to prevent the sad work of the Camorra's most influential leaders by providing a means to rehabilitate himself. Wherefore, did not come home the most famous of them, under the guise of commettergli the processing of a private affair ever I greeted him and told him the good who had come for it and for his friends time to rehabilitate himself from the false position in which avevali driven not by their good temperament commoner, but the lack of foresight of the government which had closed all the roads without the industriousness of capital (. ..) then improvised a kind of guard of public safety as best I could raggranellarla among the people most loyal and devoted to the new standards and order, between frammischiai this item racketeer so that he could not even wanting to harm. "
Liborio Romano, Memoirs policies, Naples, 1870, p. 19-20

The structure
The Camorra is constituted by a set of bands which make up and break down with great ease. This dusty structure, such as the anti-Mafia commission writes in its report on the Camorra (1993) has been replaced by a hierarchical organization on only two occasions in recent decades. "Before, in the second half of the seventies, the Nuova Camorra organized by Raffaele Cutolo and then, towards the end of the seventies, New Family of Bardellino-bubble-Alfieri, sort, in agreement with the Cosa Nostra, to oppose Cutolo, and therefore modeled on the same characters cutoliana organization. Alfieri In 1992 he tried to build a unified organization, according to the scheme Sicilian Mafia New Bell called significantly ". All experiments were terminated after a few years. Explain the anti-mafia commission: "The NCO is finished in 1983, to the weakening of political alliances, the reduction of funding sources and the blows by the opponents. New Family stopped during the same period due to the absence of the right of 'alliance after the defeat of Cutolo. The New Mafia Bell was more an aspiration than an accomplishment. " Unlike the Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia, there are no specific criteria for selection, nor rigid structures or initiation rituals. The only one to delineate a statute and give the organization an internal hierarchy was Cutolo. He was in the Nuova Camorra organized the "Gospel", the components of the strategic direction were called "santisti", "sgarristi" and "capizona", while the base was picciotti. The ceremony of affiliation (or "loyalty") was to strengthen the team spirit especially among young people called to counter the expansion of the Cosa Nostra, as warned Cutolo, he wanted to colonize the Camorra.

The activities
Unlimited is the scope of business of the Camorra organizations and must wear, cigarette smuggling, trafficking and drug smuggling to fraud against the EEC, from extortion to robbery, illegal importation of beef and arms trafficking, from illegal betting monopoly of the concrete.