The Piromalli 'ndrina is one of the most powerful clans of the
'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a prominent Italian Mafia-type organized crime syndicate and secret society, criminal society based in the peninsular and mountainous region of Calabria and dating back to the late 18th century. It is considered one of ...
, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in
Calabria
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Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. The
'ndrina is based in
Gioia Tauro on the
Tyrrhenian coast. The Piromalli's are allied with their relatives of the
Molè family, also from Gioia Tauro. Often they are referred to as the Piromalli-Molè clan. The Piromalli clan contains more than 200 members.
[Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 31]
Rise to prominence
The Piromalli-Molé clan was involved in a bloody feud with the Ventre-Carlino clan in the 1950s, in which Antonino Piromalli, a brother of
Girolamo ''Mommo'' Piromalli, was killed in 1956.
[ Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 152-53][Tramonta l' impero dei Piromalli]
La Repubblica, June 3, 1993 The clan rose to prominence under the rule of the brothers ''Mommo'' Piromalli and
Giuseppe "Peppe" Piromalli. Together with
Antonio Macrì
Antonio Macrì (; – January 20, 1975), popularly known as ("Unca Tony"), was a historical and charismatic boss of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. He was born in Siderno on the Ionian coast of Cal ...
from
Siderno
Siderno ( scn, label= Calabrian, Sidernu or ; ) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy, about 3 kilometres from Locri.
Some notable people from Siderno are Marco stalteri, Patrizia lunc ...
on the
Ionic coast and
Domenico ''Mico'' Tripodo, the boss of the city of
Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...
, the elder Piromalli brother ''Mommo'' formed a sort of triumvirate since the beginning of the 1960s until the outbreak of the
First 'Ndrangheta war
The First 'Ndrangheta war was an internal struggle in the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type criminal organisation in Calabria (southern Italy). The conflict raged from 1974 to 1977 and resulted in approximately 233 deaths.Dickie, ''Mafia Republic: Italy ...
in the mid-1970s. Their senior position was recognized by all other family chiefs and their advice was in most cases followed without protest.
[Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 60]
When Girolamo Piromalli died of natural causes in 1979, his brother succeeded him as head of the clan.
[Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 49] Since the mid-1970s, according to several
pentiti, members of the Piromalli family and the
Nirta family from
San Luca
San Luca is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about east of Reggio Calabria. The town is situated on the eastern slopes of the Aspromonte ...
rotated among themselves the position of
capo crimine.
In Gioia Tauro, blood relatives of the Piromalli long represented the interest of the clan in the city council.
[Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 201] Peppe Piromalli was captured on February 24, 1984. At age 83, he died on February 19, 2005 and his nephew
Giuseppe Piromalli succeeded him.
Giuseppe was a fugitive since 1993 and included in the
list of most wanted fugitives in Italy
The list of most wanted fugitives in Italy is a most wanted list published by the Italian Interior Ministry. It includes criminals who are considered extremely dangerous by the Polizia di Stato. The list was started in July 1992. There are also l ...
until his capture in March 1999. While in the strict
Article 41-bis prison regime he nevertheless keeps on conducting his business and direct the clan outside.
['Ndrangheta, decapitata cosca]
La Repubblica, July 23, 2008 The Piromalli clan tried to relax the strict regime for their boss. One of the plots was to deliver votes to Berlusconi’s
People of Freedom (Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) coalition during the election campaign in 2008 in return for a relaxation of Piromalli’s prison stature. Their go-between
Aldo Micciché
Aldo may refer to:
* Aldo (given name), male given name
** Aldo (footballer, born 1977)
** Aldo (footballer, born 1988)
* Aldo Group, a worldwide chain of shoe stores
* Aldosterone
Aldosterone is the main mineralocorticoid steroid hormone pr ...
, a businessman who moved to Venezuela after being convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy in Italy, planned to fill in 50,000 blank ballot slips for Italian voters in Latin America obtained from corrupt officials. Micciché asked two leading members of the Piromalli clan to visit
Marcello Dell'Utri
Marcello Dell'Utri (born 11 September 1941) is a former Italian politician and senior advisor to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Formerly Senator in the Italian Senate. – Berlusconi's right-hand man – at his Milan office.
[Berlusconi ally denies Mafia-run ballot plot]
The Guardian, April 13, 2008
, La Repubblica, July 24, 2008
Entrepreneurial mafia
The Piromallis redirected the 'Ndrangheta clan from its rural base to an entrepreneurial criminal organisation assuming dominance over several public works in the Gioia Tauro area, particularly in the construction and operation of the new container seaport.
Giornale di Calabria, February 21, 2005 When in 1974 businesses involved in the expansion of the port and steelworks in
Gioia Tauro offered a three per cent kickback to be left in peace the three leading 'Ndrangheta families at the time,
Antonio Macrì
Antonio Macrì (; – January 20, 1975), popularly known as ("Unca Tony"), was a historical and charismatic boss of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. He was born in Siderno on the Ionian coast of Cal ...
, the Piromalli brothers and the
De Stefano brothers rejected the offer and wanted to be sub-contracted on work carried in order to control the projects.
[Arlacchi, ''Mafia Business'', p. 106-07]
The subcontracts for the steelwork in Gioia Tauro, whose total value reached the astronomic amount of US$3.8 billion were largely distributed on the basis of territorial criteria. More than half the contracts were granted to the Piromalli family, which dominated the area where the steelwork was supposed to be built.
[Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 170] The managers of the consortium responsible for the completion of the port and the steelworks made
Gioacchino Piromalli
Gioacchino is a masculine Italian given name, equivalent to the English Joachim. Notable people with the name include:
* Gioacchino Assereto (1600–1649), Italian painter
* Gioacchino Cocchi (1720–1804), Italian composer
* Gioacchino Colombo ( ...
an official associate – the company subsequently did not suffer from extortion or inflicted damage of any kind in an area where the previous 154 explosive attacks were committed.
[
The 'Ndrangheta exploited the construction of the steelworks until the project was abandoned when the government decided there was no economic base for it. In 1977 disagreements about business interests emerged between Piromalli and the De Stefano clan. A hit squad headed by Peppe Piromalli killed the clan's boss Giorgio De Stefano. Some 1,000 people were killed in clan wars over the construction contracts.][Spotts & Wieser, ''Italy, a Difficult Democracy'', p. 188]
Controlling the Gioia Tauro port
The Piromalli clan managed to condition the management of the new container terminal
A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...
in the port of Gioia Tauro. Established in the mid-1990s, it became the largest terminal in the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
, moving over 2 million containers in 1998. Since 1994, when Contship Italia rented the port area to start transhipment activity and the Medcenter Container Terminal was set up thanks to 138 billion lire (about US$86 million) in state financing, the Piromalli’s obliged the Medcenter company, through its vice president Walter Lugli, and the Contship company, through its president Enrico Ravano, to pay a kickback of US$1.50 for each transhipped container, a sum which corresponded to about half the net profits earned by the two companies.[Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 218][Il caso Gioia Tauro]
Relazione sullo stato della lotta alla criminalità organizzata in Calabria, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia e delle altre associazioni criminali similari, July 2000
Additionally, the Piromalli’s desired contracts, subcontracts, and jobs in the two firms that run the port, as well as from other companies in the surrounding area. Despite subscribing to an anti corruption pact with the government, the managers of both Contship and Medcenter gave in to the demands. The arrest warrant issued in January 1999 against members of the Piromalli group stated that the two companies contracted firms indicated by the clan (and in some cases belonging to it) in the port-servicing activities and hired people recommended by the Piromalli clan, reinforcing the clan’s power in the Gioia Tauro plain.”
In February 2008 the parliamentary Antimafia Commission concluded that the ‘Ndrangheta “controls or influences a large part of the economic activity around the port and uses the facility as a base for illegal trafficking.” In its report it said that “the entire gamma of internal or sub-contracted activities is mafia-influenced, from the management of distribution and forwarding to customs control and container storage.” The extortion of Ravano and Contship, was part of a project that “did not involve simply this security tax, which grew with the port, but also control of activities tied to the port, the hiring of workers, and relations with port unions and local institutions,” the report added. “It effectively eliminated legitimate competition from companies not influenced or controlled by the mafia in providing goods and services, performing construction work and hiring personnel. And it threw a shadow over the behaviour of local government and other public bodies.” [Gioia Tauro 'controlled by mafia for over a decade']
Lloyd’s List, February 21, 2008
Alliance with Molè 'ndrina
The Piromalli’s were allied with their relatives of the Molè family, also from Gioia Tauro. Often they are referred to as the Piromalli-Molè clan. "The Molè family is the military arm of the Piromalli clan," according to Francesco Forgione, chairman of Italian parliament's Antimafia Commission.[Top 'Ndrangheta boss gunned down, ANSA, February 1, 2008] Control of the Gioia Tauro container hub has allowed the Piromalli clan to dominate not only the illegal drug trade but also arms and other contraband smuggling. Within the Piromalli organization the Molè clan is responsible for drug trafficking and handles relations with 'Ndrangheta branches in central and northern Italy as well as with Colombian drug cartels.[
A turf war between the two clans surfaced in February 2008 when Rocco Molè was gunned down near Gioia Tauro.]['Ndrangheta, agguato a Gioia Tauro, assassinato il boss Rocco Molè]
La Repubblica, February 1, 2008[ According to the Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia (DDA) of Reggio Calabria, after the demise of Girolamo and Peppe Piromalli, their successors have been unable to maintain the necessary balance among the two clans.][Ndrangheta - e’ scissione all’interno del clan Piromalli-Mole]
, Calabria notizie, July 23, 2008 Background of the emerging conflict seems to be the future investments of hundreds of millions of euros in the Gioia Tauro port and the possibilities to take cuts of the investments.[
]
Crackdown
In July 2008, police cracked down on the stranglehold of the 'Ndrangheta on the port in an operation dubbed "One Hundred Years of History" which netted 18 criminals and businessmen in Calabria, Rome and Milan. The operation also intended to end the start of a possibly bloody turf war between the Piromallis and their former military arm, the Molè family.['Ndrangheta, le mani delle cosche sul porto di Gioia Tauro]
, La Stampa, July 23, 2008
On October 13, 2008, one of the clan bosses, Gioacchino Piromalli, was arrested along with his nephew, also named Gioacchino Piromalli, who is a lawyer, as well as Gioia Tauro's former mayor and deputy mayor. Both had been forced to step down in April 2008 when the city council was dissolved on suspicion of Mafia infiltration. The mayors were accused of employing the younger Piromalli. Police believe the legal work was a front to enable the Piromallis to regain a slice of the business generated by Gioia Tauro, one of the largest container ports in Europe.
ANSA, October 13, 2008
Notes
References
*Arlacchi, Pino (1988). ''Mafia Business. The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'', Oxford: Oxford University Press
* Gratteri, Nicola & Antonio Nicaso (2006).
Fratelli di Sangue
', Cosenza: Luigi Pellegrini Editore
* Guarino, Mario (2004).
Poteri segreti e criminalità. L'intreccio inconfessabile tra 'ndrangheta, massoneri a apparati dello stato
', Bari: Edizioni Dedalo
*Paoli, Letizia (2003).
Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style
', New York: Oxford University Press
by Klaus Von Lampe)
by Alexandra V. Orlova)
*Spotts, Frederic & Theodor Wieser (1986),
Italy, a Difficult Democracy: A Survey of Italian Politics
', Cambridge University Press,
{{'Ndrine
1950s establishments in Italy
'Ndrine