Albanian, Nigerian, Chinese, Russian… These are some of the foreign mafias present in Italy, perfectly integrated into the Italian organized crime system
The mafia is too often “foreign” in the Italian debate. “Foreign” not for the origin of its affiliates, but in the reflection on the causes and effects that the mafia economy produces on a daily basis. A reflection which, if carried out seriously, would call into question the very styles on which our own society is based, which is entirely based on money, not on other values. And the mafias make money and the power that comes with it an absolute. But the mafia is “foreign” also because we are always looking for an “other” culprit, someone other than us who bears the responsibility for what doesn’t work, a necessary “other” guilt.
Albanian, Nigerian, Chinese, Russian… these are just some of the “foreign” mafias in Italy. Drug and weapons trafficking, people trafficking, labor and sexual exploitation, money laundering… are just some of their main illicit activities.
A first and fundamental point of understanding these mafias is the fact that their very presence, existence and continuity of operations in Italy are possible only and exclusively thanks to the Italian mafias. The possibility has sometimes been raised that foreign mafias could take the place of native ones, a narrative useful only for criminal purposes but never truthful. And in a country crossed by many different racist undertones, the discussion on foreign mafias has never really linked their presence to the approval of the mafia, camorra and ‘ndrangheta. Always ready to blame the foreigner, silent in talking about the mafias, even more so in assigning precise responsibilities.
The Italian mafias do not evaluate the color of the skin, the religion, the linguistic difference or the origin, also because, if the belief is money, everything else is secondary: an evolution of liberal thinking that does not give space to racism, at least apparently . As long as the money is flowing, everything is acceptable.
Another fundamental point in understanding foreign mafias is the fact that we always try to produce a scale of danger. But this is a sterile exercise. Every mafia always needs attention, study and contrast. Even more importantly, these mafias are “foreign” in Italy precisely and only because they are in Italy. It seems like a play on words but it’s not. Italy, in fact, is the only country that has legislation that uses the word “mafia”; elsewhere we talk about organized crime groups, neglecting the most dangerous traits of what a mafia rooted in the heart of a society is.
The mapping of these mafias should also lead us to better understand the foreign communities present in our country and interact with them. On the one hand, however, there is a society that is still essentially closed and does not engage in dialogue with different nationalities; on the other, there are the mafias that make dialogue one of their pillars. Understanding avoids deaths and misunderstandings. This is how money laundering by Chinese groups works for the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta or Nigerian drug brokers for Neapolitan clans.
The mafias also have another characteristic: the denial of borders. Of course, territoriality and control of one’s fiefdom are still important, but there is also a strong desire to erase any type of border to be everywhere. Two non-absurd extremes to coexist. Ultimately, it is the same attitude as Europe which does not want to have borders in its action to conquer economic markets, but hermetically closes the borders of its territories to people. The substantial difference is that the mafias believe in mutual advantage in working together, while Europe does not believe in the possibility of opening its borders to migrants.
Foreign mafias should be a constant object of study: this would also help to understand migratory and economic flows. The Albanians themselves, for example, have gone from being criminal laborers to becoming main players in the logistics of drug trafficking in Europe. Furthermore, it would be possible to understand the evolution of the Mediterranean and its trade. The presence of foreign mafias should also give a strong boost to collaboration and cooperation between judicial systems of near and far countries. But we know well that an international letter rogatory or an extradition does not move as quickly as packages from a large distributor. This questions the real desire to fight organized crime at a global level and makes us reflect on which paths money takes and in which tax havens it hides. “Paradises” that are often less “foreign” than we think.
Italy’s mafia history makes us a point of arrival and meeting, a laboratory of alliances and a crossroads of new trafficking. Mafia history understood precisely as the historical evolution of a country that has a serious problem such as mafias, which have always been ignored in high school study books. We remember it from time to time, for an initiative or a commemoration. The same goes for foreign mafias which become “attentive” only when they can be used, especially the Nigerian one, to foment racism, but the same happens with the Chinese community, a world that is difficult to understand and which is often associated with a powerful mafia. A better knowledge of foreign mafias would also give us greater awareness of our territory.
Finally, understanding a mafia must have the victims as its starting point: who are they? Where they come from? Are they Italian men and women or the same people from migrant communities? And what do we do to protect them and not let them fall into complete isolation? Ignored by Italians and isolated by their communities, foreign victims become ghosts whose history and will to rebel and free themselves from abuse will never be known. This is not why we celebrate so many anti-mafia heroes.