‘Ndrangheta and the Northern League: a mafia informant’s confessions in a book

After “Vatican Ltd”, the book that revealed the more obscure economic mechanisms of the Catholic Church, Gianluigi Nuzzi went in search of a new topic. “Our readers (“Vatican Ltd” has sold 150,000 copies) are careful and they want facts that can be documented; this is why we decided to focus on the ‘Ndrangheta, one of the least known mafia organisations, which is also one of the most powerful in the world. The ‘Ndrangheta is a European phenomenon that, with its turnover of €44 billion, can influence free trade between countries.” This is what the journalist of the newspaper “Libero” said about the idea of tackling this topic in his new book “Metastasis”.

Why this title? He explains, “The metastasis is the main theme of the book, starting with the supergrass, Giuseppe Di Bella, who, after the death of his wife from cancer, decided to tell the magistrates everything he hadn’t yet said. The ‘Ndrangheta, too, is a metastasis, an economic and social tumour that has extended the influence of its cancerous cells, from Calabria throughout the country, and even to Europe.”

It’s easy to say what emerges from this book. “What emerges is the grey area of the worlds of politics and business, that leads to the “code of silence”, which, in turn, leads to complicity,” Nuzzi explains. “What Claudio Antonelli (the book’s co-author) and I wanted to say is clearly explained in the last chapter: in order to beat the ‘Ndrangheta, we need the forces used to beat the terrorism of Al-Qaeda, not tanks, but intelligence, an abundance of men and means to uncover crime wherever it takes root”.

In the book, you replaced the names of the main characters, apart from the ‘Ndrangheta members, with letters of the Greek alphabet. Why? “We collected the confessions of a Mafia informant, words never said before, about events and people that have never been mentioned before,” Nuzzi says. “Since Claudio and I both support civil rights, we thought that the only person who should read those names was a judge; that’s why we sent a copy of our book to Giancarlo Capaldo, the Head Anti-Mafia Attorney in Rome, someone that we regard very highly, in whose professional abilities we have a great deal of faith. He has already opened a file.” Why not in Milan, where the “Infinito” enquiry began? “I know Giancarlo Capaldo, but I don’t know Ilda Boccassini, and also, in the book, we talk about Lombardy, Veneto and Calabria. Rome is the capital, so we chose the Anti-Mafia Office in Rome.”

What do you say about Varese? “Varese is the first place ‘Ndrangheta came to in the north, with Giacomo Zagari, it’s clearly been at the heart of the interests of the Mafia gangs from the start, because it’s considered the bridgehead for money-laundering with the Swiss banks”.