INSIDE THE WORLDS BIGGEST CRIME SYNDICATE

THE RISE OF
The story of the Italian mafia that became bigger than McDonalds after raking in 40bn in a year...

The early days

The gangs name only reached

a wider audience when
mentioned by an Italian writer
in 1955, and until 1975 the
secretive mobsters kept their
business operations to the
Calabria region of Italy.
From 1973 until 1991 it was
involved in bloody wars, as well
as the kidnapping of John Paul
Getty III, whose grandfather
was one of Europes richest
men. Oilman Getty at first
refused to pay for his safe
return, but ended up forking
out $2.9m after the gang cut
off one of his grandsons ears.
To end the war, the families
involved became members of
a superordinate division called
La Provincia, as suggested by
Cosa Nostra. Eventually the
group began to invest in the
international drugs trade.

Building an empire

After a crackdown from the

34 WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/ZOOMAGAZINE

FRANCE SCO MAISAN O

ARREST ED IN 2011
authorities, the Cosa Nostras
activities were restricted to
infiltrating local businesses to
extort money, which gave the
Ndrangheta its chance to
emerge from the underworld
and flourish as an illegal
organisation globally.
Only known for its activities
in Calabria, the group soon
successfully infiltrated Milan.
Owing its power to its cocaine
trafficking and close ties with

South American cartels, it was

soon able to build a presence
across the whole of Italy.
This was largely due to
it taking advantage of Italys
ever-growing cocaine
consumption. Between 2007
and 2008, the usage in Milan
alone had grown by 27 per
cent. In 2010 it had increased
by 40 per cent. Its now
estimated that one in six people
in Milan snorts cocaine on a

WORDS: Joe Barnes

hen you think

of Italys mafia
powerhouses, you
usually look no further than
the Cosa Nostra, whose crimes
inspired The Godfather trilogy.
But this once untouchable
outfits influence has waned in
recent years, allowing a new
group the Ndrangheta to
take its place at the top. Now
the Italian authorities are after
a gang bigger than the Cosa
Nostra and richer than
McDonalds. Meet the most
secretive mafia on the planet