On February 1, a goat’s head cut with a butcher’s knife was placed on the doorstep of Italian judge Francesca Mariano.
The judge has received repeated threats – including notes written in blood – after ordering the arrest of 22 members of a mafia operating in the Puglia region in the south of the country.
This week, the leaders of the G7 countries and some guests (among them, President Lula) will participate in a summit in Puglia.
The area is part of the Sacra Corona Unita (SCU) mafia group.The Camorra is a lesser-known organization than Cosa Nostra or the ‘Trangetta, but it was able to infiltrate corporations and government structures.
Besides Judge Mariano, there are other women fighting the Sacra Corona Unita in the Puglia region, the head of the anti-mafia task force, a lawyer and a local politician.
History of the Sacra Corona Unita
The Sacra Corona Unita (SCU) was born in 1981 in a prison in the city of Lecce to prevent criminal gangs from other areas from controlling the city’s illegal businesses.
The mafia group takes its name from the Catholic religion and also copies some rituals from the church. Over the years, members of the SCU began to mix legal business with crime, and today there are about 5,000 members divided into 30 different clans.
Carla Durante, head of Lecce’s anti-mafia force, says the CSU’s main business is drug trafficking, but they also do extortion and loan sharking. “Now there are intruders in public administration,” says Durande.
The SCU funnels the proceeds of crime into legitimate businesses, such as tourist companies in Puglia.
One of the most effective ways to fight crime is to confiscate gang businesses. Durante’s task force has already banned farms and wineries turned into projects by local organizations.
“We learned that this is a very objective tool to fight the mafia, because taking assets from mafiosos means taking power from them,” Durante says.
SCU has become part of the local community and is accepted by the people. In recent years, it has eschewed more violent acts and embraced more subtle forms of intimidation.
The mafioso tried to cut the throat of the lawyer
Sabrina Matrangola, a local politician, is the daughter of a woman who was killed in 1984 during a campaign against real estate development in a park. He says that Italy accepts the mafia and that society must unite and choose “the right side”. Matrangola is an operative of the Libera group that transforms mafia-banned properties into projects for local communities.
Two weeks after an operation in which members of the Mafia were arrested, a suspect tried to cut the throat of the prosecuting attorney, Carmen Ruggiero.
Pancrazio Carrino, one of the 22 people with arrest warrants, signaled his willingness to cooperate with the investigation. But when the lawyer arrived at the jail, he tried to cut his jugular vein with a knife.
The women facing the CSU also try to convince people that the Mafia is harmful in other ways: Mariano, the judge, tries to change the way people see criminals.
“We need to start with basic communication to pass on the values of dignity, courage and responsibility, the ability to say no, the ability to be angry when faced with the wrong things,” he says.
“Hardcore explorer. Extreme communicator. Professional writer. General music practitioner. Prone to fits of apathy.”