In the gangster-ridden streets of Naples, any word against the criminal syndicate is dangerous, but local business including butchers, bakeries and grocers have summoned the courage to try and loosen the Camorra’s stranglehold on the city.
«We decided we couldn’t go on,» said Salvatore Russo, a grocer in the city centre.
«They would come by two or three times a year and demand money. Those who didn’t pay up were shot in the legs, or beaten up, or stolen from,» he said.
The bag men demanded up to 1,500 euros (£1,249) three times a year – a major cost for small businesses struggling through a deep economic crisis.
«The fear is huge because they threaten you, your shop, your family,» said Raffaele Ferrara, a grocer in the city centre who lives in fear after he and around 300 others decided to say no this year after decades of oppression.
12/3/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Mafia, Naples
Read more: Bottled water dispensers in your local area
Switzerland said on Friday that it had uncovered a mafia organisation that has been active in the country since 1994 and which was involved in drug and arms trafficking as well as money laundering.
09/26/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Mafia, Swiss
Plamen Dishkov aka Kela, a Bulgarian mobster sentenced for a gangland murder committed in 2002 has been arrested in Portugal after 10 years in international hiding.
08/18/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Bulgaria, killer, Mafia
Italian police have arrested the brother of the Sicilian Mafia’s one-time top boss in another blow to Cosa Nostra on the island.
07/13/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Italy, Mafia
Police in southern Italy have seized 13 million euros of assets belonging to an alleged member of the Naples mafia’s powerful Casalesi clan, as Italian authorities continue to target the organised crime syndicate.
04/27/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Mafia, Naples
Italian police said they have arrested a top mafia boss from the southern province of Puglia.
04/19/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Mafia, police
Italy’s lingering problems with government-mafia links have not improved and, according to opposition members, are being allowed to flourish by the current government. Organized crime groups in Italy work not only in tandem with politicians, but with ‘legitimate’ corporations, particularly larger ones
04/13/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Italy, Mafia
Police overnight arrested 35 people in northern Italy who are suspected of links to the Calabrian mafia and impounded some two million euros of assets. The 35 mafia suspects face charges of extortion, illegal waste disposal and drug trafficking, police said.
03/16/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Mafia, police
Switzerland has always been a key destination for Italy’s mafia bosses to launder their assets or hide their cash, but recent probes show that Italian organised crime is broadening its activities there.
12/17/2010
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Italy, Mafia, Switzerland
POLICE today arrested top mafia chief Franco Li Bergolis, one of the most wanted and dangerous fugitives in Italy.
08/31/2010
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Italy, Mafia
