Mammoliti 'ndrina
Encyclopedia
The Mammoliti 'ndrina is a powerful clan of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria
, Italy
. The 'ndrina is based in Castellace and Oppido Mamertina
in the plain of Gioia Tauro
in southern Calabria on the Tyrrhenian coast
. The clan is considered to be one of the more powerful in the area, and his closely linked to the Rugolo clan through intermarriage. They are often referred to as the Mammoliti-Rugolo clan.
. In October 1954, the head of the clan, Francesco Mammoliti, was killed by Domenico Barbaro. On November 7, 1954, the Mammolitis retaliated and killed Francesco Barbaro and some others, an attack that was attributed to Francesco’s son Vincenzo Mammoliti, who was acquitted by the court because of insufficient proof. On January 19, 1955, Giovanni Barbaro, the brother of Francesco, was killed with 31 gunshots. Again Vincenzo was acquitted, but his brother Antonino Mammoliti was convicted for murder.
In the end the Mammoliti clan prevailed and the Barbaro clan moved to Platì
. The feud lingered on until 1978, when Domenico Barbaro was killed in Perugia
, after serving 26 years in prison for the murder of Francesco Mammoliti in 1954. Francesco’s sons, Vincenzo and Saverio Saro Mammoliti
took over the command of the clan seconded by their other brother Antonino Mammoliti. Blood relatives represented the interests in the city council of their area of interest. The Mammoliti-Rugolo clan is closely linked to the Piromalli 'ndrina
and the Mazzafero 'ndrina.
One of the landed proprietors ruined by the expansion of the clan described the rise of the clan at the end of the 1970s: “A few years ago Vincenzo Mammoliti used to earn a paltry amount from his dishonest dealings as a watchman in the citrus orchards. Now he travels around in de luxe cars, he has bought up factories and land, and people say he has accumulated a fortune worth hundreds of millions [lire].”
on July 10, 1973, in Rome
. Nine men eventually were arrested. Two were convicted and sent to prison. The others, including Girolamo Piromalli
and Saro Mammoliti, were acquitted for lack of evidence. Mammoliti, a fugitive at the time, was convicted for drug trafficking. Nevertheless, after he decided to collaborate with Italian justice, Saro Mammoliti confessed to have been involved in the kidnap.
The ransom of approximately US$3 million was invested in the trucks with which the 'Ndrangheta won all the transportation contracts for the container port of Gioia Tauro. (This turned out to be one of the biggest development white elephants in Italian history: only the Mafia ever made any serious money from it.)
The case made the national and international headlines in the summer of 1994 when the Finance Ministry threatened to confiscate the property for not paying taxes on the land (whose products her family had not enjoyed since the 1960s). was the resistance of the baroness Cardopatri resisted the confiscation and she started a hunger strike outside the law courts in Reggio Calabria
. Cardopatri was granted an extension to pay her taxes and the decade-long territorial expansion of the Mammoliti family began to be halted.
Thanks almost exclusively to the baroness Cordopatri's testimony, Salvatore La Rosa – the material killer of her brother was sentenced to 25 years in prison, while Saro Mammoliti's nephew Francesco, held to be the man who ordered the murder, got life. Saro Mammoliti himself was sent down for 22 years for extortion and other Mafia-related charges. During the trials, the baroness denounced the relations between the Mammolitis and the local judiciary and politicians, such as the parliamentary leader of the far-right National Alliance
, Raffaele Valensise, and the former minister of Education, the Christian Democrat
Riccardo Misasi.
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The 'ndrina is based in Castellace and Oppido Mamertina
Oppido Mamertina
Oppido Mamertina is a town and comune of the province of Reggio Calabria in Calabria in southern Italy at about 62 kilometres northeast of Reggio Calabria and about 120 kilometres southwest of Catanzaro....
in the plain of Gioia Tauro
Gioia Tauro
Gioia Tauro is a comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Calabria , on the Tyrrhenian coast. It has an important port, situated along the route connecting Suez to Gibraltar, one of the busiest maritime corridors in the world....
in southern Calabria on the Tyrrhenian coast
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
. The clan is considered to be one of the more powerful in the area, and his closely linked to the Rugolo clan through intermarriage. They are often referred to as the Mammoliti-Rugolo clan.
Feud with the Barbaro clan
In the 1950s the Mammoliti clan was involved in a bloody feud in Castellace with the Barbaro 'ndrinaBarbaro 'ndrina
The Barbaro 'ndrina is a clan of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. The 'ndrina is currently based in Platì...
. In October 1954, the head of the clan, Francesco Mammoliti, was killed by Domenico Barbaro. On November 7, 1954, the Mammolitis retaliated and killed Francesco Barbaro and some others, an attack that was attributed to Francesco’s son Vincenzo Mammoliti, who was acquitted by the court because of insufficient proof. On January 19, 1955, Giovanni Barbaro, the brother of Francesco, was killed with 31 gunshots. Again Vincenzo was acquitted, but his brother Antonino Mammoliti was convicted for murder.
In the end the Mammoliti clan prevailed and the Barbaro clan moved to Platì
Platì
Platì is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Calabria, southern Italy. It rises 300 metres above the sea level on the slope of the Aspromonte mountains and is located next to the Aspromonte National Park...
. The feud lingered on until 1978, when Domenico Barbaro was killed in Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, after serving 26 years in prison for the murder of Francesco Mammoliti in 1954. Francesco’s sons, Vincenzo and Saverio Saro Mammoliti
Saverio Mammoliti
Saverio Mammoliti , also known as Saro, is a 'Ndrangheta boss from Oppido Mamertina and Castellace in Calabria. In 2003, he became a pentito when he decided to collaborate with Italian justice...
took over the command of the clan seconded by their other brother Antonino Mammoliti. Blood relatives represented the interests in the city council of their area of interest. The Mammoliti-Rugolo clan is closely linked to the Piromalli 'ndrina
Piromalli 'ndrina
The Piromalli 'ndrina is one of the most powerful clans of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. 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...
and the Mazzafero 'ndrina.
Criminal enterprise
Since the 1950s powerful 'Ndrangheta families, such as the Mammolitis and the Piromallis, launched into broad-scale expropriations of land and full-blown entrepreneurship, financing their operations by intercepting government development funds or by kidnapping the children of rich industrialists. The Mammoliti clan acquired the property or the direct or indirect control over wide extensions of land in Castellace, Oppido and Santa Cristina in the Gioia Tauro plain. They forced most landowners to sell their properties at a price much lower than the market one, by imposing heavy extortion taxes or by damaging their trees and products. When they did not succeed in obtaining legal ownership of the lands, they frequently gained de facto control of the farms, selling the products and even collecting the relative farming subsidies.One of the landed proprietors ruined by the expansion of the clan described the rise of the clan at the end of the 1970s: “A few years ago Vincenzo Mammoliti used to earn a paltry amount from his dishonest dealings as a watchman in the citrus orchards. Now he travels around in de luxe cars, he has bought up factories and land, and people say he has accumulated a fortune worth hundreds of millions [lire].”
Getty kidnap
Vincenzo and Saro Mammoliti were charged with the kidnap of John Paul Getty IIIJohn Paul Getty III
Jean Paul Getty III , also known as Paul Getty, was the eldest of the four children of John Paul Getty, Jr. and Abigail , and the grandson of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty...
on July 10, 1973, in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Nine men eventually were arrested. Two were convicted and sent to prison. The others, including Girolamo Piromalli
Girolamo Piromalli
Girolamo Piromalli , also known as Mommo, was a historical and charismatic boss of the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type organisation in Calabria . His criminal base was his home town Gioia Tauro on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria...
and Saro Mammoliti, were acquitted for lack of evidence. Mammoliti, a fugitive at the time, was convicted for drug trafficking. Nevertheless, after he decided to collaborate with Italian justice, Saro Mammoliti confessed to have been involved in the kidnap.
The ransom of approximately US$3 million was invested in the trucks with which the 'Ndrangheta won all the transportation contracts for the container port of Gioia Tauro. (This turned out to be one of the biggest development white elephants in Italian history: only the Mafia ever made any serious money from it.)
Cordopatri case
The Mammolitis also exploited the estates belonging to the Cordopatri family. The Mammolitis through a front man, who paid only a symbolic rent, exploited the estates belonging to the family from 1964 up to the late 1980s. When baron Francesco Cordopatri finally succeeded in recovering control of the property in 1990, he was unable to pick the olives because local labourers systematically turned down his offers of employment, afraid of offending the Mammolitis. After his murder in July 1991, his sister Teresa Cordopatri attempted to continue, but she too faced insurmountable problems.The case made the national and international headlines in the summer of 1994 when the Finance Ministry threatened to confiscate the property for not paying taxes on the land (whose products her family had not enjoyed since the 1960s). was the resistance of the baroness Cardopatri resisted the confiscation and she started a hunger strike outside the law courts in Reggio Calabria
Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...
. Cardopatri was granted an extension to pay her taxes and the decade-long territorial expansion of the Mammoliti family began to be halted.
Peace among the olive trees
Judge Salvatore Boemi – investigating the murder of Francesco Cordopatri – ordered the arrest of 35 members of the Mammoliti clan, Saro Mammoliti included, in an operation dubbed ‘Peace among the olive trees’. Arrests were made in June and August 1992. Charges include allegations of the murder; six bomb attacks; 19 arson attacks; the destruction of 1,100 olive, citrus and kiwi trees in 15 separate incursions, and 14 instances of agricultural equipment stolen.Thanks almost exclusively to the baroness Cordopatri's testimony, Salvatore La Rosa – the material killer of her brother was sentenced to 25 years in prison, while Saro Mammoliti's nephew Francesco, held to be the man who ordered the murder, got life. Saro Mammoliti himself was sent down for 22 years for extortion and other Mafia-related charges. During the trials, the baroness denounced the relations between the Mammolitis and the local judiciary and politicians, such as the parliamentary leader of the far-right National Alliance
National Alliance
The National Alliance is a white separatist political organization. It was founded by University physics teacher Dr. William Luther Pierce in 1974, and is based in the Pierce family's compound in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Although it operates primarily in the United States, the National Alliance...
, Raffaele Valensise, and the former minister of Education, the Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
Riccardo Misasi.