On Saturday, Italian justice sentenced 70 members of the Calabrian Ndrangheta gang to jail terms of ten years or more to one-third in the largest mafia trial since the late 1980s.
Judge Claudio Paris announced the sentences to 91 defendants in the court of Lamezia Terme, Calabria, southern Italy, where a “maximum trial” has been held since January against hundreds of suspected Ndrangheta members and their accomplices. According to the information, 355 defendants have not yet appeared in court, and the trial is expected to last two years or more.
The 91 people convicted this Saturday opted for a quick trial behind closed doors, which allowed them, if convicted, to reduce their sentences by a third. Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, whose efforts to crush Ndrangheta forced him to live under police protection for over 30 years, said everything went “very well.”
“Of the 91 defendants, 70 alleged innocents were convicted,” he told Italian news agency AdnKronos, adding that the acquitted were minor members of the group.
Some of the most dangerous have received the maximum 20-year sentences required by the prosecutor’s office.
Among them are Domenico Macri of the group’s military wing, Pasquale Gallone, the right-hand man of alleged mafia boss Luigi Mancuso, whose trial is still pending, and Gregorio Niglia, who played a role in the acquisition of weapons and extortion.
According to Gratteri, about a third of this group were sentenced to ten years or more, and 21 people were acquitted.
Ndrangheta, located in the poorest region of Italy, Calabria, controls most of the flow of cocaine to Europe and is considered one of the largest and most powerful criminal organizations in the world.
