The mysterious, violent and unknown Mafia Foggiana, who has been in Italy for 40 years

[aleksandrored]

The Mafia of Foggia, whose most powerful branch is Società Foggiana, is less well known than the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Calabrian Ndrangheta and the Neapolitan Camorra. However, some consider it the most violent criminal group in Italy today.

It is one of the most violent criminal organizations in Italy. It is also one of the least known.

Unlike the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Neapolitan Camorra, the Mafia of Foggia, a province on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, did not give rise to cinematographic myths such as Vito Corleone, from the trilogy "The Godfather", or "Gomorra", a film inspired by the book the journalist Roberto Saviano.

His crimes rarely go to international headlines, such as those of Ndrangheta, the Calabrian criminal multinational that closes deals with Mexican and Colombian traffickers and controls cocaine trafficking in Europe.

This apparent discretion is, according to experts, part of the danger of Foggian crime.

Until a few years ago, she was not even formally considered a mafia. The term was more related to "traditional" Italian criminal organizations.

The Fourth mafia

Today, however, the authorities refer to the group as the "fourth mafia" and warn of its power, its ability to infiltrate local economy and politics, and its violence.

The province of Foggia - Italy's second largest in extension - is located in the north of the Apulia region.

"In the Italian collective imagination, Foggia represents the paradisiacal shores of Gargano, Father Pio (a priest revered by the Catholics, whose remains are still in the province) and mozzarella with olive oil, and yet here he shoots and kills himself" , says Piernicola Silvis, writer and police chief of Foggia between 2014 and August 2017.

"When they begin to see this image of real violence they will begin to fight it," he adds.

300 violent crimes in 40 years

In the last 40 years, 300 violent crimes of mafia characteristics were committed in the province. About 80% of them have not been resolved, according to local authorities.

"The fact that it is a local phenomenon does not make it less dangerous. They may not be internationalized, but they can be very harmful to the local population," says Federico Varese, an expert on mafias at Oxford University.

One of the most notorious crimes committed by this organization happened on August 8, 2017.

Mafioso Mario Luciano Romito and his brother-in-law Matteo de Palma were shot dead by AK-47 and a 12-gauge rifle in an ambush on a road.

Police attributed the shooting to a "new mafia war" caused by drug trafficking from Albania.

But unlike most of the cases of Mafia violence, two citizens who were not involved in organized crime were killed at that time: brothers Luigi and Aurelio Luciani, two farmers who would have witnessed the shooting.

Relentless and impenetrable

This attack in broad daylight made the Italian state strengthen the fight against the Mafia Foggiana and made many wonder about the origin of this violence in a province of just over 600 thousand people who are often out of the spotlight.

"The Foggha mob is particularly cruel and impenetrable ... As this latest dramatic episode demonstrates, it is clearly more violent and aggressive than the more organized mafias such as the Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra and Camorra," said Franco Roberti, then Prosecutor National Anti-Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism, shortly after that occurred.

The Origins of the Mafia in Foggia

To understand the origins of the Mafia phenomenon in Foggia, we need to go back 40 years in time.

While Camorra and the Mafia of Sicily and Calabria have more than 100 years of history, the birth of the foggiana Mafia occurred around 1979.

In a hotel in the provincial town of Lucera, a group of local criminals met with Raffaele Cutolo, founder of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, an active brawler group in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Neapolitan leader sought to expand his activities to the region of Apulia - bordering on Campania, the traditional site of action of the Camorra - to control drug routes between the Adriatic Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

This expansion also led to the birth of Sacra Corona Unita, an active mafia organization in central and southern Apulia, now weakened by police action.

However, Cutolo's strategy did not give the expected result in Foggia.

"In the mid-1980s, the Foggians broke with Cutolo and became an autonomous group," says Silvis, former Foggia police chief. Now this "fourth mafia" is consolidated and spreads in the region through three independent branches operating in different areas.

A violent and hermetic organization

In spite of the break with Cutolo, the Mafiosi of Foggia learned with the Nuova Camorra Organizzata one of its main characteristics: the exercise of the extreme violence.

Da 'Ndrangheta, on the other hand, have adopted a structure based mainly on blood ties, which results in a hermetic organization.

"In Foggia no one denounces the extortion of the Mafia, and the few who do so punctually withdraw," wrote Giuseppe Gatti, deputy prosecutor of the Bari district's Antimia Directorate, in Bari province, near Foggia.

"There were no collaborations with Justice between 2007 and today, and the few people who tried were abandoned by the family, so they stepped back abruptly," Gatti explained in the article "Breaking Mafia Dependence by Developing the Legality of 'Us'." association anti-freedom Libera.

The entrance to traditional mafias, explains the magistrate, is usually preceded by a series of initiation rituals through which the new mafioso is accepted as a member of the group.

Family ties and silence

In Foggia's case, the "mafia liturgy" does not exist and there is no difference "between the biological family and the mafia family".

And this confusion makes the investigators' work difficult.

"In a recent trial I remember a lawyer asking a Foggy Mafia collaborator, 'Tell me how your membership in the association was, how was the rite of membership, where was it done?' The answer was very clear:" Lawyer, you did not understand: in Foggia there are no affiliations, the mafia is my family, "says Gatti.

The code of silence imposed by family ties within the criminal organization itself also extends to the rest of the local society.

However, Piernicola Silvis clarifies, these effects are different from those seen in other regions of southern Italy, where mob groups are older and more rooted.

"Mafiosis is not in the mentality of the people of Apulia. The group is a mafia because people are afraid because there were victims, but it does not have the concept of 'omerta' - the code of silence practiced by the Mafia, which involves the refusal to give a statement to the police about criminal activities, so it is still possible to fight on both a social and police level, "suggests former police officer Silvis.

A "business mafia"

Widespread extortion and denunciation are the clearest manifestations of the terror planted by the bomb-based Mafia bombs and threats against those who refuse to pay the "pizzo," the price of mafia extortion.

"It is a social problem. Unfortunately, 80% of shops and businesses are extorted in the province of Foggia, and this drowns the province and its people economically," says Silvis.

In recent years, the Foggy Mafia has managed to infiltrate the agri-food industry and tourism, the main economic drivers of the region, as well as local public administrations.

Robbery and drug trafficking - linked to Albanian criminal groups trafficking drugs across the Adriatic Sea - are the other legs that support the Mafia network in Foggia.

[ChicagoOutfit]

Is this group a part of the SCU?

The article mentions “the fourth mafia” but I’ve always heard the SCU labeled as such.

[scagghiuni]

Is this group a part of the SCU?

The article mentions “the fourth mafia” but I’ve always heard the SCU labeled as such.

no, it's another group

[Bklyn21]

So in Italy and sicily we have Cosa Nostra, SCU, Mafia Foggiana , Cammora, N'Drangheta, La Stidda , So actually there a 6 Mafia's really . Am I missing anymore?

[Etna]

I think other "Apulian" mafia groups are: Remo Lecce Libera, Nuova Famiglia Salentina and Rosa dei Venti (according to Wikipedia at least).

[Moscone65]

How about the cammora Barese. They do not answer to any cammora groups in campania but are their own entity from what I understand and are the most powerful group in Bari

[Etna]

I thought Camorra Barese was basically SCU?

[Moscone65]

That’s what I thought before but I’m 90% sure they are a different group.

[ChicagoOutfit]

Does the Basilischi still count as a valid independent mafia/mafia type group or are they pretty much absorbed into the ‘Ndrangheta?

[scagghiuni]

the società foggiana was founded by raffaele cutolo in the early '80s, it was an offshot of the nuova famiglia... the sacra corona unita was founded by the calabrians, it was a ndrangheta offshot, we can call them with hundreds names but finally they are probably the same organization like several turncoats testified... cosa nostra, ndrangheta, camorra, sacra corona are suspected to be one single big crime group headed by a super-commission

[Moscone65]

It is known about the big meets near the italian lakes in the north, that top guys of the bug four groups meet to discuss business and divide territory. Like you said, a super commission in a sense lol

[scagghiuni]

It is known about the big meets near the italian lakes in the north, that top guys of the bug four groups meet to discuss business and divide territory. Like you said, a super commission in a sense lol

these guys (sicilians, calabrians, neapolitans and apulians) attend the same prisons from before italy was united, when southern italy was under two sicilies kingdom, and they still dominates italian prisons, totò riina confessed things to an apulian, sure they are all connected in a way or another

[aleksandrored]

Counting on Foggiana, there are 7 mafias in Italy: Ndrangheta, Camorra, Cosa Nostra, Stidda, Sacra Corona Unita and Bando della Magliana.

[scagghiuni]

Counting on Foggiana, there are 7 mafias in Italy: Ndrangheta, Camorra, Cosa Nostra, Stidda, Sacra Corona Unita and Bando della Magliana.

although there are members still alive and criminally active, the banda della magliana doesn't exist anymore as an entity

[CabriniGreen]

Casamonica Clan?