(NewsInsights.org) – A three-judge panel in Calabria, Southern Italy, oversaw the second-largest criminal trial in the nation’s history, a “maxi trial” involving more than 330 suspected crime syndicate members. On Monday, November 20, the judicial triumvirate found guilty and passed sentences on more than 207 defendants while acquitting 131, concluding the three-year trial.
Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri and his team aggressively pursued justice against the Mancuso clan of the ‘Ndrangheta, a Calabrian crime syndicate that eclipsed the infamous Sicilian Cosa Nostra in Italy, Europe, and beyond. This follows a similar prosecution and 6-year trial of 475 mobsters that began in 1986 in Palermo, Italy. Gratteri’s prosecutors gathered evidence through wiretaps, monitored communications, and informants, including Emanuele Mancuso, the nephew of Luigi Mancuso, the organization’s undisputed boss. Prosecutors decided to try Luigi Mancuso in a separate trial.
After an extensive three-year investigation that began in 2016, nearly 2500 police officers participated in the dragnet arrest operation in December 2019, when they captured and charged most suspects. Unlike past investigations, detectives gathered evidence showing several white-collar professionals, including businessmen, politicians, public servants, and law enforcement, enabled the ‘Ndrangheta to operate with their assistance. Prosecutors arrested and charged them, also.
Italian police deployed their Cacciatori unit during the arrests. The name of the special team translates to “the hunters,” and they pursued and located suspects hiding in bunkers hidden by devices like maintenance hole covers, trapdoors, and sliding staircases. Unit members sometimes encountered remote hidden retreats accessible only on foot, escape tunnels, and fortified positions while pursuing defendants.
Additionally, Calabria remodeled a called center in Lamezia Terme, fortifying it with high-security features into a bunker with steel holding cages, electronic surveillance, and accommodations for up to 350 defendants and 400 lawyers. Security forces guarded the three judges 24/7 and put them up in a rotation of safe houses. During the trial, the court heard testimony from more than 900 witnesses regarding continent-wide drug trade, money laundering, extortion, and murder.
Reading the verdicts and sentences of the accused took judges nearly two hours. Notably, the court found former senator Giancarlo Pittelli guilty of colluding with and providing information to ‘Ndrangheta leaders, and the judges sentenced him to 11 years in prison. The judges also pronounced 30-year sentences on Domenico Bonavota and Saverio Razionale, two of the local Calabrian mob bosses. The courts expect most defendants to appeal their verdicts and sentences.
Gratteri said the court ruling would effectively liberate the province of Calabria from the criminal syndicate’s top leaders.
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