'Ndrangheta

'Ndrangheta
Founding locationCalabria, Italy
Years active1860–present
TerritoryTerritories with established coordination structures with significant operational territorial control are in Calabria, Northern Italy and Lazio. Organisational coordination structures also exist in Australia and Canada. The 'Ndrangheta also operates in other countries with varying degrees of presence.
EthnicityCalabrians
Membership (est.)
Criminal activitiesRacketeering, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, loan-sharking, money laundering, fraud, extortion, murder, robbery and kidnapping

The 'Ndrangheta (/əndræŋˈɡɛtə/,[5] Italian: [nˈdraŋɡeta], Calabrian: [(ɳ)ˈɖɽaɲɟɪta])[a] is an Italian Mafia-type association[6] based in the peninsular region of Calabria and dating back to the 19th century. Although loosely structured, it is considered one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the world.[7] It is characterized by a horizontal structure made up of autonomous clans known as 'ndrine, based almost exclusively on blood ties. Since the 1950s, following wide-scale emigration from Calabria, 'Ndrangheta clans dispersed to other European countries, Australia and the Americas. Currently, its main activity is drug trafficking, but it also deals with arms trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, extortion, and loan sharking.

It is capable of influencing local and national Italian politics, and infiltrating sectors of the legal economy in Italy and some other countries. In 2013, they purportedly made €53 billion.[8] In 2010, a US diplomat estimated that the organization's drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering activities accounted for at least three per cent of Italy's GDP.[9] The 'Ndrangheta has existed for as long as the better-known Sicilian Cosa Nostra, but was only designated as a Mafia-type association in 2010 under Article 416 bis of the Italian penal code.[6][10] Italy's highest court of last resort, the Supreme Court of Cassation, had ruled similarly in March 2010.[11]

  1. ^ "FBI Italian/Mafia". FBI. Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  2. ^ Hooper, John (7 June 2006). "Move over, Cosa Nostra". The Guardian.
  3. ^ "Mapping the mafia: Italy's web of criminal gangs explained". Euronews. 22 November 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  4. ^ "'Ndrangheta mafia 'made more last year than McDonald's and Deutsche Bank'". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  5. ^ "'Ndrangheta Definition & Meaning". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  6. ^ a b (in Italian) "Modifiche agli articoli 416-bis e 416-ter del codice penale in materia di associazioni di tipo mafioso e di scambio elettorale politico-mafioso", Italian Senate, 20 May 2010
  7. ^ "Italian Organised Crime: Threat Assessment". Archived 22 July 2016 at the Wayback Machine. The Hague: Europol. June 2013.
  8. ^ "'Ndrangheta mafia 'made more last year than McDonald's and Deutsche Bank'". The Guardian. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  9. ^ "US saw mafia ridden Calabria as 'failed state'". The Independent. 15 January 2011. Archived from the original on 3 January 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2019. The article quotes a confidential cable, "Can Calabria Be Saved?", by J. Patrick Truhn, Consul General in Naples, December 2, 2008
  10. ^ Sergi, Anna (4 February 2016). "Meet the 'Ndrangheta – and why it's time to bust some myths about the Calabrian mafia". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  11. ^ "Sentenza storica: 'La 'ndrangheta esiste'. Lo dice la Cassazione e non è una ovvietà". La Repubblica (in Italian). 18 June 2016. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.


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