Italy: Hundreds of mobsters to be sentenced following historic trial

Hundreds of alleged members of Italy's most powerful organised crime group Ndrangheta, and their white-collar collaborators would be sentenced this week after a historic trial. According to a report by the news agency AFP on Monday (Nov 13), prosecutors asked for prison sentences totalling nearly 5,000 years for 322 defendants who have been accused of an array of offences.

The report said that since January 2021, three judges in Calabria heard thousands of hours of testimony -- including from dozens of mobsters turned state's witness -- about the Mancuso clan and its associates, which control the province of Vibo Valentia.

Speaking to AFP, mafia expert Antonio Nicaso said, "It's an important trial because it targets one of the most powerful Ndrangheta families based in Calabria, with international ramifications."

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Initially dismissed as livestock thieves, Ndrangheta flourished under the radar for decades as authorities concentrated efforts against Cosa Nostra. Citing experts, the report said that the mafia group is made up of 150 Calabrian families and their associates, bringing in over $53 billion annually around the world, from drug trafficking and usury to syphoning public funds and extortion, with illegal gains reinvested in the legitimate economy.

The trial in Lamezia Terme represents Italy's largest "maxi-trial" in over three decades. Some of the allegations in the trial include mafia association, attempted murder, drug trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, abuse of office and money laundering.

Luigi Mancuso, the undisputed boss of the Vibo Valentia, was cut from the defendant's list last year to be tried separately. Luigi was in prison for 19 years before going underground but was captured as part of a massive police blitz in December 2019 in which over 300 suspected mobsters were arrested.

Prosecutors have asked for 30 years each for a dozen of Mancuso's top associates.

The report further said that the trial's most colourful testimony came when Luigi's nephew Emmanuel and over 50 other mafia operatives recounted long-buried secrets, from weapons hidden in cemetery chapels and ambulances used to transport drugs, to municipal water supplies diverted to marijuana crops.

People who opposed Ndrangheta found dead animals on their doorsteps, torched cars or smashed up storefronts. Some were also thrashed or shot and their bodies were never found.

(With inputs from agencies)