VO

Sot – man in car night

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VO

SOT – man face blurred.

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The mafia in Naples is known as the Camorra. They are all powerful, they makes billions of pounds and they are completely ruthless.

If you want to escape the camorra its better you take a gun and shoot yourself.

The Camorra dominate much of civic life, from rubbish collection to the poverty stricken urban estates.

The camorra feeds the people.

You get me?

Recently 75 people have been shot dead in clan fighting, and the Italian army is on alert to enter Naples.

It is estimated that 50, 000 people make their living from the Camorra state, called the Systema.

I have come to speak to the secretive camorra and understand the workings of the Systema.

Leandro TC 01 01 18 00

Crime Journalist

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In Naples there is a form of blackmail called ‘the payback horse’. For example I steal your cup of coffee, then I come to you and say ‘I stole it’ then I come and say ‘do you want it back?. Yes? So then give me 100 Lira!’ So you give me a hundred lira and I give you the cup back. Its an incredible thing. Not only do I steal from you, but also I do you the favor of offering it back to you. And you thank me by paying me.

The ‘sistema’ is the daily exercise of violence against people who prefer to suffer it, or are forced to suffer it rather than denounce it. If everybody denounced it, the sytema would not exist.

VO

This ‘systema’ pervades much of life in Naples. The majority of shopkeepers, are expected to pay 100 of euros a day to the Camorra.

Those who refuse risk deadly retribution.

This is the shop of Silvana Fucito who has refused to pay extortion money.

Silvana Fucito

Shopkeeper

I have bodyguards as apart from denouncing 15 important Camorra men, I am also trying to convince other shopkeepers to denounce those who are extorting them.

VO

The Camorra’s control, stretches into all areas of civic life. Rubbish is left dumped for weeks on street corners as local councils are paralysed to collect it.

The camorra dominate the transportation and disposal of rubbish all over Italy, making the region of Campania one of the biggest rubbish dumps in Europe.

I set off with Vincenzo, my guide to find the vast illegal landfill sites.

We just followed the rubbish.

Its estimated that the Camorra make 4 billion pounds a year from the rubbish trade. The rubbish is toxic and allegedly international.

10,000 tonnes of toxic waste has been dumped in Campania in the last two years.

VO

Returning from the rubbish dump we went to Scampia, the tough suburbs that surrounds Naples.

These harsh estates are not the image of Italy one finds on postcards. 3 out of 5 people here are unemployed.

It is a stronghold of the Camorra Clans and contains some of the biggest drug selling piazzas in Europe.

VO

The residents here have been fighting to be re- housed for years. Slowly this is happening but those remaining are bitter at the Italian government and fearful of Camorra control.

Woman in Yellow

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I am too scared to spend much time in this area. There are no shops, there are no street lights. Even to walk to the metro station is dangerous.

Woman in Black.

Why do we have to live like this? If there were proper jobs for us, Napoli people wouldn’t be in this mess.

VO

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Close to these poverty stricken estates is the infamous Scarface mansion of former boss Walter Schiavone. Schiavone is now in jail but his burnt out mansion reveals something of the mentality of the Camorra bosses. Every room in the mansion mimics that of the Al-Pacino movie, from the stairs where Pacino dies, to the famous huge bath where Pacino runs his empire. It was quite surreal.

VO

I also met the rap group Crosungs, who feel strongly about how the people of Naples contine to live under the control of the sistema.

Antonio & Luca

Co’Sang

Its not just an issue of criminality. But its an issue of civic sense, of being more civilised. If I respect you, you will respect me. For example, just driving around in the car. In everything. Yes in everything, Its not just an issue of criminality, its about how we think, about our mentality here.

VO

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That night, my contacts gained access to the dealers on the estates. This is the moment of drug selling. The buyer collects on the other side of the railing.

Local drug selling earns an estimated 30 million pounds a year in for the camorra.

I arranged to meet one of the camorra involved in drugs. Speaking out is punishable by death – he agreed only if he could be anonymous. We met on the side of a motorway.

Camorra drug boss night

The ‘sistema’ is everywhere.

If you want to escape it, its better you take a gun and shoot yourself, as you will end up being killed.

If you are blacklisted, even if you escape to America, they will kill you.

• Why cannot it be destroyed?

• It can never be destroyed. The strongest thing here is the camorra.

The politicians need the camorra, like the police need the camorra.

• why?

• You know that to make an arrest, they have to ask the camorra first.

The most important people in the camorra are almost never arrested.

VO

The next morning I returned to the Estates in scampia to the Church of Maria de Esperanza. Don Fabrizio is at the heart of one of the most troubled communities in Italy.

Don Fabrizio

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To denounce people here does not help, as everybody knows, including the police and the politicians, what’s going on.

For all that happens here there are no real investigations carried out.

Many people ask about what the future will be. What is the possibility of change?

In this moment, I have to say that I don’t see any possibility of change. Because there is no project that is trying to tackle this situation.

VO

In the estates near the church I met a Camorra boss. These men control thousands of peoples lives, they are greatly feared. This is the first time such a boss has agreed to speak to camera.

Heroin Boss

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It’s a beautiful thing the camorra.

Because sometimes you really need hard people, with no hearts, no feelings.

So when a person from the camorra like this does something…people are filled with…. fear.

With the camorra live many people.

Because the camorra feeds the people.

You get me?

Here if there is a problem, a big problem, you don’t go to the state to solve it, you go to the camorra. If they want to, the camorra will solve it.

• How?

• 
  

• This way or that. You get me?

VO

The boss then took take me into the heroin piazzas.

Turf wars have recently been fought between different Camorra clans over the sale of cocaine and heroin in places such as this.

The piazzas are so tightly controlled that addicts can buy and spend days injecting, knowing they are safe from the authorities.

The heroin den was full of blood, urine, feaces and discarded needles.

This is the reality of the camorra business – this is where so much of their money is made.

Ending VO

The power of the camorra empire seems absolute.

In Naples, as long as there is no confidence in the Italian state, the people will continue to live within the Systema and be ruled by the Camorra state.

It is a bleak future.