Mafia from Calabria filmed in Godfather-style meeting in Switzerland

Описание: Police have arrested 18 members of a secret ‘Ndrangheta mafia cell operating in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, after their meeting was filmed in secret

Into the dimly-lit room, with its heavy wood panelling and outdated furnishings, strides a man, who shakes hands silently with the others, one by one.

He sits down among the dozen or so others, all positioned around a long table. And then he starts speaking – about honour, dignity, tradition and respect. And business – cocaine, extortion, trafficking.

It is a scene which could be straight out of the 1970s film The Godfather. But these men are not acting, and this is not Hollywood, but a small town in Switzerland.

The men, alleged leaders of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, were secretly filmed by Italian and Swiss police in the tiny town of Frauenfeld, 30 miles north of Zurich, during a two-year investigation that led to the arrest of 18 people on Friday.

The video has given investigators a rare and valuable insight into the private rituals of the Calabrian Mafia and the often discreet expansion of its international operations.

The presumed boss, Antonio Nesci, nicknamed “Cucchiaruni” – Calabrian dialect for the “Swiss mountain” – is heard telling his colleagues the local cell has been active in the Frauenfeld for 40 years, before telling the younger members there is room for plenty of growth.

“You can work in everything – extortion, cocaine, heroin,” he said.
“There’s everything. 10 kilos, 20 kilos a day, I will bring it to you personally but I don’t want to know any more about it.”

In a chilling reminder of the Mafia’s uncompromising violence, the boss says decisions about “murders and extortion” must be referred to those who are specifically designated to carry out those tasks.

Nesci says the organisation has been established in the Swiss town since the 1970s and urges the younger ones to respect the “clean” reputation that the Mafia, sometimes referred to as the “Honoured Society”, has built in Frauenfeld, a town of only 23,000 inhabitants.

“For those who know us well, (we are) clean, clean, clean, it took us years to build this reputation,” he says.

“We made our reputation. You young ones (should) do it so that the 'society’ is respected. I repeat again, the 'society’ of Frauenfeld is one of honour, wisdom and dignity.”

Just days after a European Union-backed study claimed Italy’s major mafia groups were expanding in Aberdeen and London, police arrested 16 people in Switzerland and two in Italy, including Nesci, after the lengthy joint investigation named Operation Helvetia, which began in January 2012.

Italian anti-mafia prosecutors argue that it took the brutal execution of six Italians in a mafia feud outside a restaurant in the city of Duisburg in 2007 for German law enforcement authorities to realise the expansion of the Calabrian ’Ndrangeta, and they believe more should be done to stop its spread in Europe.
In the video viewers may also be surprised to see the signs of the Mafia’s strict standards of loyalty.

Nesci asks those gathered if all are “compliant” to the organisation, to which they respond they are.

He refers to the ’Ndrangheta’s regulations dating back to 1830 and also draws inspiration from three knights as he blesses the room and the members, saying: “As they were baptised with irons and chains, with irons and chains I baptise you.”

According to police the Swiss cell was linked to two clans based in the “toe” of Italy: the Fabrizia clan of Vibo Valentia, and the Mazzaferro clan from the town of Marina di Gioiosa Ionica. The Swiss cell, like the two clans, was directly answerable to the organisation’s ruling hierarchy in Calabria.

Police allege Nesci reported to the head of the Fabrizia clan, Giuseppe Antonio Primerano, and had obtained his authorisation to extend the clan’s operations in Singen in southern Germany.
Primerano - convicted to 13 years in prison in July 2013 - was also said to be directly linked to Domenico Oppedisano, the 83-year-old head of the Calabrian mafia.