Aug 21 2007
Restaurants unite to fight mafia
The refined Italian restaurant setting of elegant wooden tables decked with white tablecloths jarred with the meeting’s gruesome purpose – to condemn mafia killings in Germany. Continue Reading »
Archive for August, 2007
Aug 20 2007
Expert Says Mafia Murders Pose New Risks in Germany
Blood feuds and settling of scores is not unusual among the mafia
In July 2007, Italian police arrested notorious mafia boss Giuseppe Bellocco in Calabria, southern Italy
DW-WORLD:DE: An expert on organized crime warned that Germany has to be alert about an expansion of mob activity within its borders after officials linked the killing of six Italians in Duisburg to the Calabrian mafia, ‘Ndrangheta.
Federico Varese is a professor of criminology and Official Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford University. Previously, he taught at Williams College and Yale University. His main areas of research are organized crime, corruption, Soviet criminal history, and the dynamics of altruistic behaviour. His book, “The Russian Mafia” won the Ed Hewitt Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Continue Reading »
Aug 20 2007
Calabrian Mafia is ‘Europe’s top crime gang’
The head of Italy’s anti-Mafia task force has said that the criminal gang behind the deaths of six men in Germany is now the most powerful crime syndicate in Europe.
Video: New Mafia murder theory
The ‘Ndrangheta, or Calabrian Mafia, is blamed for Wednesday’s murder of six Italians in Duisburg.
Pietro Grasso, Italy’s anti-Mafia commissioner, said the killings demonstrated that it was now operating globally. Other experts warned that the ‘Ndrangheta was also active in Britain, where it controlled the flow of Colombian cocaine. Continue Reading »
Aug 18 2007
Referee with gambling addiction throws basketball into turmoil
Tim Donaghy
American sport was rocked yesterday when a leading basketball referee pleaded guilty to passing betting tips to professional gamblers, after an FBI operation linked to the Gambino Mafia family.
Tim Donaghy also admitted placing bets on games over which he officiated, in what the head of the National Basketball Association (NBA) described as the “worst situation” he had ever experienced for the sport. Continue Reading »
Aug 18 2007
How the tentacles of the Calabrian Mafia spread from Italy
(Adriana Sapone/AP) Police seized 5million worth of weapons, including 7,500 Kalashnikov assault rifles, from a ship in Gioia Tauro harbour in 2004. Eighty per cent of cocaine in Europe passes through the Calabrian port
The murders of six Italian men in Duisburg, Germany, are believed to be linked to a clan feud within the ‘Ndrangheta branch of the Mafia based in Calabria
The ’Ndrangheta from Calabria has long spread its tentacles beyond Italy, but it has always kept a low profile. The violence at Duisburg is a rare and disturbing instance of its bloody feuds breaking out on foreign soil. Continue Reading »
Aug 18 2007
Seagal says FBI probe ruined career
LOS ANGELES – Steven Seagal, whose action movies once were major box-office attractions, believes false allegations by FBI agents ruined his career, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.
The comments in the Times are the first Seagal has made publicly about an investigation begun some five years ago by the FBI into accusations he intimidated a reporter and had ties to organized crime. Continue Reading »
