The Dia's six-monthly report highlights how the Camorra phenomenon in Campania manifests itself in various forms depending on the geographical contexts in which it originated and evolved.
Article Key Points
The provinces of Naples and Caserta remain the territories with the highest and most qualified criminal density, where the presence of large Camorra cartels is recorded (Secondigliano alliance, Mazzarella and Casalesi) or more structured mafia organizations, whose illicit interests also concern sectors of the legal economy and which in many cases have evolved into real "mafia enterprises".
These organizations also demonstrated a high capacity for permeate local administrations altering their decision-making processes in order to increase illicit profits and social consensus, practices that also in the semester considered led to the dissolution of some Campania municipal councils for mafia infiltration pursuant to art. 143 TUEL.
Alongside them and in their sphere of influence, in an instrumental and functional position, coexist minor criminal groups whose illicit interests concern more traditional sectors such as drugs, extortion and usury.
The criminal groups operating in the territory of the municipality of Naples, however, are numerous and reference is often made to zones, districts or areas, more or less extensive and differently named, which can correspond to an urban agglomeration or, sometimes, to single residential buildings that fall simultaneously in more than one neighborhood.
With regard to criminal phenomena, the analysis of the copious judicial literature and the numerous contrasting activities carried out by the Institutions to protect legality provides a picture where heterogeneous criminal realities coexist, with different evolutionary stages.
At a higher level they are placed 2 main Camorra cartels historically antagonists who dominate the territory, often defined by the members themselves with the term "System": on one side the Secondigliano Alliance, made up of the Mallardo, Contini-Bosti and Licciardi families, the first two also linked by kinship ties, on the other the Mazzarella clan.
These organizations, although immanent in the city, in recent years have been adopting more subtle and less evident strategies, resulting less visible and palpable and therefore even more dangerous and insidious.
In particular, their illicit interests appear to be primarily oriented towards the contamination of the sectors of the legal economy and the infiltration of the procedures for obtaining public funding, reaching a sort of economic oligopoly and, at the same time, also a social legitimacy.
It is precisely this that makes their presence even more alarming as they are capable not only of controlling large territorial areas and economic sectors according to a consolidated Camorra “system”, but, above all, of imposing a criminal subculture, where social degradation is more widespread and allows them to elevate themselves to alternative referents for collective security.
Within the sphere of influence of the two Camorra cartels gravitates a galaxy of criminal associations, structurally smaller and less evolved, which, equipped with a own operational autonomy although limited to the area of competence, they stand out for their more evident and greater impact on the perception of citizen safety.
At the lowest level, finally, a criminal underworld, mostly dedicated to drug dealing, robberies and petty extortion, which competes for small portions of territory with violent methods in a constant state of conflict. The bloody events recorded during the first half of 1 would be attributable precisely to this area.
The Camorra System of the Spanish Quarters
Regarding the relationships between the two cartels of the Mazzarellas and the Secondigliano alliance, noteworthy and susceptible to further analytical investigations is what emerged from a recent investigative activity concluded on 29 May 2023 by the State Police and by the Carabinieri against a newly formed Camorra gang called Paranza of the Spanish Quarters (or Spanish Quarter System, ccomposed of the three historic Camorra families Esposito, Masiello and Saltalamacchia), operating in the Spanish Quarter area (between the neighborhood San Ferdinando and Montecalvario) and gravitating within the sphere of influence of the aforementioned macro-cartels.
The latter, in particular, are defined by the GIP of Naples “mafia cartels …hegemonic in the metropolitan area, …in the past opposed and having for years relationships of coexistence, cooperation and integration in their respective illicit activities…”, thus highlighting the shared interests between the two Camorra groups which in recent years have prevailed over the historical antagonisms albeit within their respective spheres of autonomy, leading one to believe that a state of mafia peace exists between the two criminal groups.
Article published on 18 June 2024 - 22:21
