by motorfab » Wed May 04, 2022 8:20 am
The discreet French “cousins” of the Calabrian mafia on the Côte d’Azur, by Simon Piel and Thomas Saintourens.
https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/ ... I4X7d4kwCE
The article has a paywall, so for those who couldn't read it here it is
Various judicial investigations suggest that clans of the 'Ndrangheta have strong relays in the south of France. Despite the good results of a joint police operation, Italian magistrates believe that France is slow to take the measure of the threat.
Shaved head, trimmed beard, a tall guy in a black T-shirt stamped with the logo of the Croatian football team adjusts his shot under the discreet lens of gendarmes in hiding. The weather is nice, this Tuesday afternoon in June 2019, in the hinterland of Cannes.
In Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes), it's time for petanque. Domenico, the shooter, loves the warm atmosphere of the Boule Amicale Sporting club. We carry each other. We laugh. The youngest compete with the elders. Sometimes even, after a successful competition, the best have the honor of seeing their name appear in Nice-Matin.
Here, everyone knows "Domi", 38 years old, son of Serafino, grandson of Girolamo, nephew of Antonio. The Magnolis and their cousins, the Stanganellis and the Giovinazzos, arrived in the region three generations ago, when the famous local pottery workshops were hiring with a vengeance.
Domenico Magnoli is of the discreet type. He lives frugally, drives a Twingo, has worked since 2016 as a night watchman – monthly salary: 1,500 euros – and takes care of his two children, of whom he has joint custody. He lives in Valbonne, a little further up in the Alpes-Maritimes department. There too, he knows people. He is a man who has good interpersonal skills, appreciated by all. In 2020, at the time of the municipal elections, the campaign team of the socialist senator and former mayor of Valbonne Marc Daunis even asked him to mobilize voters.
Rare are the days when "Domi" does not stop to greet another of his uncles, also named Girolamo, owner in Vallauris of the Petite Brasserie, a bar with a black sign located not far from the center, between a pizzeria and the fire station. Domenico has his habits there. When he says he goes "to the bar", it's a bit like there's no other one around. More often than not, he drinks a coffee and spins. From time to time, he sits down for a game of cards, takes news of the family, chats with the gardener of the town, a loyal customer of the place. A few words of Italian sometimes escape: if Domenico Magnoli was born in Cannes, the family roots are in Rosarno, in Calabria, so to speak at the tip of the Boot.
On closer inspection, the attachment of Vallauris bowlers to their homeland is not just a matter of nostalgia. It feeds on other alliances and business relationships of a particular kind. According to judicial investigations carried out in Italy, this small Franco-Italian colony is indeed linked to one of the main clans of the powerful Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. The clan in question is that of the Piromalli-Molè, the historical “masters” of the port of Gioia Tauro, the epicenter of many traffics, a few kilometers from Rosarno. According to the transalpine police, the Magnoli have long since pledged allegiance to the Piromalli-Molè, to the point of having made Vallauris a kind of French relay of the "mother house". An unprecedented survey, conducted on both sides of the border, helps to better decipher these links: the "Ponente Forever" file, so named in reference to the Riviera which connects Genoa to the French border.
The dishonest partner
An episode having as its setting the Petite Brasserie de Vallauris gives the measure, according to the police, of mafia activities in the hinterland of Cannes. It dates back to the evening of May 27, 2019. That day, it was 7:50 p.m. when gendarmes in hiding saw Domenico Magnoli, the famous bowler, find two Italians. One is called Carmelo Sgro, he comes from Arma di Taggia, in Liguria. The other is his cousin Alfonso Gallico, based in Veneto, in the northeast. An Albanian accompanies them: Armand Kerkuku, 32 years old.
The trio did not come to talk pétanque; nor is it just a friendly get-together. The two Italian visitors are related to the cosca ("cell") Gallico, a family of the 'Ndrangheta reigning in Palmi, a Calabrian town located not far from Rosarno and Gioia Tauro. The Albanian belongs to a gang specializing in drug trafficking based in Parma, in the north of the peninsula. If he made the trip to Vallauris, it was to settle a "commercial" dispute and recover his due.
Two days earlier, on the other side of the border, he handed 11 kilos of cocaine to a Frenchman, a certain Patrick Viegas, reputed to be gambler and unreliable. However, this thirty-year-old, who is gladly nicknamed “Gustavo”, in reference to a kingpin from the Breaking Bad series, spun with drugs without paying the 317,000 euros provided.
Carmelo Sgro, who played the role of intermediary in the transaction, does not intend to pay for him. Hence the idea of resorting to Magnoli, in Vallauris. They too know Viegas, and will be able to make him understand that he has serious creditors on his heels. Carmelo is the most furious: he would even be ready to put a "caliber" in the mouth of the daring. The Albanian, he prefers to calm things down: “I lost 11 loaves of bread and you want me to go to prison now! »
While chatting on the café terrace or near the bowling green, they feel safe from a possible “sound system” set up by overly curious investigators. “Domi”, the local man, seems to be leading the conversation. Both regularly take a look around. After only a few minutes, the meeting ends and this same "Domi" leaves to find Viegas, the unscrupulous partner, summoned to the parking lot of the Valbonne media library. Faced with the account he gives him of his exchange with the Italo-Albanian Areopagus, the young trafficker must face the facts: he stole from the wrong people. The mere mention of the names of the 'Ndrangheta families involved in this business leaves him no choice but to rush to Italy and return the cocaine.
"Quiet Fathers"
In the following months, the various protagonists end up being arrested. One by one, they parade through the office of French judge Valery Muller, in charge of the “Ponente Forever” procedure at the specialized interregional court in Marseille.
Both develop the same defensive tactics, consisting of recognizing, at a minimum, involvement in the resale of narcotics, but without ever giving substance to suspicions of criminal association. Traffickers, perhaps; mafia, surely not. This nuance, to which Italian justice is accustomed, is essential: the priority is to put the clan at a distance, to preserve the collective interest, even if it means sacrificing oneself.
On September 15, 2020, Domenico Magnoli, the boules player, was questioned in police custody by the gendarmes of the Marseille research section.
“Your surname, Magnoli, as well as those of Stanganelli and Giovinazzo, are associated with the Italian mafia 'Ndrangheta. Can you briefly explain its organization and its origins?
– No, I don’t know, frankly, replies Domenico Magnoli.
– What is the involvement of your family members in the 'Ndrangheta?
– I don't know what you're talking to me about, frankly”, he cuts off, before responding, to a new reminder: “I am not part of any 'Ndrangheta whatsoever”, and to assert his right to silence.
On September 21, 2021, Judge Muller attempted a final revival.
"What do you know about the 'Ndrangheta?
– I don't know anything about it. »
"As soon as there was any question of the mafia in this case, it was as if a curtain fell," a French investigator told Le Monde. According to the Italian police, the episode proves to what extent the 'Ndrangheta exercises its authority beyond Italian borders thanks to the presence of emissaries abroad, in this case in France. These, like Domenico Magnoli, have the gift of blending into the landscape, leading discreet lives, as far away as possible from the trafficking at the origin, for some, of past convictions.
Transalpine specialists in mafia networks know how to spot these "compatriots" with criminal activity of low or no intensity, whose links with the 'ndrina – the 'ndranghetist family based in Calabria – are reminded of them when the interests of the organization are at stake.
Cautious as possible, these "quiet fathers" operate with a thousand precautions, from the car parks of commercial areas on the outskirts of Cannes, to the surroundings of fast food and supermarkets. They carry out the work of "traders" from a distance, talking on special telephones or from two cars parked side by side.
Their role ? Connect sellers and buyers of narcotics, the products being intended primarily for the Italian market, sometimes for other European cities. According to the observations of the carabinieri and the gendarmes, this activity, bearing on reduced volumes but with high frequency, is part of the globalized operations of the 'Ndrangheta. Guaranteed success: the annual turnover of this mafia present on all continents is estimated at more than 50 billion euros.
The Côte d'Azur, a strategic area
The "Ponente Forever" case is not the first involving Magnoli. Several of them were convicted in 2017 in the Relambi case, named after a sailboat that left Martinique, boarded in international waters in June 2015 with 89 kilos of cocaine on board. The white powder was to be exchanged for cannabis from Morocco, via Spain. Refuting any belonging to the 'Ndrangheta, two Magnoli from the south of France, Antonio and his brother Rocco, had then justified their numerous trips to Spain and Italy by their desire to engage in the trade of fruits, vegetables and olive oil from Calabria.
The French investigating judge in charge of the case, Christophe Perruaux, wrote about them: "As criminals seasoned by numerous investigations sanctioned by heavy sentences, Rocco and Antonio Magnoli take all useful precautions so as to thwart the work of the investigators and to never find themselves in inherently compromising situations. (…) It should be remembered that he and his brother are preceded by a reputation of mafia. (…) This may also explain why none of the other protagonists will dare to implicate them, some even going so far as to exculpate them. »
In this same Relambi affair, the investigators responsible for tracking them had been able to observe that the business partners of Antonio Magnoli, Domenico's uncle, respectful of customs and hierarchies, had the patience to wait up to an hour and a half that he wants to finish his game of boules before being able to exchange a few words with him... Asked about the presence of a handgun at his home during his arrest, Antonio Magnoli had this tasty metaphor: "Better worth butchering than veal. »
Domenico Magnoli, the man from Vallauris, is not unknown to the specialized services either. In 2008, when French justice suspected him of being involved in drug trafficking, an international arrest warrant was issued against him. The hunt led by the carabinieri ended in a clinic in Cosenza, in the heart of Calabria. That day, the agents, made up as visitors with bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates or nurses in white coats, secure the room where the petanque player is recovering from cosmetic surgery. Still under the effects of anesthesia, he is apprehended gently. In 2010, he was finally sentenced in France to four years in prison, alongside his uncles and twelve other French protagonists with flowery nicknames: "Rabbit Cage", "Le Cancereux", "Saucisse", "Panda" or " Galabru” [Michel Galabru was a French actor].
Magnoli is far from being the only suspicious surname spotted on the Côte d'Azur by the Italian Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA), whose analysis reports are published every semester. According to these observations, the Papalia, the De Stefano or the Bellocco, among the most powerful of the clans, have all set their feet there. On the map of their French strongholds, Vallauris rubs shoulders with Toulon, Grasse, Antibes and Pégomas.
This does not mean that all the men and women with these surnames are mafiosos, but that some of them, under the guise of an orderly life, have been brokers, traders or middlemen for two or three generations now. “The clans can count on the Italian diasporas, specifies in World Marco Zocco, antimafia prosecutor in Genoa. The south-east of France is a strategic area for drug trafficking – between Spain and Italy, but also down from the North Sea ports. It must be recognized that the lower intensity of anti-mafia legislation and police pressure in France facilitates their sustainability. »
Godfathers on the run
In the minds of the mafia families, the Italian Riviera and its French extension - up to the Alpine foothills - form a single "macro-region", according to the expression of Fabrizio Perna, rifleman in charge of the "Ponente Forever » Italian side. "The 'Ndrangheta has, in Ventimiglia, a kind of "chamber of passage" used to guarantee operational and strategic continuity with the Côte d'Azur, confirms Colonel Maurizio Panzironi, head of the Genoa center of the DIA. Nevertheless, as the rule imposes, the branches scattered outside Calabria maintain a close link with the parent company and the reference family group. »
Even the most prominent figures can benefit from such networks. Thus, according to Italian investigators, Girolamo Piromalli (1918-1979) in person was welcomed in Vallauris in the 1970s. This former herdsman, chubby and angry, member of the team who kidnapped the American heir John Paul Getty III in 1973, was then one of Italy's most wanted mafia bosses.
“Don Mimmo”, as he was called, is far from being the only fugitive, originally from Calabria or another region, to have unpacked on the Côte d’Azur… The Calabrians cohabit there without too much difficulty with their colleagues from Cosa Nostra (Sicily) and Camorra (Naples region). It is a bit as if, once at a distance from their respective strongholds, the competition between criminal groups fades in favor of the common interest of having a “rear base” in a strategic location.
For a long time, the real estate of the Franco-Italian "cousins" of the Coast thus served as a hiding place for the bosses on the run. No need to hide in an over-equipped bunker or in a ruined farmhouse to be forgotten, as is customary in southern Italy: a seaside studio or an anonymous cottage can suffice. Especially in a country like France, little familiar with mafia customs.
Even the famous Sicilian boss Bernardo Provenzano chose the Côte d'Azur when he had to undergo two surgeries in the fall of 2003, when he had been on the run from the police for forty years. Under a false identity, accompanied by his driver, of whom he claimed to be the father, the one whom everyone nicknamed "the Accountant" was admitted to the private clinic La Casamance, in Aubagne (Bouches-du-Rhône), then to that of La Licorne, in La Ciotat. In both, he left the hazy memory of a mute and suspicious patient. Beyond his health, it was his anonymity that worried this champion of flight. No one should be able to reveal this health escapade, even if it means taking the most drastic precautions. His personal urologist, dispatched to the scene to supervise the operations, will be found dead, months later, of a mysterious overdose.
The "Ponente Forever" investigation into Mafia infiltration in Vallauris, which is coming to an end on the French side, also includes a "caval" component. Carmelo Sgro, the intermediary, is also suspected of having provided accommodation in France, together with a monthly envelope of 2,000 euros, to Filippo Morgante, protagonist of the cosca Gallico, based in Palmi, Calabria. In the Italian part of the case, concluded on January 17 by convictions in abbreviated procedure (accelerated judicial treatment allowing remissions of sentences), Sgro was sentenced to fourteen years of imprisonment. He is the only member of the group for whom the aggravating factor of “mafia association” was retained.
On the contrary, Alfonso Gallico, the man who came from Veneto for the mediation meeting organized at the Petite Brasserie, is the only defendant who left free. Domenico Magnoli was sentenced to four years in prison. A decision he appealed. He is now awaiting the end of the French instruction. Contacted, his French lawyer, Me Olivier Rosato, recalls that "the offense of mafia association was not held against him in the Italian section", and deplores that "the name of [his] client harbors fantasies that the file did not come to confirm”.
The pieces of the puzzle
On both sides of the Alps, the investigation services agree on the recurring difficulties in coordinating in such complex cases, where the suspects have the art of covering their tracks and avoiding any accusation of a Mafia nature.
"We do not have the same laws, nor the same prerogatives, particularly in terms of seizing property and setting up wiretaps, but we would like the threat of mafia organizations to be taken into account at its fair value, in France as elsewhere abroad”, underlines an Italian magistrate. “Often, we are warned the day before by our Italian counterparts to set up a capture operation, without knowing anything about the file”, complains, for his part, a French investigator.
Ongoing investigations into mafia activities in the south of France can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Moreover, it is the result of chance that the Italian and French investigations into traffic passing through Vallauris, initially carried out without consultation, finally joined forces. Everyone was following the same lead, that of Patrick Viegas, that gambler trafficker who had become the business partner of Calabrians with a much more austere lifestyle.
After noting that the investigations undertaken on both sides of the border could fit together like a puzzle, “Ponente Forever” became the first Franco-Italian “joint investigation team”. Something to open new horizons. "It's a 'model' case. We now hope to increase our cooperation, further upstream in the investigations, ”said French and Italian police in chorus.
Such devices are expected to develop, whether on drug trafficking cases, as in Vallauris, or on settling scores, a frequent practice on the Calabrian side. A recent case also shows to what extent the mafia power is always ready to remind the small hands of the Riviera, in France as in Italy, that those who break the rules, who break the omerta, expose themselves to sanctions .
The scene dates back to a rainy day in October 2020. At the bottom of a rocky ditch in the heights of Ventimiglia (Italy) lies a corpse in an advanced state of decomposition. On the forehead, the mark of a bullet. In the neck, another hole: the "coup de grace" delivered once the victim fell to his knees.
According to insiders, there is no doubt: it is the signature of the Calabrian clans. The victim ? A Frenchman of Italian origin residing in Beausoleil, in the Alpes-Maritimes: Joseph Fedele, 60 years old. He had been missing for three weeks. Known to the police, he orchestrated drug trafficking between the two countries on behalf of Calabrian clients. Even if he himself was not related to the 'Ndrine by blood, members of the family of his companion, on the other hand, appear to be close to the Fargette, a dynasty of the Toulon underworld, of which several indications attest to relations with the Calabrians. ruling over Ventimiglia.
show of strength
On the Italian side, the investigation into this homicide begins. The carabinieri suspect a pair of drug traffickers. One of them, aged 24, lives in Bordighera, on the Ligurian coast. His surname weighs heavily in the region: Pellegrino, first name Domenico. A dynasty as present in the – legal – earthmoving activities on the Côte d’Azur, as, for some of its members, in international drug trafficking. As proof: almost all of the men in the family are currently in detention in Italy, including the father, Giovanni, sentenced in early 2020 for "mafia association".
The investigation into Fedele's death suggests that he was in business with Domenico Pellegrino. A serious dispute, precisely linked to this business, would be at the origin of the murder, without the precise reasons having emerged. The young man, for his part, denies any mafia involvement. He supports another explanation: Fedele died following an unfortunate dispute over the resale of a used vehicle. He and his accomplice, also Italian, were betrayed by the movements of their van, but also by telephone tapping. “This van stinks of corpses,” one of them once said of the vehicle that moved the body.
Fedele, the victim, was driving in a Mercedes class A. Once rid of the body, the duo would have taken care to drive her back to Menton, just to cover their tracks, probably also to hope for “French” judicial treatment (therefore supposedly more lenient) in case of concern… On April 12, the Genoa court sentenced Domenico Pellegrino to twenty years in prison, retaining the aggravating factor of “mafia method”. His lawyer has announced his intention to appeal.
In the eyes of specialists, this story is not a trivial news story. With hindsight, they even see it as a demonstration of force, a new proof of the ability of the Calabrian clans to impose their law while avoiding, by a form of omerta, judicial curiosity on the circulation of money and donors. of orders...
“The recycling of dirty money, but especially the Mafia infiltration in institutional life, is what annoys us the most, underlines the Genovese prosecutor Marco Zocco. Does this exist in France? I don't hope for you. In fact, several French magistrates working on organized crime cases confess their “astonishment” and their “perplexity” at the lack of information on the economic infiltration of 'ndranghetist families in France. They know, however, that they can be wary of seemingly uneventful profiles, even the most discreet bowlers.
The discreet French “cousins” of the Calabrian mafia on the Côte d’Azur, by Simon Piel and Thomas Saintourens. https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2022/04/19/sur-la-cote-d-azur-les-discrets-cousins-francais-de-la-mafia-calabraise_6122695_3224.html?fbclid=IwAR1_oE0rsdyQRwuVKeC1hjE1meXSoN3FXJGoI8smyeEnjoQFNI4X7d4kwCE
The article has a paywall, so for those who couldn't read it here it is
Various judicial investigations suggest that clans of the 'Ndrangheta have strong relays in the south of France. Despite the good results of a joint police operation, Italian magistrates believe that France is slow to take the measure of the threat.
Shaved head, trimmed beard, a tall guy in a black T-shirt stamped with the logo of the Croatian football team adjusts his shot under the discreet lens of gendarmes in hiding. The weather is nice, this Tuesday afternoon in June 2019, in the hinterland of Cannes.
In Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes), it's time for petanque. Domenico, the shooter, loves the warm atmosphere of the Boule Amicale Sporting club. We carry each other. We laugh. The youngest compete with the elders. Sometimes even, after a successful competition, the best have the honor of seeing their name appear in Nice-Matin.
Here, everyone knows "Domi", 38 years old, son of Serafino, grandson of Girolamo, nephew of Antonio. The Magnolis and their cousins, the Stanganellis and the Giovinazzos, arrived in the region three generations ago, when the famous local pottery workshops were hiring with a vengeance.
Domenico Magnoli is of the discreet type. He lives frugally, drives a Twingo, has worked since 2016 as a night watchman – monthly salary: 1,500 euros – and takes care of his two children, of whom he has joint custody. He lives in Valbonne, a little further up in the Alpes-Maritimes department. There too, he knows people. He is a man who has good interpersonal skills, appreciated by all. In 2020, at the time of the municipal elections, the campaign team of the socialist senator and former mayor of Valbonne Marc Daunis even asked him to mobilize voters.
Rare are the days when "Domi" does not stop to greet another of his uncles, also named Girolamo, owner in Vallauris of the Petite Brasserie, a bar with a black sign located not far from the center, between a pizzeria and the fire station. Domenico has his habits there. When he says he goes "to the bar", it's a bit like there's no other one around. More often than not, he drinks a coffee and spins. From time to time, he sits down for a game of cards, takes news of the family, chats with the gardener of the town, a loyal customer of the place. A few words of Italian sometimes escape: if Domenico Magnoli was born in Cannes, the family roots are in Rosarno, in Calabria, so to speak at the tip of the Boot.
On closer inspection, the attachment of Vallauris bowlers to their homeland is not just a matter of nostalgia. It feeds on other alliances and business relationships of a particular kind. According to judicial investigations carried out in Italy, this small Franco-Italian colony is indeed linked to one of the main clans of the powerful Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. The clan in question is that of the Piromalli-Molè, the historical “masters” of the port of Gioia Tauro, the epicenter of many traffics, a few kilometers from Rosarno. According to the transalpine police, the Magnoli have long since pledged allegiance to the Piromalli-Molè, to the point of having made Vallauris a kind of French relay of the "mother house". An unprecedented survey, conducted on both sides of the border, helps to better decipher these links: the "Ponente Forever" file, so named in reference to the Riviera which connects Genoa to the French border.
The dishonest partner
An episode having as its setting the Petite Brasserie de Vallauris gives the measure, according to the police, of mafia activities in the hinterland of Cannes. It dates back to the evening of May 27, 2019. That day, it was 7:50 p.m. when gendarmes in hiding saw Domenico Magnoli, the famous bowler, find two Italians. One is called Carmelo Sgro, he comes from Arma di Taggia, in Liguria. The other is his cousin Alfonso Gallico, based in Veneto, in the northeast. An Albanian accompanies them: Armand Kerkuku, 32 years old.
The trio did not come to talk pétanque; nor is it just a friendly get-together. The two Italian visitors are related to the cosca ("cell") Gallico, a family of the 'Ndrangheta reigning in Palmi, a Calabrian town located not far from Rosarno and Gioia Tauro. The Albanian belongs to a gang specializing in drug trafficking based in Parma, in the north of the peninsula. If he made the trip to Vallauris, it was to settle a "commercial" dispute and recover his due.
Two days earlier, on the other side of the border, he handed 11 kilos of cocaine to a Frenchman, a certain Patrick Viegas, reputed to be gambler and unreliable. However, this thirty-year-old, who is gladly nicknamed “Gustavo”, in reference to a kingpin from the Breaking Bad series, spun with drugs without paying the 317,000 euros provided.
Carmelo Sgro, who played the role of intermediary in the transaction, does not intend to pay for him. Hence the idea of resorting to Magnoli, in Vallauris. They too know Viegas, and will be able to make him understand that he has serious creditors on his heels. Carmelo is the most furious: he would even be ready to put a "caliber" in the mouth of the daring. The Albanian, he prefers to calm things down: “I lost 11 loaves of bread and you want me to go to prison now! »
While chatting on the café terrace or near the bowling green, they feel safe from a possible “sound system” set up by overly curious investigators. “Domi”, the local man, seems to be leading the conversation. Both regularly take a look around. After only a few minutes, the meeting ends and this same "Domi" leaves to find Viegas, the unscrupulous partner, summoned to the parking lot of the Valbonne media library. Faced with the account he gives him of his exchange with the Italo-Albanian Areopagus, the young trafficker must face the facts: he stole from the wrong people. The mere mention of the names of the 'Ndrangheta families involved in this business leaves him no choice but to rush to Italy and return the cocaine.
"Quiet Fathers"
In the following months, the various protagonists end up being arrested. One by one, they parade through the office of French judge Valery Muller, in charge of the “Ponente Forever” procedure at the specialized interregional court in Marseille.
Both develop the same defensive tactics, consisting of recognizing, at a minimum, involvement in the resale of narcotics, but without ever giving substance to suspicions of criminal association. Traffickers, perhaps; mafia, surely not. This nuance, to which Italian justice is accustomed, is essential: the priority is to put the clan at a distance, to preserve the collective interest, even if it means sacrificing oneself.
On September 15, 2020, Domenico Magnoli, the boules player, was questioned in police custody by the gendarmes of the Marseille research section.
“Your surname, Magnoli, as well as those of Stanganelli and Giovinazzo, are associated with the Italian mafia 'Ndrangheta. Can you briefly explain its organization and its origins?
– No, I don’t know, frankly, replies Domenico Magnoli.
– What is the involvement of your family members in the 'Ndrangheta?
– I don't know what you're talking to me about, frankly”, he cuts off, before responding, to a new reminder: “I am not part of any 'Ndrangheta whatsoever”, and to assert his right to silence.
On September 21, 2021, Judge Muller attempted a final revival.
"What do you know about the 'Ndrangheta?
– I don't know anything about it. »
"As soon as there was any question of the mafia in this case, it was as if a curtain fell," a French investigator told Le Monde. According to the Italian police, the episode proves to what extent the 'Ndrangheta exercises its authority beyond Italian borders thanks to the presence of emissaries abroad, in this case in France. These, like Domenico Magnoli, have the gift of blending into the landscape, leading discreet lives, as far away as possible from the trafficking at the origin, for some, of past convictions.
Transalpine specialists in mafia networks know how to spot these "compatriots" with criminal activity of low or no intensity, whose links with the 'ndrina – the 'ndranghetist family based in Calabria – are reminded of them when the interests of the organization are at stake.
Cautious as possible, these "quiet fathers" operate with a thousand precautions, from the car parks of commercial areas on the outskirts of Cannes, to the surroundings of fast food and supermarkets. They carry out the work of "traders" from a distance, talking on special telephones or from two cars parked side by side.
Their role ? Connect sellers and buyers of narcotics, the products being intended primarily for the Italian market, sometimes for other European cities. According to the observations of the carabinieri and the gendarmes, this activity, bearing on reduced volumes but with high frequency, is part of the globalized operations of the 'Ndrangheta. Guaranteed success: the annual turnover of this mafia present on all continents is estimated at more than 50 billion euros.
The Côte d'Azur, a strategic area
The "Ponente Forever" case is not the first involving Magnoli. Several of them were convicted in 2017 in the Relambi case, named after a sailboat that left Martinique, boarded in international waters in June 2015 with 89 kilos of cocaine on board. The white powder was to be exchanged for cannabis from Morocco, via Spain. Refuting any belonging to the 'Ndrangheta, two Magnoli from the south of France, Antonio and his brother Rocco, had then justified their numerous trips to Spain and Italy by their desire to engage in the trade of fruits, vegetables and olive oil from Calabria.
The French investigating judge in charge of the case, Christophe Perruaux, wrote about them: "As criminals seasoned by numerous investigations sanctioned by heavy sentences, Rocco and Antonio Magnoli take all useful precautions so as to thwart the work of the investigators and to never find themselves in inherently compromising situations. (…) It should be remembered that he and his brother are preceded by a reputation of mafia. (…) This may also explain why none of the other protagonists will dare to implicate them, some even going so far as to exculpate them. »
In this same Relambi affair, the investigators responsible for tracking them had been able to observe that the business partners of Antonio Magnoli, Domenico's uncle, respectful of customs and hierarchies, had the patience to wait up to an hour and a half that he wants to finish his game of boules before being able to exchange a few words with him... Asked about the presence of a handgun at his home during his arrest, Antonio Magnoli had this tasty metaphor: "Better worth butchering than veal. »
Domenico Magnoli, the man from Vallauris, is not unknown to the specialized services either. In 2008, when French justice suspected him of being involved in drug trafficking, an international arrest warrant was issued against him. The hunt led by the carabinieri ended in a clinic in Cosenza, in the heart of Calabria. That day, the agents, made up as visitors with bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates or nurses in white coats, secure the room where the petanque player is recovering from cosmetic surgery. Still under the effects of anesthesia, he is apprehended gently. In 2010, he was finally sentenced in France to four years in prison, alongside his uncles and twelve other French protagonists with flowery nicknames: "Rabbit Cage", "Le Cancereux", "Saucisse", "Panda" or " Galabru” [Michel Galabru was a French actor].
Magnoli is far from being the only suspicious surname spotted on the Côte d'Azur by the Italian Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA), whose analysis reports are published every semester. According to these observations, the Papalia, the De Stefano or the Bellocco, among the most powerful of the clans, have all set their feet there. On the map of their French strongholds, Vallauris rubs shoulders with Toulon, Grasse, Antibes and Pégomas.
This does not mean that all the men and women with these surnames are mafiosos, but that some of them, under the guise of an orderly life, have been brokers, traders or middlemen for two or three generations now. “The clans can count on the Italian diasporas, specifies in World Marco Zocco, antimafia prosecutor in Genoa. The south-east of France is a strategic area for drug trafficking – between Spain and Italy, but also down from the North Sea ports. It must be recognized that the lower intensity of anti-mafia legislation and police pressure in France facilitates their sustainability. »
Godfathers on the run
In the minds of the mafia families, the Italian Riviera and its French extension - up to the Alpine foothills - form a single "macro-region", according to the expression of Fabrizio Perna, rifleman in charge of the "Ponente Forever » Italian side. "The 'Ndrangheta has, in Ventimiglia, a kind of "chamber of passage" used to guarantee operational and strategic continuity with the Côte d'Azur, confirms Colonel Maurizio Panzironi, head of the Genoa center of the DIA. Nevertheless, as the rule imposes, the branches scattered outside Calabria maintain a close link with the parent company and the reference family group. »
Even the most prominent figures can benefit from such networks. Thus, according to Italian investigators, Girolamo Piromalli (1918-1979) in person was welcomed in Vallauris in the 1970s. This former herdsman, chubby and angry, member of the team who kidnapped the American heir John Paul Getty III in 1973, was then one of Italy's most wanted mafia bosses.
“Don Mimmo”, as he was called, is far from being the only fugitive, originally from Calabria or another region, to have unpacked on the Côte d’Azur… The Calabrians cohabit there without too much difficulty with their colleagues from Cosa Nostra (Sicily) and Camorra (Naples region). It is a bit as if, once at a distance from their respective strongholds, the competition between criminal groups fades in favor of the common interest of having a “rear base” in a strategic location.
For a long time, the real estate of the Franco-Italian "cousins" of the Coast thus served as a hiding place for the bosses on the run. No need to hide in an over-equipped bunker or in a ruined farmhouse to be forgotten, as is customary in southern Italy: a seaside studio or an anonymous cottage can suffice. Especially in a country like France, little familiar with mafia customs.
Even the famous Sicilian boss Bernardo Provenzano chose the Côte d'Azur when he had to undergo two surgeries in the fall of 2003, when he had been on the run from the police for forty years. Under a false identity, accompanied by his driver, of whom he claimed to be the father, the one whom everyone nicknamed "the Accountant" was admitted to the private clinic La Casamance, in Aubagne (Bouches-du-Rhône), then to that of La Licorne, in La Ciotat. In both, he left the hazy memory of a mute and suspicious patient. Beyond his health, it was his anonymity that worried this champion of flight. No one should be able to reveal this health escapade, even if it means taking the most drastic precautions. His personal urologist, dispatched to the scene to supervise the operations, will be found dead, months later, of a mysterious overdose.
The "Ponente Forever" investigation into Mafia infiltration in Vallauris, which is coming to an end on the French side, also includes a "caval" component. Carmelo Sgro, the intermediary, is also suspected of having provided accommodation in France, together with a monthly envelope of 2,000 euros, to Filippo Morgante, protagonist of the cosca Gallico, based in Palmi, Calabria. In the Italian part of the case, concluded on January 17 by convictions in abbreviated procedure (accelerated judicial treatment allowing remissions of sentences), Sgro was sentenced to fourteen years of imprisonment. He is the only member of the group for whom the aggravating factor of “mafia association” was retained.
On the contrary, Alfonso Gallico, the man who came from Veneto for the mediation meeting organized at the Petite Brasserie, is the only defendant who left free. Domenico Magnoli was sentenced to four years in prison. A decision he appealed. He is now awaiting the end of the French instruction. Contacted, his French lawyer, Me Olivier Rosato, recalls that "the offense of mafia association was not held against him in the Italian section", and deplores that "the name of [his] client harbors fantasies that the file did not come to confirm”.
The pieces of the puzzle
On both sides of the Alps, the investigation services agree on the recurring difficulties in coordinating in such complex cases, where the suspects have the art of covering their tracks and avoiding any accusation of a Mafia nature.
"We do not have the same laws, nor the same prerogatives, particularly in terms of seizing property and setting up wiretaps, but we would like the threat of mafia organizations to be taken into account at its fair value, in France as elsewhere abroad”, underlines an Italian magistrate. “Often, we are warned the day before by our Italian counterparts to set up a capture operation, without knowing anything about the file”, complains, for his part, a French investigator.
Ongoing investigations into mafia activities in the south of France can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Moreover, it is the result of chance that the Italian and French investigations into traffic passing through Vallauris, initially carried out without consultation, finally joined forces. Everyone was following the same lead, that of Patrick Viegas, that gambler trafficker who had become the business partner of Calabrians with a much more austere lifestyle.
After noting that the investigations undertaken on both sides of the border could fit together like a puzzle, “Ponente Forever” became the first Franco-Italian “joint investigation team”. Something to open new horizons. "It's a 'model' case. We now hope to increase our cooperation, further upstream in the investigations, ”said French and Italian police in chorus.
Such devices are expected to develop, whether on drug trafficking cases, as in Vallauris, or on settling scores, a frequent practice on the Calabrian side. A recent case also shows to what extent the mafia power is always ready to remind the small hands of the Riviera, in France as in Italy, that those who break the rules, who break the omerta, expose themselves to sanctions .
The scene dates back to a rainy day in October 2020. At the bottom of a rocky ditch in the heights of Ventimiglia (Italy) lies a corpse in an advanced state of decomposition. On the forehead, the mark of a bullet. In the neck, another hole: the "coup de grace" delivered once the victim fell to his knees.
According to insiders, there is no doubt: it is the signature of the Calabrian clans. The victim ? A Frenchman of Italian origin residing in Beausoleil, in the Alpes-Maritimes: Joseph Fedele, 60 years old. He had been missing for three weeks. Known to the police, he orchestrated drug trafficking between the two countries on behalf of Calabrian clients. Even if he himself was not related to the 'Ndrine by blood, members of the family of his companion, on the other hand, appear to be close to the Fargette, a dynasty of the Toulon underworld, of which several indications attest to relations with the Calabrians. ruling over Ventimiglia.
show of strength
On the Italian side, the investigation into this homicide begins. The carabinieri suspect a pair of drug traffickers. One of them, aged 24, lives in Bordighera, on the Ligurian coast. His surname weighs heavily in the region: Pellegrino, first name Domenico. A dynasty as present in the – legal – earthmoving activities on the Côte d’Azur, as, for some of its members, in international drug trafficking. As proof: almost all of the men in the family are currently in detention in Italy, including the father, Giovanni, sentenced in early 2020 for "mafia association".
The investigation into Fedele's death suggests that he was in business with Domenico Pellegrino. A serious dispute, precisely linked to this business, would be at the origin of the murder, without the precise reasons having emerged. The young man, for his part, denies any mafia involvement. He supports another explanation: Fedele died following an unfortunate dispute over the resale of a used vehicle. He and his accomplice, also Italian, were betrayed by the movements of their van, but also by telephone tapping. “This van stinks of corpses,” one of them once said of the vehicle that moved the body.
Fedele, the victim, was driving in a Mercedes class A. Once rid of the body, the duo would have taken care to drive her back to Menton, just to cover their tracks, probably also to hope for “French” judicial treatment (therefore supposedly more lenient) in case of concern… On April 12, the Genoa court sentenced Domenico Pellegrino to twenty years in prison, retaining the aggravating factor of “mafia method”. His lawyer has announced his intention to appeal.
In the eyes of specialists, this story is not a trivial news story. With hindsight, they even see it as a demonstration of force, a new proof of the ability of the Calabrian clans to impose their law while avoiding, by a form of omerta, judicial curiosity on the circulation of money and donors. of orders...
“The recycling of dirty money, but especially the Mafia infiltration in institutional life, is what annoys us the most, underlines the Genovese prosecutor Marco Zocco. Does this exist in France? I don't hope for you. In fact, several French magistrates working on organized crime cases confess their “astonishment” and their “perplexity” at the lack of information on the economic infiltration of 'ndranghetist families in France. They know, however, that they can be wary of seemingly uneventful profiles, even the most discreet bowlers.