In Part One we concluded by describing the organisational structure of the Italian Camorra and followed their progress up to the middle of the 20th century.
In the 1970s Raffaele Cutolo was the first senior Camorra figure to attempt to introduce some sort of unification into the disparate clans and cells. This may have been influenced by the Sicilian Mafia’s structure or it may have been an attempt to impose some measure of authority on the organisation. Cutolo set up the New Organized Camorra (NCO) and spent the best part of two decades in an ultimately futile attempt to establish it. During it’s brief reign it did become, according to the Italian police, one of the most powerful Camorra clans, becoming allied with elements of the ‘Ndrangheta and maintaining a distinctly hostile relationship with the Sicilian Mafia.
Raffaele Cutolo
Following the demise of the NCO after a spate of arrests and clan killings, the Camorra was in a pretty feeble state – the Italian police estimated that there were only twelve or so clans remaining. This was only the beginning of the expansion though; four years later there were twice as many clans, the following year the number was 32. Now there are estimated to be more than 100 clans in the Naples area, controlling the bakery and fish industries and the coffee trade. Investigation into their activities have revealed an organisation which has quickly outgrown the Sicilian Mafia and the ‘Ndrangheta, both in revenue and membership.
Unfortunately for the city of Naples, this overarching control of the city’s businesses and industry has made it the focus of violence in the last decade or so. Turf battles became increasingly common as new clans crowded into the city looking for a piece of the action. Probably the most notorious result of Camorra influence in Naples is their complete control of the waste industry in the city and surrounding Campania countryside.
Waste on the streets of Naples
The variety of waste involved is vast and includes toxic substances as well as industrial and household rubbish. There was very little intention to dispose of the waste properly and piles of burning rubbish containing a mixture of noxious substances are a common site around the city. Third party contracts are signed to dispose of waste which offer huge profits to all involved but the end result is more rubbish just dumped by the roadside. To add to the chaos, during periods in which the authorities have tried to crackdown on the Camorra, they have responded by refusing to deal with any waste whatsover, leaving the city’s residents faced with weeks of uncollected trash on the streets.
Over the past one hundred years or so, numerous efforts have been made to clip the wings of the Camorra in attempts to curtail their activities and, in recent years, to loosen their grip on Naples. Several, almost military, interventions have been made into the city when clan killings looked likely to spiral out of control but these are only temporary measures. As other commentators have noted, Southern Italy is an area of historically high unemployment and, lacking any future direction, the youth of the region are sometimes left with no choice but to get involved with the Camorra.
Part Three follows…..