REPORTER: Nick Lazarides
In an outer suburb of Naples it's business as usual for Italy's national police the carabinieri. Like most nights, they're on the streets fighting a tidal wave of violence and murder which has yet again turned Naples into a battleground in a way that's never been seen before. Organised crime, mafia clans have returned with a vengeance 600 people have been killed in the past year and the police are struggling to keep control. Tonight, Dateline goes behind the front lines of this struggle with rare access to a Camorra gang member.

GIOVANNI, (Translation): The Camorra can never die in Naples, it keeps growing. The Camorra is the state, because it feeds us, gives us money, while the state gives us fuck-all. The Camorra is my family, and that's that.

While the toll of this mafia resurgence is devastating the streets of Naples, the Camorra threat is expanding throughout Italy, and beyond.


MAURIZIO CERINO, JOURNALIST, (Translation): It's not idle fantasy that the Camorra is expanding. That's why we call it the Octopus, the tentacle that reaches out.

Like in the past when the mafia had a powerful presence in Italy, their licence to operate is only possible because of high-level links to the Italian Government.

AMATO LAMBERTI, CRIMINOLOGIST, (Translation): In Italy organised crime has never had such a freehand as it has today. That's the basic fact. Of course the loss of moral fibre also means that certain connections between public administration, politicians and organised crime that had been loosened, today have resumed in full.

CLAUDIO DOMIZZI, CARABINIERI CHIEF, (Translation): The western part of Naples that we have seen is on the city outskirts, it was under the Di Lauro clan’s influence and it is where the current confrontation is. But everywhere around here is dangerous.

If there's a leading general in the battle against the Camorra, then Claudio Domizzi might take the honour. He's the boss of the city's Carabinieri contingent, but unlike his desk-bound colleagues elsewhere in Italy, most nights Claudio is on the frontline.
And more than once he's found himself at the receiving end of the Camorra's violence.

CLAUDIO DOMIZZI, (Translation): Last Friday there was an ugly gunfight in another suburb. When they saw our car, a Stilo like this one, the bike riders started shooting with an Uzi submachine gun and a sawn-off shotgun.

Right now, Naples is in lockdown, as the Carabinieri try to keep the warring Camorra clans in check. According to Colonel Domizzi, today's Camorra clan members are far more dangerous and brutal than ever before.

CLAUDIO DOMIZZI, (Translation): There's been a brutalisation, a heightened ruthlessness. For instance they used to respect women more, they didn't stoop to today's levels. Now there's an international network of drugs, prostitution rackets and arms trafficking. The stakes are very high, there's a lot of money to be made, so all bets are off, the code of honour has gone.

For the hordes of international visitors Naples is a striking gateway to Italy's south, and Pompeii, Italy's biggest tourist attraction.
Naples ranks among the top cities in the country. But the city has always had an edge. And it has lived under the shadow of the Camorra, for a very long time.

MAURIZIO CERINO, (Translation): Historically, the Camorra had its beginnings around 1700 as a substitute for the non-existent power of the Bourbon king. The Camorra was created to keep the peace, to collect debt, to impose marriage on women who had been raped, a whole host of things. It took over the authority of the state.

Few people understand the Camorra like veteran crime reporter Maurizio Cerino. In 25 years on the Naples police beat he's attended over 2,000 Camorra killings, but the nature of those killings has changed.

MAURIZIO CERINO, (Translation): The Mafia didn't kill people. It doled out punishment, stabbing or shooting people in the legs, kneecapping them. But never ever were such a huge number of people killed, particularly with such contempt and such violence against a corpse.
Those rules have disappeared. They have been thrown out by the younger generation, a generation that is not driven by a thirst for power, but by lust for the power of terror, the power to terrorise people.

The levels of violence have been horrific, and anyone standing up to the mob is fair game. In the inner city community of Forcello, with its maze of narrow alleyways and apartment blocks, neither the Government nor the police are in control. The only authority here that counts is the Camorra.
In Forcello, the situation is so desperate, the parish priest is on a Camorra death list and has to be protected by police bodyguards.

FATHER LUIGI MEROLA, PARISH PRIEST (Translation): It all started when I spoke out against the drug dealing activity outside the church.

Father Luigi Merola was barely 30 years old when he was sent to Forcello. And it wasn't long before the trouble started.

FATHER LUIGI MEROLA, (Translation): I organised a group of young people of the parish and a group of adults to give me a hand and together we waged what I call a “civil war”. Not war as in armed struggle, but a fight to awaken the conscience. I mean, these people must fall in love with goodness. They can't love evil, they have to love goodness.

But Father Merola, by speaking out against the evil of crime soon drew a response from the Camorra.

FATHER LUIGI MEROLA, (Translation): Then the situation got even worse and finally I was visited at the parish by a prominent member of the Giuliano family. Pretending to praise me for the work I do with the children, he said that I did a good job within the church, but as for meddling in other affairs, particularly drugs, I’d better stay out of it or I’d be given a sentence. When I heard the word sentence, I reeled because he meant...He made a sign with his hand. He was blessing me! I give blessings, I don't receive them.

For this young priest death is never far away. Even when he performs funeral services, the police bodyguards are watching every move in the crowd of mourners. And there's no doubt he is a marked man - the blessing he received from the local crime boss was just one of the threats. The next one came through the church confession box.

FATHER LUIGI MEROLA, (Translation): “Father, they say that you're harassing people, try to cool it.” They send their boys, under the cover of confession so you can't report them, and the message is delivered. I can't help feeling scared, sometimes, because I'm human, but then when I look at the children, I know I must continue on this path for their sake.

RAFFAELE DURANTE, (Translation): After we heard the noise, we looked from the balcony and saw someone on the ground. Then when I took a better look I saw that it was my daughter. I live on the first floor. I went down straight away. I tried to lift her, and saw blood on my hand. But I didn’t think, I thought that she had fallen or something.

Alone in his little toy shop in an alleyway of Forcello - Raffaele Durante has only photographs to remember his daughter Annalisa. Her cold-blooded murder last year ignited an unprecedented outpouring of public grief and sympathy.

RAFFAELE DURANTE, (Translation): Words cannot describe it. What can I say? It is the grief of having lost our daughter, that’s all. We carry our grief inside. We’re just waiting….my wife and I believe in God and trust that justice will be done, that the guy who did this will pay. That's all that’s left to us.

But Raffaele Durante's agony continues. Although he knows exactly who his daughter's killer is the man has not been arrested, and remains in hiding. Even worse, the killer's family continues to threaten the Durante family for taking a public stand.

RAFFAELE DURANTE, (Translation): They still coming to threaten us, his father and his mother, who swears at me. They live in this alley, just one hundred metres from here. His father comes by sometimes, because I filed a suit against his son. Speaking in Neapolitan, he said, “If you don't withdraw the suit you'll see what I am going to do.”

Annalisa was killed in this narrow alleyway. She was returning home from a church group when one Camorra man who was being chased by another suddenly grabbed her as a shield. Undeterred the second assailant shot her through the head.
Reacting to the public shock at Annalisa's ruthless murder the local government named Forcello's new public school in her memory. Now her father has become a symbol for those in Naples that want an end to the rule of the Camorra.

RAFFAELE DURANTE, (Translation): The truth is, they say I'm a symbol. I'd rather not be a symbol and have my daughter back. I'm ashamed of being a Neapolitan, the way things are going now.

But at least the Durante family have the courage to stay. For the Scherillo family the pain and fear from their loss is driving them away.

SCHERILLO BROTHERS, (Translation): I wanted to touch him, to hug him for the last time, but they didn't let me touch him because they said it could taint the evidence, terrifying moments. Even now, thinking about it gives me goose bumps.

Just before Christmas last year when Dario Scherillo waved goodbye to his brothers, hopped on his motorbike and drove around the corner seconds later he was dead, shot in the back. Although the killers fled police soon learned that it was a case of mistaken identity. Dario had a similar motorbike to that of a local drug dealer targeted by a rival clan.

SCHERILLO BROTHERS, (Translation): Since then were all afraid in this town because what happened to him can happen to anybody. Now were afraid. That's why we don't want to stay in this area. We're leaving, we've put our house on sale. It's not easy to leave overnight, but we're selling the house because we don't see ourselves in this reality, not at all.

The reality is that the entire city of Naples is divided up between mafia clans. But it's in two of Naples' outer suburbs where a power vacuum marked the start of the latest Camorra war.
The suburbs of Scampia and Secondigliano - represent Naples' Red Zone. In the past year, the Di Lauro clan has been fighting to retain control of these streets as rival clans try to take over.


MAURIZIO CERINO, (Translation): In the Naples area, Secondigliano supplies 90% of the heroin market, for cocaine the figure is down to about 60%. It is practically the maxi-store of heroin for southern Italy.

Only from the air, are the true dimensions of this housing estate for the masses apparent. The stark ugliness of the architecture underscores the desperate poverty here. Italy might be one of the world's top industrialised nations but here the only trappings of wealth are to be found in the heavily fortified compounds of the Camorra clan bosses. For the Italian authorities this is ground zero.
Tonight the authorities are raiding a gaming hall popular with Camorra clan members. They're looking for wanted suspects, as well as weapons and drugs. Some wear balaclavas to avoid retribution against their families. Raids like this take place almost every night but the authorities recognise that they're barely scratching the surface.
However, in the past six months, there has been one major success story in their ongoing struggle - the arrest of one of Naples' most feared crime bosses Cossimo Di Lauro. But in Naples the legend and romance of the Camorra along with Cossimo Di Lauro's good looks earned the gangster an instant cult following. His picture was on kids' mobile phones within days and the police were to learn the extent of the local support for Di Lauro when they mounted a massive raid to arrest his fellow clan members.

CLAUDIO DOMIZZI, (Translation): Obviously 800 carabinieri means almost 300 cars, so we had to set up a major operation. We split into groups and drove to various destinations, all at the same time, at 3am. It was very hard to coordinate.

Hundreds of suspects were rounded up but it provoked a protest, not gratitude from local residents. The women and children had apparently been sent to tackle to police by their husbands, fathers and brothers hiding within the maze of apartments.
As part of the protest a patrol car was smashed. In these streets, the police are thought of as foreign invaders. But how has the Camorra been able to command what's almost feudal loyalty from the locals who live under its shadow?

GIOVANNI, (Translation): We still live in a garbage dump, like in the eighties. We live on the street, because there are no jobs, nothing to do. You steal, break and enter, whatever, and if you die, you die. But when you live in these suburbs of Naples, you’re as good as dead anyway because you have no future, nothing.

On the strictest conditions of anonymity, Dateline secured a revealing interview with a member of one of Naples' fighting Camorra clans.

GIOVANNI, (Translation): At 12 I was stealing, bag snatching, stealing cars, robbing couples, at 15 I shot a man in the legs. Right now I sell drugs and steal cars. My area is central Naples.

We were warned that if his identity was ever revealed we would also suffer retribution, but threats aside, Giovanni, as he calls himself was happy to give us his insight into Naples' Camorra gangs.

GIOVANNI, (Translation): The real state is the Camorra in Naples. It gives us jobs, feeds us, looks after us in a way it gives us a future. Many think its a negative future, but for me its a positive because its the only way to survive, to earn money so you can eat. The government never gave me a chance to earn money, the camorra did and I love them. They are my mother and father, I owe them everything.

In Naples, it's estimated that there could be upwards of 20,000 full-time Camorra foot-soldiers like Giovanni. He says, a whole generation of Naples' youth, has been have been swayed by the power of the Camorra and he blames Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his government for not providing any alternative to that of a life of crime.

GIOVANNI, (Translation): The fact is that Berlusconi has never helped us, the government is not helping us, so kids kill people to earn 400 or 500 euros. A 16-year-old gets 500 euro for killing two or three people. There’s no end to this situation.

As Naples Camorra clans tighten their grip and the body count rises you might expect some measure of sympathy from clan members about the innocent victims whose lives have been claimed. But even on murders like Annalisa Durante, Giovanni draws a hard line.

GIOVANNI, (Translation): It's your opinion that they're innocent victims. But when you go to kill you don’t usually make mistakes. These things happen for reasons known only to clan members who understand the situation.

But some people are speaking out against the ruthless climate of fear created by the Camorra. Silvana Fucito took a public stand against the Camorra and has put her life at risk. Like Father Merola in Forcella, the police provide her with 24 hour protection.

SILVANA FUCITO, (Translation): Right now I’m under police protection, not so much because I reported the crime but for my role in the association. Because we have created such a strong movement that we’re not just fighting one clan, but the whole Neapolitan Camorra organisation.

Before she became an anti-mafia symbol Silvana Fucito thought little about the Camorra until she and her husband decided to set up a business in a coastal town close to Naples. They started up a paint shop but within just a few months of the opening, the Camorra came calling.

SILVANA FUCITO, (Translation): At first they asked for small sums, then the amount of money became astronomical. They wanted 20 million lire, 30 million. To begin with they were asking nicely then they began to threaten us. For instance they’d come in then pick an excuse to pull out a gun and pretended to put a bullet in the chamber, or maybe they actually did, I don't know. It was a clear threat as to say, pay up or else.

Silvana's refusal to pay protection money brought a swift reaction from the local Camorra clan.

SILVANA FUCITO, (Translation): The fire burned for three days. So the police were kept busy and had to close the street. On the night of the fire, disgusted by their action, we went to the police and reported them, and told them what we had been through for two years. We named about 15 people. This is when they were arrested. 14 men went to jail and one is still at large.

Silvana gave evidence against Camorra clan members who were eventually sent to prison. Emboldened by her success she then set-up an association for businesspeople against the Camorra, supporting those who say 'no' to racketeering and extortion.

SILVANA FUCITO, (Translation): Of course what they did to me can never be undone, but it has helped others, because it proved that if you don't do something about it, sooner or later you can expect big trouble to fall on your head like a sword of Damocles, and completely destroy you.

Silvana's continuing stand against the Camorra has made her a marked woman. Authorities have confirmed that she's on a clan death-list. But Silvana says at least her conscience is clear -

SILVANA FUCITO, (Translation): I used to live in fear before, because before I would have died like a mouse. The danger was a humiliating danger. Today even if I am in danger, at least I don't feel ashamed when I look people in the eye, when I look my children in the eye.

The key to the Camorra's capacity to generate so much wealth is due to Naples' position as a cargo hub a major gateway to Europe. But along with the legitimate cargo, this port is also the backbone for the Camorra's international network drug imports from South America and Asia, and arms trafficking to the Middle East. Experts say that as organised crime continues to expand its operations the Italian Government becomes more susceptible to its influence.

AMATO LAMBERTI, (Translation): My impression is that today Italy is becoming the weakest link in the fight against organised crime. That’s because objectively we are seeing an expansion of the organised crime in the economy that is much stronger than it used to be.

Amato Lamberti is Italy's most renowned criminologist and expert on organised crime. He's also a long-time resident of Naples and a professor at the city's university. He says there's now clear evidence that the mafia clans are again wielding influence at the highest levels of government.

AMATO LAMBERTI, (Translation): We can't just look at what happens locally, the shootings, the petty crimes, all that. There are bigger interests at stake that involve the government through the secret service. Because organised crime has money, it controls people, controls activities and it also makes it easier for politicians to make money for themselves.

To explain his point about collusion between organised crime and state authorities, Lamberti points to recent arms deals in the Middle East, in violation of international sanctions.

AMATO LAMBERTI, (Translation): If I were to go to Iran, I’d see that the Iranian police have an Italian Beretta in the holster. Who sold it to them? In Iran, the guided missiles, the anti-tank ones, they are Italian-made. It is written on them, BPD (Bomprini, Parodi and Delfino). How did those missiles arrive in Iran from Italy? Arms factories are controlled by the state and by the customs police, nothing can escape them. How do they get there? There's a link between industry, state and organised crime. They organise the traffic and its all money that goes into the state coffers.

Professor Lamberti believes that the growing power of the Camorra is connected to the policies of Italy's flamboyant Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi has been fighting Italian magistrates for years over persistent corruption allegations. Recently he has attempted to restrict their powers.

AMATO LAMBERTI, (Translation): The Berlusconi Government has weakened the judiciary, because it has damaged its credibility. Many Magistrates are unwilling to do their job, because it’s not an easy direction to follow, as proven by the judges killed by the Mafia.

What's alarming some commentators is that Berlusconi now wants to change the Italian constitution, in an effort to weaken the separation of powers between the executive and the Judiciary.

MAURIZIO CERINO, (Translation): He's changing the constitution, which is the foundation of any state, and is twisting it in order to limit the power of the judiciary, and in particular to have control over it.

But Senator Luigi Bobbio speaking on behalf of the government says the current separation of powers doesn't work in fighting against organised crime. He believes that the country's independent judiciary is letting off too many suspects. He defends Berlusconi's right to change the constitution and rein in the magistrates.

SENATOR LUIGI BOBBIO, (Translation): When a system, like the Italian one, provides the link between the work of the police which is controlled by the government, and the actions of the judiciary, which is absolutely independent. When this vital link is not working, that is, when it is not effective, when it encroaches on the sphere of the judiciary and it doesn’t give the results you’d expect, then that poses a serious problem for society.

But Berlusconi's efforts to stymie the judiciary don't stop at the changing the constitution. He also wants to reduce the statute of limitations for certain crimes. Maurizio Cerino says this may have a dangerous side effect for clans like the Camorra.

MAURIZIO CERINO, (Translation): People serving jail terms of 14 or 15 years, will be out the next day if that law is approved, and they will go back to doing what they were doing before they were arrested, back to their life of crime.

Professor Lamberti says Berlusconi's history of using his power to weaken the legal system creates a dangerous climate.

AMATO LAMBERTI, (Translation): That's very wrong, because it gives people the message that today you can get around the law, you don't need to obey it. That's the worse thing this government has done.

In the last election in 2001 Berlusconi's party Forza Italia won a massive share of the vote in Sicily. Professor Lamberti investigated the result and concluded that an understanding existed with the local mafia.

AMATO LAMBERTI, (Translation): The resounding success of Forza Italia in Sicily is directly connected to the fact that it didn’t antagonise the Mafia, it made an alliance with it. So, with the help of those who control the territory, with the help of those who control a large section of the population, with the help of those who can bring people to vote, perhaps by handing them 50 euros, obviously obtained that result.

No official investigation of the alleged mafia vote deal has ever been conducted, and the Government deny any collusion.
For those confronting the scourge of the Camorra at the local level the task is immense. Father Merola believes it will take much more than a police crackdown.

FATHER LUIGI MEROLA, (Translation): People left idle in a corrupt environment, can potentially turn bad, they're a time bomb. We don't just need the police, we need jobs. To fight the Camorra we must offer alternatives. I know kids who don't want to be drug dealers any more and ask me for something to do.

With little hope of a government-led quick fix to the poisonous spread of organised crime in Naples, Father Merola might indeed be putting his life on the line for a hopeless cause. Local Camorra clan bosses already have him marked for elimination, and, according to our informant, it's a death warrant that won't be reversed.

GIOVANNI, (Translation): Because the priest has sided with the government, it makes things a bit hard, but in the end the priest will die and we will keep working. The priest has betrayed us.
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