Speaker 1:

For a while, Naples was showing the world it was serious about eradicating its crime. The last decades were an economic and cultural renaissance. Civic spaces were reclaimed and the Piazzas and palaces restored.Then along came Maria Licciardi, and the city was plunged back into the abyss.

This godmother of crime is waging one of the bloodiest Mafia wars in living memory. In the last year, 120 have been killed as Maria Licciardi fights for control of the underworld. Her hit men roam the streets of Naples enforcing her law. Licciardi is as brutal as her male counterparts, but she's proving to be more intelligent. Under her control, the Mafia, or Camorra, as it's known in Naples, is more united, more sophisticated and more unstoppable.

Luigi Bobbio:

[Italian].

Lucy Licciardi:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

This is Maria Licciardi country, the outer suburbs of Naples. Housing commission gone wrong. Every day is a battle between police and Licciardi's drug dealers. And today, we ride along with an undercover unit for yet another raid. It's an almost futile exercise. Everyone in Naples knows Licciardi has complete control and the enforcers to help her keep it.

Speaker 4:

[Italian].

Speaker 1:

A job with the clan is one of the only means of survival, especially with unemployment at 50 percent. 40 Camorra clans vie for control of Naples. From this area, Licciardi rules over most of them and in so doing, gets the profits of the city's lucrative heroin and cocaine trade. These buildings are literally riddled with drugs.

Speaker 5:

[Italian]

Speaker 4:

[Italian]

Speaker 6:

[Italian]

Speaker 5:

[Italian] Each one 800 USA dollars.

Speaker 6:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

This looks like a small success, but it's not. The detectives know the drug dealers will be open for business again within 10 minutes of them leaving.

Speaker 6:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

While Licciardi enriches herself from the drug profits, every day the police are notified of at least two fatal overdoses. This is the only picture the police have of Maria Licciardi. It was taken when they held her briefly in custody, unbelievably, they let her go. Unknown to the investigators, she took control of her family's Mafia clan from her brother Gennaro who was arrested in 1993 and later murdered in jail.

Lucy Licciardi, no relation to Maria Licciardi, is the only journalist to get access to The Godmother's inner circle. She says the police have filed to gather the evidence needed to convict Licciardi.

Lucy Licciardi:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

But the police will have great difficulty in even identifying her. Licciardi has changed her looks to keep ahead of the law.

Lucy Licciardi:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

The role of women in the Mafia, or the Camorra as it's known in Naples, was glamorised in this Italian film 'Il Camorrista'. It's based on the true story of Rosetta "Ice Eyes" Cutolo who took over the Camorra in the late 1970's after her brother Raphael was imprisoned.

Speaker 7:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

If this sounds familiar, it's because Licciardi took her inspiration from Ice Eyes. Both women survived the machismo world of the Mafia because they are brilliant and brutal managers who deliver record profits from drugs and extortion. Cutolo evaded justice for 10 years and was only ever convicted of Mafia association. She was acquitted of nine murder charges.

The success of Licciardi and Cutolo as Mafia bosses is helped by a belief in Italian society that women of the Mafia are innocent. That the bosses keep them pure and away from business, and the role of the Mafia wife, daughter, or sister is to suffer in silence.

It's something Judge Luigi Bobbio is well aware of. He's the senior prosecutor trying to bring Licciardi to justice.

Luigi Bobbio:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

On the streets, the police are fighting back and say they are closing in on Licciardi by using the latest technology and streamlining the various levels of investigation.

Licciardi's investigators say they know where she is, but they will wait until they have mapped out her entire criminal empire and all it's personnel and activities before they strike and secure convictions.

Speaker 8:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

And this is the problem for Judge Bobbio. The code of silence. 70 of Licciardi's men have been arrested on drug charges. They do the time but they never talk about Maria Licciardi. The code of silence with the Mafia was broken in Sicily, but many of the investigators paid with their lives. The 400 turncoats, or informers they coerced, resulted in Sicily's biggest Mafia bosses being jailed in the mid-1990's. In Naples, Judge Bobbio can't crack the silence and for trying his headquarters was bombed three days before this interview.

Luigi Bobbio:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

The other problem is that the Camorra is spreading it's crime net and becoming more sophisticated in it's operations.

Luigi Bobbio:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

And this trend can be seen in the backstreets of Naples. The Camorra buy these girls from the Albanian Mafia for 2000 US dollars. Many of them come on the promise of legitimate work to escape the crushing poverty of their homeland, but when they arrive they become the Camorra's property and are forced into prostitution. Many are below age according to these undercover police trying to control the human trade. Maria Licciardi has brought the Camorra to a new low. It took a female leader to break the code of conduct that once forbade the Mafia from making money from prostitution.

Bruno Rubino:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

The Camorra, like other Mafia associations in Italy, started out as a kind of social welfare network in the late 1800's. The local boss kept the order, solved disputes, and looked after the people. The crime only started at the end of the second World War when they began taking taxes from market vendors and dealing in contraband cigarettes.

And here, one of the parishes on Maria Licciardi's home turf of Secondigliano, the people still see goodness in the Camorra. That's because Licciardi clans still gives an occasional handout to the poor in this area.

Speaker 10:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

Parish priest, Father Nick Odemo, fears the Camorra has become more powerful than the state. In Secondigliano the government provides no social welfare, education is difficult, and unemployment is endemic.

In the minds of the people their politicians don't care so the Camorra remain unchallenged in delivering it's version of employment and morality.

Speaker 10:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

Edmondo Carino is one of the leading anti-Mafia lawyers in Naples. He has successfully prosecuted the Camorra 25 times. To deal with Licciardi and the Camorra, Carino thinks the government will have to do a lot more than mere policing.

Speaker 11:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

But there might be some hope. Last year saw the first ever anti-Camorra demonstrations in Naples. It was a sign that the people are taking a stand against the culture of fear, violence, and corruption forced on them by Licciardi and the Camorra. The demonstrations were sparked by the deaths of two innocent boys, Gigi Servino and Paolo Costaldi, who were caught in the crossfire of a Camorra clan war.

Speaker 12:

[Italian]

V. Castaldi:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

Their parents have done something that's almost inconceivable, they've spoken out, organised the demonstrations, and started a long-term campaign against the Camorra.

V. Castaldi:

[Italian]

Speaker 12:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

But they haven't yet broken the grip the Camorra has over the community. The local clan even tried to stop them from setting up this memorial. The investigation into the murder of Gigi and Paolo has been met with silence. The parents and friends of the boys know there are eyewitnesses but say they're too scared to speak out against the Camorra killers.

V. Castaldi:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

It's been about six months since the shootings and Gigi and Paolo's friends are setting up a drop in centre for the local youth. It's a small but important step. They want to show the community there is another way than the Camorra path. Gigi and Paolo have become a symbol of resistance against the Camorra, and their friends hope this centre will be the start of a community ground swell against the Camorra.

Salvatore C.:

[Italian]

Vincenzo E.:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

Meanwhile, Licciardi's drug dealers and hit men continue to terrorise Naples. The city's regeneration has been put on hold.

Luigi Bobbio:

[Italian]

Speaker 1:

In a bid to restore public confidence the government has sent in 1000 Special Forces troops. The message of these very public displays of force is to show the state is in control, but Licciardi's power grows every day. Out of the authority's sights and in the shadows her empire continues to hold the city firmly in it's grip, and the people of Naples know when she is eventually caught, or taken out by a rival, there will be another waiting to take her place.