The ‘Ndrangheta have controlled southern peninsula of Italy ruthlessly for decades, with hundreds of victims left dead, maimed or vanishing without a trace.
This mafia’s relentless extortion racket – demanding protection money, or pizzo , from businesses – combined with blackmail, money laundering and importing cocaine from Columbia, meant that by 2007, the ‘Ndrangheta was raking in yearly revenue of €40billion (£35bn), the equivalent of 3.5 percent of Italy’s GDP.
Nothing could stop what was one of most powerful criminal organisations in the world, no one would dare touch them.
