A 10-year investigation has exposed a partnership between the Sicilian Mafia and Mexican cartels in moving product across the Atlantic Ocean into Italy as reported by Andrew O'Reilly for Fox News:
Home to the notorious Sicilian Mafia, Italian officials recently unearthed information that Palermo's black market, along with other Italian ports, is used by Mexico’s ruthless drug cartels as a conduit to bring drugs to the European market. * * * The Italian-Mexican connection was allegedly spearheaded by Elio and Bruno Gerardi, two Italian brothers based out of Monterrey who shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine on behalf of Cosa Nostra inside of industrial ovens. While the two brothers remain at large, a number of key figures linked to the Italian organized crime group are in custody.
The 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia also has developled a partnership with the Mexican cartels in the United States for moving cocaine from New York City into Italy. Nicola Gratteri, a top anti-Mafia prosecutor in Italy warns that "this mafia is quickly spreading in the United States, particularly in Florida and New York" as reported by Beatrice Borromeo for The Daily Beast: "Gratteri's latest operations . . . uncovered a new route in the mafia's international drug trade, centered in New York City, where the crime syndicates can secure easy access to cocaine shipped in by Mexican cartels."
The Calabrian Mafia and Mexican cartels further have teamed up in Australia as reported by Mark Schlieb for The Australian: "The head of the UN's Office of Drugs and Crime in Mexico City, Antonio Mazzitelli, believes Mexican drug cartels have struck deals with Australian members of the powerful Italian mafia group, the 'Ndrangheta, to capitalize on the country's hugely profitable cocaine trade."
Earlier this month Italy requested the extradition of three men from Australia following convictions in absentia for their alleged roles in a plot to smuggle cocaine into Oz for the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. Of course, the Aussies live in denial, and are balking at the request. Italian prosecutor Maria Vittoria De Simone warns Australian officials that they ignore the 'Ndrangheta at their peril:
"We urge the Australian authorities to remember that 'Ndrangheta … represents an enormous risk for countries far from Italy. The 'Ndrangheta … runs the international cocaine market. It doesn't do its business in Calabria but around the world. It has infiltrated all economic sectors and it controls voting and political candidates at a national and international level. I urge the Australians not to underestimate this organisation. Otherwise it will be too late.''
Funny, while the world spent the last ten years obsessing over terrorists organized crime took over the world. Good luck now in taking it down; frankly, it's probably already too late.
Of course, law enforcement in the United States long has employed a meaningless strategy of targeting small fish and visible targets like street dealers, and then convincing the naive public that they're tough on crime. Apparently, if citizens can't see the crime then it really doesn't exist, and accordingly the politicians, cops and prosecutors allow organized crime to thrive with little pushback.
