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. |