mob war: bloodbath feared in mafia heartland after scion's murder
a bitter underworld bloodbath is brewing in the boot of...
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a bitter underworld bloodbath is brewing in the boot of italy. the area has seen decades of internecine warfare among the 40 or so ‘ndrangheta clans that battle for supremacy in a slew of rackets. some legit. some not.
experts say the gangs’ power in italian society stems from its multi-billion dollar control of the cocaine trade.
now, shock waves are reverberating through the calabrian gangland with the shocking murder of mob scion antonio strangio. the remains of the 42-year-old father of four were discovered about a week after he vanished.
the pastoral setting where strangio was discovered incinerated. italian police
strangio’s end came in an incinerated suv, and he had to be identified from charred bone, a necklace and some teeth. and while he was a farmer, his father was the notorious guiseppe strangio.
papa rules a hyper-violent ‘ndrangheta clan known as the “barbarians.”
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“if this was an attack on the strangios, repercussions would be inevitable. their ‘inquiries’ are not as slow as those of the police,” underworld expert antonio nicaso, a queens university professor, told the u.k. sun.
“we will know soon enough. the ‘ndrangheta has always known how to communicate effectively without using many words.”
organized crime expert antonio nicaso expects answers to strangio’s death soon.. antonio nicaso/ twitter
if history is any indication, the streets of southern italy will soon be awash in blood.
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guiseppe strangio, 70, was responsible for the country’s most notorious kidnapping. in 1988, his henchmen snatched 19-year-old cesare casella and kept him prisoner in a secret bunker for two years until his family paid more than $1 billion for his release.
“if it turns out to be murder, nobody will go to the authorities, but justice will be done inside the ‘ndrangheta and the violence is guaranteed to be excruciating,” author alex perry said.
kidnap victim: cesare casella’s mob kidnappers were paid more than $1 billion for his release. getty images
“the killers will make it as painful as possible. it may not be instant revenge as they are willing to wait until the moment they can cause maximum outrage, so just after a wife has given birth or on someone’s birthday.”
he added: “this could reignite a feud that will last for decades but has already gone back 20 years. they kill each other much more often than anybody else.
“they are horrendously violent. there’s always a romance around mafia stories but the ‘ndrangheta kill that stone dead.”
police guide an arrested person out of a residential house in hagen, western germany, on may 3, 2023 as part of a “wide-scale” operation against the notorious italian ‘ndrangheta mafia across europe. (photo by alex talash/afp via getty images)
the slew of horrors tied to gangland settling of accounts in calabria are legion. one female betrayer was forced to drink acid and in addition to run-of-the-mill murders, the clan has slaughtered animals as warnings, with puppies, dolphins and goats beheaded.
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after the strangios were pummelled by a massive asset seizure in germany, six members of a rival clan were massacred in a mass shooting. one of the dead was an 18-year-old celebrating his birthday.
the slaughter was reportedly revenge for the killing of a gangster’s wife a year prior. that particular feud started over the tossing of a firecracker at a town festival.
courageous: mob whistleblower lea garofalo was tortured and killed.
in 2023, 200 members of the strangio borgata were caged as their horrors were exposed in a heavily guarded rome courtroom.
the group emerged supreme over its rival, the sicilian cosa nostra, when cops and the government zeroed in. that left the european cocaine trade wide open.
cops had previously considered the ‘ndrangheta clans as “a group of goat herders who did their trousers up with twine,” perry added.
“they took power and put people all over latin america and west africa and created a whole new drug trafficking route from south america to europe. coke consumption went through the roof, from a rare drug to one you could find in any nightclub.”
but in calabria, the godfathers, capos and soldiers remain low-key despite a $9 billion criminal empire.
“they have become a global enterprise yet have stayed local in these little villages in calabria, up in the mountains, or they live in fairly grim seaside towns,” perry told the u.k. sun.
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“they speak a different dialect, are immensely secret and family is at the root of everything, but in an almost cult way. the motivation is a mystery to anyone who studies them.”
perry added: “the ‘ndrangheta are horrendously violent. they kind of reject education, so the men are inarticulate and thuggish.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@huntertosun
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