CAMORRA SURGING, AND FOGGIA FAMILY BECOMES 5TH MAFIA

Italian authorities are fighting a few battles these days.  Italy, which has been decimated by COVID-19, is fighting perhaps a bigger battle now, as the once powerful Comorra mafia, and Foggia mafia are now making bold statements.   April first, a man wearing a protective face mask, was seen approaching a residential old folks home in Foggia.  Seconds later a huge explosion took place, blowing the doors off the facility.  This isn't the first explosion for the building as months earlier another explosion took place at the same facility.  Luca Vigilante and Christian Vigilante who are two witnesses in a mob case based in Foggia.  Authorities are calling this the emersion of the 5th mafia, located in Foggia. 

In Italy, you have N'drangheta based in Calabria, the Camorra based in Naples, the Sacra Carona Unita based in Apulia, and Cosa Nostra based in Sicily.  Since January, there has been three bombings, and a murder.  " This is the group who feeds it's victims to pigs, rather than leaving a body at the scene of the crime," Luciana Lamorgese who is the interior minister in Puglia.

The Foggia based group has been around since the 1970's, when the head of the Neapolitan mafia and founder of the Comorra Raffaele Cutolo, held a meeting with local criminals in Foggia in an attempt to hire and or recruit them to extend his influence and to help in a cigarette smuggling operation in the Balkans.   In Foggia, there are three criminal subgroups.  The Societa Foggiano, which mainly handles the drug trade and extortion.  The Cerignola clan, which handles cocaine smuggling, car thefts, and robberies, and the Foggia mafia.   It's widely believed that these groups are responsible for over 360 murders in the Gargano area alone, and 85% of those murders are unsolved.   During the pandemic the Foggia mafia has been loansharking and busting out businesses, much like other groups are.  

Meanwhile....

The Camorra based group, has been doing much of the same during the pandemic. They are attempting to regain a foothold in areas once lost.   In Campania, the Camorra has been successful in infiltrating businesses by buying them out, and giving out $50 dollars per person in the area who have fallen on financial hard times during the pandemic.  They are feeding the less fortunate and handing them money in return for support.   What's bigger is that Italy who has confiscated some seized 60,000 properties from the mafia, with the intention of reappropraiting them for needy people, have been taken back by the mob in large numbers.  65% percent of the seized properties, have been taken back by those it was taken from, which is creating a real headache for Italy.   If they can't take the properties back by strong-arming them, then they buy them off.  Businesses, and apartments are being bought up and taken by the very people they didn't want to own them.  The numbers don't lie.  In Campania 5,733 properties were seized, in Lombardy 3,410 were seized, In Apulia 2,798 were seized,  in Calabria 4,968 were seized, and in Sicily 13,933 were seized and 65% of all properties are right back into the mafia's hands.

While the Foggian mafia is relatively young in terms of history, they have shown an absolutely willingness to kill anyone in their way, corrupt anyone who is susceptible to low income.  While it may not be the best way to regain a foothold, it seems to be working, as the mob has fully stepped into the fray as the saviors of Italy.  They have done in many cases, what the Italian government has failed to do during the pandemic.   It's long reach and effects remain to be seen, but the emersion of the 5th family, and the resurgence of the Camorra is nothing to take lightly.