Carmine Alfieri is an Italian Camorra

Camorra

The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...

 boss, who rose from Piazzolla di Nola to become one of the most powerful members of Neapolitan

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 Camorra

Camorra

The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...

 in the 1980s. As boss of the Alfieri clan

Alfieri clan

The Alfieri clan was a Neapolitan Camorra clan operating on the north-east of Naples, with its sphere of influence in the municipalities of Saviano and Nola.-History:...

, he was the undisputed head of the Camorra from 1984 until his arrest in 1992. Alfieri's nickname is 'o 'ntufato, the angry one, thanks to the dissatisfied, angry sneer he wears constantly.

Early career

Alfieri was born in Saviano

Saviano

Saviano is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 25 km northeast of Naples. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 15,114 and an area of 13.8 km².-Geography:...

, near Naples. The Camorra entered in his life when he was only seven. In 1953, he took an oath with his brother Salvatore, to avenge the killing of their father Antonio Alfieri. Three years later, in 1956, Salvatore Alfieri killed the murderer of his father. In the 1960s Carmine was first arrested. In 1974, he was initiated in the Camorra as uomo d'onore (man of honour). In 1978 he was charged for homicide and in 1981 for mafia association.

In the 1980s he was among the founders of the Nuova Famiglia

Nuova Famiglia

The Nuova Famiglia was an Italian Camorra criminal organization created in the 1980s to face Raffaele Cutolo's Nuova Camorra Organizzata....

, which was opposed to the then dominant Nuova Camorra Organizzata

Nuova Camorra Organizzata

The Nuova Camorra Organizzata was an Italian Camorra criminal organization founded in the late 1970s by a Neapolitan Camorrista, Raffaele Cutolo, in the region of Campania. It was also known by the initials NCO...

 of Raffaele Cutolo

Raffaele Cutolo

Raffaele Cutolo is an Italian crime boss and the charismatic leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , an organisation he built to renew the Camorra. Cutolo has a variety of nicknames including "'o Vangelo" , "'o Principe" , "'o Professore" and "'o Monaco"...

. The rivalry caused a ferocious war with a huge number of victims, including Carmine’s brother Salvatore. The Alfieri clan of the 1980s and 1990s exhibited a hubris and a penchant for wanton violence that compared favorably with Cosa Nostra’s spectacular assassinations. According to police estimates, Alfieri’s killers alone counted as many as 500 murders during the decade 1983-93. For instance, Domenico Cuomo, Alfieri's main hitman confessed to have committed over 90 murders within the same period.

Rise to power

Cutolo overplayed his hand in the Cirillo kidnap

Cirillo kidnap

On April 27, 1981, the Red Brigades kidnapped the 60-year-old Christian Democrat politician Ciro Cirillo and killed his two-man escort in the garage of his Naples apartment building. At the time Cirillo directed reconstruction efforts in Campania devastated by the earthquake in the Irpinia region...

 affair. His former political protectors turned and provided their support to Carmine Alfieri, his main rival in the bloody 1981-83 Camorra war between Cutolo’s Nuova Camorra Organizzata

Nuova Camorra Organizzata

The Nuova Camorra Organizzata was an Italian Camorra criminal organization founded in the late 1970s by a Neapolitan Camorrista, Raffaele Cutolo, in the region of Campania. It was also known by the initials NCO...

 (NCO) and the Nuova Famiglia

Nuova Famiglia

The Nuova Famiglia was an Italian Camorra criminal organization created in the 1980s to face Raffaele Cutolo's Nuova Camorra Organizzata....

. In November 1982, the NCO's financier, Alfonso Ferrara Rosanova, was murdered. When Cutolo’s deputy and main ‘military’ chief, Vincenzo Casillo

Vincenzo Casillo

Vincenzo Casillo was an Italian Camorrista and the second in command of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , a Camorra organization in Naples. His nickname was "'o Nirone" .-Second in Command:...

 was killed via a car bomb in January 1983 by the allies of Alfieri, it was clear Cutolo not only had lost his political protection but the war as well. Many other Camorra gangs understood the shift in the balance of power caused by the death of Casillo. They abandoned the NCO and allied themselves with Alfieri.

After the defeat of Cutolo, war broke out among the anti-NCO coalition, in particular between the Nuvoletta clan from Marano

Marano

Marano as a surname has noble Italian origin, derives from last name Marani of Vicenza that came to Naples in the 16th century with Francesco Antonio buried in the church of Sant'Antonelli to Caponapoli in the ancient center of Naples city...

 and Antonio Bardellino

Antonio Bardellino

Antonio Bardellino was a powerful Neapolitan Camorrista and boss of the Casalesi clan, having a prominent role in the organized crime in the province of Caserta during the 1980s...

 at the end of 1983. Alfieri sided with Bardellino’s Casalesi clan

Casalesi clan

The Casalesi clan is a clan within the Camorra, an Italian criminal organization, operating from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno.Formed by Antonio Bardellino, it is a confederation of clans in the Caserta area...

. The war culminated in the Torre Annunziata massacre of August 1984, which left eight people killed and 24 wounded among the Gionta clan allied with Nuvoletta. After the massacre and the murder of Ciro Nuvoletta two months earlier, the balance of power shifted in favour of Alfieri.

In the first instance Alfieri and others were convicted for having organised the massacre and given life sentences. However, on appeal they were acquitted thanks to the intervention of politicians and the help of judge Armando Cono Lancuba.

Alfieri’s Camorra is described as the "political Camorra" because of its ability to obtain public sector contracts through political contacts. Cutolo's "mass Camorra" of unemployed youth specializes in protection racket

Protection racket

A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...

s, and Lorenzo Nuvoletta

Lorenzo Nuvoletta

Lorenzo Nuvoletta was the head of the Nuvoletta clan, a Neapolitan Camorra organisation operating from the town of Marano di Napoli, situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Naples.-The Nuvoletta clan:...

's "business Camorra" reinvested drug money into construction following the 1980 earthquake. The political Camorra was also innovatory because it tried to establish a federation between clans to overcome mutual suspicion and bloody feuds.

Arrest and turncoat

Alfieri, one of the most wanted men in Italy, was arrested in his pyjamas by Italian police on September 11, 1992, together with Vincenzo Cesarano and Marzio Sepe. At the time of his arrest, Alfieri’s personal assets were estimated at US$1.2 billion, making him the richest criminal in Italy.

In March 1994, like his former lieutenant Pasquale Galasso

Pasquale Galasso

Pasquale Galasso is a former boss of the Galasso clan, a clan of the Camorra, the Neapolitan crime organization. Since August 1992, he has been a pentito , collaborating with the Italian justice. He revealed many intricate secrets about the Camorra...

 who preceded him, Alfieri became a pentito

Pentito

Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...

. Both Alfieri and Galasso clarified numerous homicides and implicated the former Italian Minister of the Interior Antonio Gava

Antonio Gava

Antonio Gava was an Italian politician and member of Christian Democracy...

and dozens of other politicians. They claim not only to have met Gava, but insist that Gava used his influence to win the release of several convicted camorristi. His decision to become a pentito spurred the Camorra to kill several members of Alfieri's blood family, including his son Antonio, a brother Francesco, a nephew and Vincenzo Giugliano, son-in-law.