Mafia drug kingpin returns to Rome amid tight security

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Criminal underworld of Calabria’s cocaine barons

Italy’s Carabinieri are beginning to discover how the mob godfathers can literally go underground and still run their networks in hideaway luxury

AKI | Aug 20, 2008

Rome, 20 August (AKI) – Italian Mafia boss Giuseppe Coluccio arrived in Rome on Wednesday after being extradited from Canada to face charges related to drug trafficking and extortion.

Coluccio, who was arrested in Toronto on 7 August, was escorted by Canadian police and flown to the city’s Ciampino airport and immediately taken to a maximum security prison in the capital.

Coluccio is reputed to be a Mafia boss from the ‘Ndrangheta, the organised crime syndicate in the southern region of Calabria.

He had been on the run since 2005 when he fled a trial in Italy for Mafia association aimed at drug trafficking and extortion.

In early August, Italy’s Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, praised the Carabinieri or paramilitary police for the investigation that had led to Coluccio’s arrest. The probe was conducted jointly with Canadian police.

Coluccio was arrested outside his luxury lakeside apartment building where he had been living in Toronto under an assumed identity.

Upon being arrested, he was found to be in possession of 1.5 million Canadian dollars in cash, as well as cheques and traveller cheques and jewellery.

Investigators allege that Coluccio and members of the Sicilian Mafia ran an extortion racket that involved control of the fishing trade and maritime traffic along a 60-kilometre stretch of the Calabrian coast.

The investigators also allege that Coluccio continued to traffic “substantial quantities” of cocaine and hashish from South America while he was living in Canada.

Coluccio was also in contact with Turkish criminal organisations that supplied the trafficking ring with “huge” quantities of heroin, investigators said.

Apart from Ndrangheta, Italy’s three other criminal organisations are the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra in Naples and the surrounding Campania region and the Sacra Corona Unita in the southern Puglia region.

Related

‘Ndrangheta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Security concerns have led to the creation in the ‘Ndrangheta of a secret society within the secret society: La Santa. Membership in the Santa is only known to other members. Contrary to the code, it allowed bosses to establish close connections with state representatives, even to the extent that some were affiliated with the Santa. These connections were often established through the Freemasonry, which the santisti – breaking another rule of the traditional code – were allowed to join.

La Santa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
La Santa is a secret society within the ‘Ndrangheta, a criminal organisation in Calabria (Italy). The name probably derives from the shortening of mamma santissima.[1] In mafia slang, the expression is used to refer to mafia chiefs. Mamma santissima literally means “most holy mother” and refers to the Virgin Mary, who is regarded as the protector of the ‘Ndrangheta. The Santa was originally set up as an exclusive body restricted to 33 people.