‘Dead man walking’: Italy’s top mafia hunter warns of Australian crime links

‘Dead man walking’: Italy’s top mafia hunter warns of Australian crime links


Chief Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri says he hasn’t dared to go to a cinema in 30 years: “the stakes are high”.

Rome: Weaving through the backstreets of Catanzaro, in the hills of Calabria, Nicola Gratteri’s convoy of armoured cars threads through traffic, swerving between lanes, blue lights flashing, never pausing for long.

Italy’s famed anti-mafia prosecutor knows what it takes to avoid being killed. Gratteri, 63, has been under police protection for half of his life – but recently the threats have heightened.

The Chief Prosecutor is spearheading Italy’s biggest mafia trial in three decades, with more than 300 defendants, 700 lawyers and 900 witnesses.

“I don’t even walk five steps without an armoured car. Protection has increased. I haven’t been in a cinema for 30 years, I don’t go to restaurants, I don’t go to the beach, I don’t go anywhere,” Gratteri says.

His close work with international crime authorities, including the Australian Federal Police, has found that the mafia group’s influence spreads around the globe.

“We think that the ’Ndrangheta in Australia is very present in the world of catering, hotels, restaurants, pizzerias and real estate,” he says.

Gratteri is today on his way to the courtroom – a specially converted bunker in the neighbouring city of Lamezia Terme, where members of the notorious ’Ndrangheta mafia organisation are standing trial.

Anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri (left) stands by military personnel outside a specially constructed bunker on the occasion of the first hearing of a maxi-trial against more than 300 defendants of the ’Ndrangheta crime syndicate, near the Calabrian town of Lamezia Terme, southern Italy.
Anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri (left) stands by military personnel outside a specially constructed bunker on the occasion of the first hearing of a maxi-trial against more than 300 defendants of the ’Ndrangheta crime syndicate, near the Calabrian town of Lamezia Terme, southern Italy.

“During these years there have been several difficult moments when they tried to kill me. Now it is a very complicated moment in my life because we have raised the bar,” he says. “I am very careful because I know that the stakes are very high.”

The ’Ndrangheta has a reputation as one of the wealthiest and most feared criminal organisations in the world. Gratteri says this so-called “maxi trial” is spilling the group’s secrets as it shifts from underbelly to upper world operations.

From its crude origins in Calabria, the ’Ndrangheta has built a global cocaine empire with an estimated annual revenue of more than $70 billion – more than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined.

Mobsters are morphing from gun-toting kidnappers to corrupt businessmen with a penchant for bitcoin. Gratteri says they’re now recruiting officials, politicians and professionals to cover their tracks.

“We are uncovering the ’Ndrangheta-politics relationship, the ‘Ndrangheta-public administration relationship, the ’Ndrangheta-world of professions relationship,” he says.

The trial is focused on Calabria’s powerful Mancuso clan but Gratteri hopes it will have global ramifications by revealing the new face of the region’s so called “Honoured Society,” assisting law enforcement in Europe, the US, Canada and Australia in fighting organised crime.

“We know, for example, that the ’Ndrangheta has bitcoin available and is therefore ready to pay in bitcoin… The peculiarity of this investigation is that in proportion to the number of those arrested, there’s a large number of white-collar workers, acting in a grey area of the world of professions.”

Gratteri is warning that the ’Ndrangheta is employing the same tactics in Australia – laundering drug money in legitimate businesses and sidling up to politicians and professionals.

Gratteri is urging people to boycott businesses known to be run by mobsters, and warning politicians to think carefully about their connections.

While the Calabrian mafia is best known for its links to high-profile crimes, such as the discovery of 15 million ecstasy pills smuggled into Melbourne in tomato tins in 2007, the Chief Prosecutor says one of Australia’s biggest issues now is the mafia’s links to politics.

Customs officer with some of the huge haul of ecstasy tablets forund hidden in tomato tins.
Customs officer with some of the huge haul of ecstasy tablets forund hidden in tomato tins.

“I remember an investigation in which an Australian [government] minister was involved because he did not fully understand that people who presented themselves in suits were actually members of the ’Ndrangheta. There was even an Australian minister who wrote that that person was a decent person, but in reality that person was a trafficker.”

Political missteps can cost dearly.

Victoria’s Opposition Leader Matthew Guy faced fierce backlash after becoming embroiled in the infamous “lobster with an alleged mobster” scandal in 2017, when the Liberal leader dined on lobster and Grange wine with alleged mafia figure Tony Madafferi.

Madafferi is widely accused of being a high-level organised crime figure, but he has never been charged or convicted and strenuously denies any allegations.

Former immigration minister Amanda Vanstone was forced to defend her controversial decision to grant a visa to Tony’s brother Francesco “Frank” Madafferi in 2005. The decision sparked a 16-year saga by law enforcement to revoke his residency visa for his reputed involvement in criminal activity in Australia.

The jailed drug trafficker is currently appealing his conviction over his role in the “tomato tins” drug syndicate. If it fails, he could face deportation back to Calabria in the coming months.

Gratteri says phone intercepts over the past decade have even revealed the mafia’s influence over council elections.

A screen anchored to the ceiling shows the participants following the first hearing of a maxi-trial against more than 300 defendants of the ’ndrangheta crime syndicate.
A screen anchored to the ceiling shows the participants following the first hearing of a maxi-trial against more than 300 defendants of the ’ndrangheta crime syndicate.

“In an investigation I did a few years ago we listened to intercepts where a ‘Ndrangheta member from Calabria was talking to an ’Ndrangheta member from Australia to decide which candidate for mayor to support in an Australian city. It means that there is a base of ’Ndrangheta that can control and move packages of votes, thousands of votes.”

Luigi Bonaventura is an ex-mafia boss-turned police informant and one of the key witnesses in the trial. He blames Australia’s lack of specific anti-mafia legislation for allowing the ’Ndrangheta to take hold.

“The ’Ndrangheta is very strong in Australia,” Bonaventura says. “Let’s say that it’s a place that has allowed the ’Ndrangheta to do a lot, and I think that it has strong ramifications. It has severely infected some of the fabric of Australian society.”

Born into an ’Ndrangheta family, Bonaventura admits to carrying out killings, kidnappings and robberies before agreeing to collaborate with police, turning against organised crime, and his own family.

“The ‘Ndrangheta uses corruption as a tool a lot, nowadays, they use corruption as a tool more than guns,” he says. “Often times the ’Ndrangheta does business along a thin line between what is lawful and what is not lawful. It manages to get ahead in the normal working world, thanks to its influence, thanks to its pressure, so sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a mafia-infiltrated business from one that is not.”

Luigi Benaventura, mafiosa turned informer, does not have round-the-clock protection and prefers not to show his face.
Luigi Benaventura, mafiosa turned informer, does not have round-the-clock protection and prefers not to show his face.

Bonaventura believes Australian law enforcement should place a greater reliance on police informers and says he’s willing to provide information on infiltrating mafia cells and understanding methods of operating.

“A serious collaborator of justice can help to see what the cameras don’t notice, can help to listen to and understand what the wire-tapping can’t do,” he says.

Like Gratteri, Bonaventura is in constant danger of retribution. He’s now given evidence leading to hundreds of convictions.

Unlike Gratteri, he doesn’t have police protection. Nervous and fidgety, he won’t say where he’s travelled from, and covers his face with a bandana during the interview.

“I’m not afraid to die for myself. My biggest fear is not for me, it’s for my family,” he says.

After Italy’s last “maxi” trial, which targeted the Sicilian mafia in the 1980s, two prosecuting magistrates were assassinated.

Gratteri has been described as a “dead man walking” from the day he took the top role.

But he says it won’t stop him. He won’t even consider leaving. He has a job to do.

“I think I’m doing something important for thousands of people here in Calabria and beyond. I’m their last resort, I’m the last hope, I can’t betray these people.”