:00:04. > :00:14.This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find
:00:14. > :00:14.
:00:14. > :00:24.Hear nothing. See nothing. Say nothing. Those three things will
:00:24. > :00:25.
:00:25. > :00:30.That is the code of Italy's most violent mafia. The Camorra. And
:00:30. > :00:35.this is where its grip is strongest. Naples, a city in the heart of
:00:35. > :00:43.Europe. Its brutality is notorious. It's killed more people than the
:00:44. > :00:46.IRA. It stands for death, terror, trauma, blood and tears. But as
:00:46. > :00:52.senior insiders, who have never spoken publicly before tell me, the
:00:52. > :00:57.power of the Camorra clans is all- pervasive. Take away the word
:00:57. > :00:59.Naples and leave the word Camorra. It's the city of the Camorra!
:00:59. > :01:09.organised crime syndicate rakes in billions by poisoning its own
:01:09. > :01:12.backyard with toxic waste. And the Camorra's polluted Naples politics.
:01:12. > :01:15.It used to be that the Camorrista would knock on the politician's
:01:15. > :01:20.door for favours. Today in this city it's the politician who needs
:01:20. > :01:30.the Camorrista. The Camorra has more blood on its hands than
:01:30. > :01:36.
:01:36. > :01:46.Sicilly's infamous mafia. What will Four year old Francesco is too
:01:46. > :01:50.
:01:50. > :01:55.young to know it but his mother Simona di Monte is a prosecutor.
:01:55. > :01:59.The police fear that her enemies could strike at any time. This is
:01:59. > :02:08.Naples in 2011. Not Colombia. But Simona lives under 24 hour armed
:02:08. > :02:10.police protection. Ciao Franci! Ciao.
:02:11. > :02:13.She needs protecting because she's a top anti-Camorra prosecutor here
:02:13. > :02:23.and Naples' home-grown Mafia thinks nothing of targeting those who
:02:23. > :02:28.stand in its way. Protection is granted to prosecutors who are seen
:02:28. > :02:32.to be at the forefront of fighting against organised crime. I don't
:02:32. > :02:36.feel in danger but it's not for me to decide. It's part of the rules
:02:36. > :02:46.of the game. I knew when I accepted this job that I would need
:02:46. > :02:48.
:02:48. > :02:54.The main reason why I chose to do what I do was to understand
:02:54. > :03:04.properly why our land is sick with this cancer, the Camorra. It
:03:04. > :03:07.
:03:07. > :03:12.suffocates this region and makes it Bringing to justice many of Italy's
:03:12. > :03:17.most notorious gangsters is all in a day's work for Simona. Today
:03:17. > :03:20.she's prosecuting an extortion case. The Camorra is made up of scores of
:03:20. > :03:23.competing clans and the man behind the glass is alleged to belong to
:03:23. > :03:29.one of the most powerful which Simona has helped bring to its
:03:29. > :03:34.knees. Her star witness is the Carabinieri's Lieutenant Colonel
:03:34. > :03:44.Fabio Cagnazzo. One of the region's best detectives in the fight
:03:44. > :04:02.
:04:02. > :04:06.The two clan bosses are now in jail after more than a decade on the run.
:04:06. > :04:16.This prisoner may soon join them. He's facing up to 26 years in
:04:16. > :04:17.
:04:17. > :04:27.The Camorra creates slaves. A person's only way out is either to
:04:27. > :04:27.
:04:27. > :04:32.give evidence against them. Or to The Camorra is interested in
:04:32. > :04:42.anything that makes money. It has the Midas Touch, able to transform
:04:42. > :04:46.
:04:46. > :04:55.anything into money. Legal or The Camorra is like a net over this
:04:55. > :05:01.That net is invisible to outsiders who see only a beautiful city in
:05:01. > :05:04.the lee of Mount Vesuvius. Set on the Bay of Naples, it's a magnet
:05:04. > :05:09.for tourists. Neapolitans are renowned for their gregarious
:05:09. > :05:16.nature and expressive love of life. But there's another side to the
:05:16. > :05:19.city. If you know where to look. The grim estates of north Naples
:05:19. > :05:29.where the grip of organised crime is total. With addicts openly
:05:29. > :05:32.
:05:32. > :05:37.shooting up after buying heroin My name is Mark Franchetti. I was
:05:37. > :05:43.born in Italy but haven't lived here for 25 years. Growing up in
:05:43. > :05:46.Italy I became used to hearing Camorra stories. Naples is so
:05:46. > :05:52.inured to the Camorra that it even has newspapers like this one which
:05:52. > :05:56.specialise in crime. Every day the Cronache di Napoli reports the
:05:56. > :06:03.latest shootouts, arrests and courtroom revelations. A daily
:06:03. > :06:09.reminder of the Camorra's enduring But Neapolitans don't call it the
:06:09. > :06:11.Camorra. They call it Il Sistema. The System. The System isn't one
:06:11. > :06:18.organisation with a single Godfather, like Sicily's Cosa
:06:18. > :06:28.Nostra. It's a series of competing, often warring, criminal clans who
:06:28. > :06:31.
:06:31. > :06:37.The first time that I heard the word Camorra was when it took my
:06:37. > :06:42.mother away. Alessandra Clemente had a happy childhood in Naples.
:06:42. > :06:49.Until the Camorra blighted her life. Her mother was shot dead in 1997,
:06:49. > :06:55.caught in the crossfire of a Clan shoot-out. You know the horrible
:06:55. > :07:00.thing is that I remember everything. Really well. Really well. I was
:07:00. > :07:04.playing a game. I heard some noises, thought maybe a scooter had crashed
:07:04. > :07:11.in the street. We lived on the ninth floor of our building, high
:07:11. > :07:17.up. Then I went to the balcony and saw my mum on the floor hurt. I ran
:07:17. > :07:20.down the stairs, didn't wait for the lift. Then I remember being in
:07:20. > :07:28.the arms of some nice people who wouldn't let me go into the road
:07:28. > :07:34.and I let them stop me. My mum was only 39. She was a beautiful woman
:07:34. > :07:43.with a love of life. I had the first ten years of my life with her
:07:43. > :07:53.Silvia Ruotolo was killed here in front of Alessandra's little
:07:53. > :08:09.
:08:10. > :08:19.Does your brother remember anything about it? I've never been able to
:08:20. > :08:23.
:08:23. > :08:33.find out what he remembers from Alessandra still lives in Naples
:08:33. > :08:33.
:08:33. > :08:40.with her brother, now 19, and their She is studying law and her
:08:40. > :08:50.ambition is to become a prosecutor taking on Camorra cases. My mother
:08:50. > :08:51.
:08:51. > :08:54.tragically died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
:08:54. > :08:57.The decision I have made to study law helped me understand that there
:08:57. > :09:01.shouldn't be such a thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong
:09:01. > :09:10.time. We have a right to live in a better city than this. Why should I
:09:10. > :09:20.accept the way in which my mother Alessandra's commitment is
:09:20. > :09:20.
:09:20. > :09:27.impressive, but she's up against This clip from a CCTV camera gave
:09:27. > :09:33.Neapolitans a rare insight into how the Camorra meets out justice. The
:09:33. > :09:36.man on the left of the picture has only seconds to live. His assassin
:09:36. > :09:46.in the baseball cap coolly walks past him into this shop before
:09:46. > :09:47.
:09:48. > :09:57.committing murder in broad daylight The passers by move away quickly.
:09:58. > :10:06.
:10:06. > :10:11.Witnesses are hard to come by in a I've come to meet a man who knows
:10:11. > :10:14.what it's like to use a gun in anger for the Camorra. Salvatore
:10:14. > :10:24.Striano says he's never killed anyone but admits to pulling the
:10:24. > :10:25.
:10:25. > :10:28.My gun was indispensable and I couldn't do anything without it.
:10:28. > :10:35.The first time I held one I knew I had something strong and powerful
:10:35. > :10:41.in my hands. I felt I could defend my family with it. I felt protected.
:10:41. > :10:45.Salvatore became a Camorrista when he was still a teenager. He comes
:10:45. > :10:51.from Naples' Spanish Quarter. One of the oldest Camorra strongholds
:10:51. > :10:59.in the city centre. As he takes me around he reveals its hidden
:10:59. > :11:03.sinister side. I was born there. That's my balcony.
:11:03. > :11:05.That's where my mother would wait for me when I came back from my
:11:05. > :11:14.dangerous exploits. There's a bullet hole. And there's another
:11:14. > :11:17.Here, we're entering "the tunnel of the dead". It's called that because
:11:17. > :11:23.in this street there have been more than ten murders between rival
:11:23. > :11:32.families. On this street? Yes. Once you go in you don't stand a chance
:11:32. > :11:37.These men may look as though they are just hanging around one of
:11:37. > :11:44.Naples' most picturesque streets. In fact, they are lookouts for a
:11:44. > :11:48.nearby Camorra drug dealer. And if you see scooters parked like this
:11:48. > :11:53.and no-one's watching them, that's because no-one has to. Nobody would
:11:53. > :11:56.ever steal them because everyone knows who they belong to. So people
:11:56. > :12:06.know that they shouldn't steal them? Absolutely they know it. They
:12:06. > :12:09.
:12:09. > :12:11.The Camorra has been a blight on Naples for more than a century.
:12:12. > :12:14.Over the decades, local bandits transformed themselves into one of
:12:14. > :12:24.the world's most feared organized crime networks, making money from
:12:24. > :12:29.loan sharking, prostitution and But it wasn't until it started
:12:29. > :12:32.dealing in illegal drugs that it became truly rich. I'm off to the
:12:32. > :12:35.see the epicentre of the drugs trade. The housing estates of
:12:35. > :12:41.northern Naples where investigators believe more drugs are sold at
:12:41. > :12:51.street level than anywhere else in Europe. And the Camorra is behind
:12:51. > :12:51.
:12:51. > :12:54.Using a camera openly here is out of the question. I could enter
:12:55. > :13:00.unchallenged only with the help of a local contact. Taking this secret
:13:00. > :13:06.footage risked swift retribution. The area is home to numerous drug
:13:06. > :13:15.piazzas as narcotics sales points are known. These are the lookouts
:13:15. > :13:19.who alert the drug runners at the These are the customers. Although
:13:19. > :13:28.victims might be a better way of putting it. Shooting up underneath
:13:28. > :13:38.a half-built flyover. The ground is littered with syringes. Which you
:13:38. > :13:42.
:13:42. > :13:46.can buy across the counter in the And these are the Camorra dealers.
:13:46. > :13:56.The expensive wheels are the giveaway. They rule estates like
:13:56. > :14:01.this where no outsider can venture. I wanted to talk to an insider. For
:14:01. > :14:04.years this man ran a drug piazza. The former drug dealer has now left
:14:04. > :14:09.the Camorra but would still talk to us only on condition that his
:14:09. > :14:18.identity was concealed. How much money can a piazza
:14:18. > :14:23.generate in a day? Total income? It depends. A small piazza can
:14:23. > :14:26.generate 30,000 or 40,000 Euros a day. And a big one? Lots of money.
:14:26. > :14:32.I've heard people talk about drug piazzas making a million and a half
:14:32. > :14:36.Euros in one week. This dealer is bringing his boss
:14:36. > :14:39.the morning's takings. According to prosecutors, as much as half a
:14:39. > :14:45.million Euros' worth of drugs are sold by the camorra in this part of
:14:45. > :14:51.Naples every day. Most striking is that each piazza works like
:14:51. > :14:55.clockwork. Day and night. There are 12 people working doing eight-hours
:14:55. > :14:58.shifts. There are four lookouts on the outside and four lookouts in
:14:58. > :15:02.the inside. Then there are another two people who frisk anyone coming
:15:02. > :15:05.in. One person who takes the money and another giving out the
:15:06. > :15:09.merchandise. Then there is, say, the runner who takes the drugs to
:15:09. > :15:13.the piazza. You never get to know where the drugs runner gets his
:15:13. > :15:17.supply from. Even the people who work there don't know. Then there
:15:17. > :15:27.is the capopiazza, the boss, who manages the day to day running of
:15:27. > :15:27.
:15:27. > :15:37.Police raids like this one on Camorra drug piazzas are
:15:37. > :15:40.
:15:40. > :15:44.commonplace. There were two when I The drug dealers put up barriers to
:15:44. > :15:54.buy time to escape. The police have to call in the fire brigade to cut
:15:54. > :16:00.
:16:00. > :16:04.It doesn't take long for drugs to be found. These phials are coded in
:16:04. > :16:14.the colours of the Italian flag. The white ones contain heroin, the
:16:14. > :16:18.
:16:18. > :16:23.green, crack, and the red ones, The drug dealers are used to raids
:16:23. > :16:33.like this. And only a few hours later they will be up and running
:16:33. > :16:33.
:16:33. > :16:39.again. And the people who live here are used to the drug dealing but
:16:39. > :16:43.they're scared, so there's nothing they can do about it.
:16:43. > :16:51.The Carabinieri have to settle for three foot soldiers. But raids like
:16:51. > :16:57.this don't faze the dealers. Who controls this area? Not the state.
:16:57. > :17:00.So who does control this place, then? The Camorra.
:17:00. > :17:06.But drugs aren't the only money earner. Just as lucrative is
:17:06. > :17:16.extortion. The man arriving in this car makes mattresses. Hardly a life
:17:16. > :17:17.
:17:17. > :17:20.But he needs armed police bodyguards around the clock. Very
:17:20. > :17:29.few businessmen have shown as much determination to stand up to the
:17:29. > :17:37.Camorra as Pietro Russo. One day in 2003 the Camorra came calling in
:17:37. > :17:40.his small town close to Naples. They said that I had to give them
:17:40. > :17:47.50,000 Euros straight away and then 15,000 every Easter, Christmas and
:17:48. > :17:51.August summer holiday. The Camorra can be very persuasive.
:17:51. > :17:59.This is what happened when the owner of a gaming arcade crossed it
:17:59. > :18:02.so Pietro couldn't just ignore the demands. So I went to the clan and
:18:02. > :18:06.sat down at the table with the boss. He told me that I had until
:18:06. > :18:10.Christmas to pay up. What the boss didn't know was that Pietro was
:18:10. > :18:17.secretly recording the meeting. Then he went to the chief of the
:18:17. > :18:22.local Carabinieri police. But the response was not what he'd expected.
:18:22. > :18:25.He said it wasn't a lot of money and I had a factory and a family.
:18:25. > :18:35.He said the police wouldn't be able to guarantee my safety for more
:18:35. > :18:36.
:18:36. > :18:44.than five days. So he advised me to Pietro felt he had to start paying.
:18:44. > :18:48.But he still fought back when the I wanted to make the payments in
:18:49. > :18:52.here so that I could secretly film the whole transaction. I hid the
:18:52. > :18:59.camera in a corner of this office, sat down and I counted out loud the
:19:00. > :19:07.money on this desk. Then he counted it all, put it in his pocket and
:19:07. > :19:11.left. And where was the camera? hid it over there near the helmet.
:19:11. > :19:16.But I didn't have to try very hard to hide it because the people they
:19:16. > :19:18.send to do this job are not the brightest.
:19:18. > :19:21.The evidence Pietro gathered at great personal risk put 36 members
:19:21. > :19:31.of one of the Camorra's most infamous clans, the Casalesi,
:19:31. > :19:31.
:19:31. > :19:36.behind bars. Including local boss Augusto Bianco. At the trial some
:19:36. > :19:46.gave me the sign of the cross as in as much to say that they wanted me
:19:46. > :19:48.
:19:48. > :19:58.In Naples, they have a saying. A Camorrista's life leads to either
:19:58. > :20:01.
:20:01. > :20:09.the sound of the funeral bell Not much of a choice. So why do the
:20:09. > :20:16.Camorra never seem to run out of In part because so many were born
:20:16. > :20:22.in places like this. Le Vele. Built as a jewel of urban development,
:20:22. > :20:25.it's now one of the bleakest places to live in Italy. Here, it's easy
:20:25. > :20:33.to view crime as the good life especially if you're offered more
:20:33. > :20:43.money than you've ever dreamt of earning. The former drug dealer did.
:20:43. > :20:44.
:20:44. > :20:51.How much could you earn a month? 4,000 Euros a day. You mean 400
:20:51. > :20:58.Euros, one person? Yes. How did you spend the money? Night life. Women,
:20:58. > :21:03.gambling. It gives you all this. Some people would use drugs. When
:21:03. > :21:06.you were small how did people view the Camorristi? You could tell them
:21:06. > :21:10.apart from other people by the way they dressed, their cars and their
:21:10. > :21:20.motorbikes. They had many more things than ordinary people. Little
:21:20. > :21:30.
:21:30. > :21:36.wonder the Camorra is romanticised. The music is called neo melodici
:21:36. > :21:46.and most Camorristi are big fans. This song idolises the life of a
:21:46. > :21:50.clan member on the run from the Young men who are attracted by that
:21:50. > :21:54.lifestyle usually end up here. This is Nisida. Naples' juvenile
:21:54. > :22:00.detention centre. A place where most future Camorra members
:22:00. > :22:07.eventually do time. Nisida is a place of very special significance
:22:07. > :22:09.for one young woman. This mural lists the names of every innocent
:22:09. > :22:17.victim of organised crime in Italy, including the mother of Alessandra
:22:17. > :22:25.Clemente, Silvia Ruotolo. And one of the men convicted in her killing
:22:25. > :22:30.served time here while still a teenager. Alessandra comes here
:22:30. > :22:34.often. I go to Nisida because I want to tell those boys the story
:22:34. > :22:38.of my mother. I want to give them an extra reason to change their
:22:38. > :22:41.lives and not become, once they're out, like the boy who killed her.
:22:41. > :22:43.Alessandra has got to know some of these young men very well. We
:22:43. > :22:46.aren't allowed to reveal their identities or the crimes they've
:22:46. > :22:56.committed. But they are keen to explain to us why they think
:22:56. > :23:31.
:23:31. > :23:41.But most important, crime here runs Today Alessandra has brought
:23:41. > :24:10.
:24:10. > :24:16.someone special she wants them to Antonio Prestieri is Camorra
:24:16. > :24:21.Royalty. His father is a convicted murderer, drugs trafficker and clan
:24:21. > :24:29.boss. But Antonio has kept out of places like Nisida by rejecting his
:24:29. > :24:32.father's lifestyle from the very start despite his roots. Four out
:24:32. > :24:39.of five of my primary and secondary school teachers showed me respect
:24:39. > :24:43.just because of my surname. To them it embodied terror.
:24:43. > :24:46.Antonio's father is Tommaso Prestieri. He served more than 20
:24:46. > :24:56.years in jail whilst Antonio grew up in the grim suburb of
:24:56. > :25:02.This is the district where my father lived, where he still has
:25:02. > :25:06.his flat. Where? In this building? On the eighth floor. You might say
:25:06. > :25:09.that this is one of the lairs of the family. In the tourist guides
:25:09. > :25:14.this area's marked red. You can't come in here. Why? Because it's
:25:14. > :25:17.dangerous? You bet it's dangerous. How do you explain that your father
:25:17. > :25:25.chose to bring you into the world here when he could afford to live
:25:25. > :25:28.in a nicer area in a villa, for instance? I think that they know
:25:28. > :25:32.that if they go out of their own little world, they wouldn't be
:25:32. > :25:37.anybody. Antonio's not only rejected his
:25:37. > :25:41.father's life of crime. He's rejected the proceeds too. For my
:25:41. > :25:46.18th birthday, out of the blue, he sent one of his men with a very
:25:46. > :25:52.expensive watch. And this guy told me, "This is the gift from your
:25:52. > :25:57.father". I sent it back. I let my father know that this is a world
:25:57. > :26:00.that leads nowhere. If I could, I'd bash some sense into my father. But,
:26:00. > :26:10.despite everything, I believe there is some good in him, that he cares
:26:10. > :26:15.
:26:15. > :26:18.This statue of Jesus Christ was commissioned by my father. He's
:26:18. > :26:21.very religious, which is a real contradiction, but he put up this
:26:21. > :26:24.statue here and erected others around so that the people in this
:26:24. > :26:34.building would have a place of peace and quiet they could retreat
:26:34. > :26:35.
:26:35. > :26:37.Today Antonio Prestieri is making a new life for himself as a talented
:26:37. > :26:47.playwright and performing musician, determined that his Camorra lineage
:26:47. > :27:02.
:27:02. > :27:06.But Naples has been scarred by the The Camorra is Italy's bloodiest
:27:06. > :27:13.mafia. 3,000 people have been killed in the last 30 years mostly
:27:13. > :27:17.in turf wars. And the killing shows no sign of abating. A few hours
:27:17. > :27:22.before I visited this area, two men were gunned down in a barber's shop
:27:22. > :27:25.close to where we were filming. Some of the dead are innocents
:27:25. > :27:29.caught in the crossfire but most of them are Camorra members from
:27:29. > :27:36.warring rival clans. My source, the Camorra drug dealer, will never
:27:36. > :27:41.forget the time his clan went to war. It was very ugly because you
:27:41. > :27:45.couldn't leave the house for fear of being killed. It wasn't easy.
:27:45. > :27:49.From one day to the next you wouldn't know who your friends were.
:27:49. > :27:55.When you went out, did you go armed? Yeah, they'd take us to
:27:55. > :27:59.waste land. They'd make us ride motorbikes and while one of us was
:27:59. > :28:03.steering the bike the other would practice standing up and shooting.
:28:03. > :28:06.Turf wars are so frequent because of the way Naples is divided into
:28:06. > :28:11.so many Camorra clans. Territories like this throughout the Naples
:28:11. > :28:18.region are carved up between more than 70 clans. And when Camorristi
:28:18. > :28:23.clash, they often reach for the gun. We'd come out, five or six of us at
:28:23. > :28:30.a time, armed. You mean with guns in your hands? You bet. Around here,
:28:30. > :28:34.you don't have time to take your gun out and load it. So you had
:28:34. > :28:40.your guns like this? Yeah, you had to keep pointing them at people all
:28:40. > :28:43.the time. Most of the time you shoot to intimidate people.
:28:43. > :28:53.Sometimes, even if you didn't mean to get them you did. There were
:28:53. > :28:58.
:28:58. > :29:01.A feature film, Gomorrah, chronicled the turf wars. The cast
:29:01. > :29:11.included Salvatore, now living a new life as a professional actor,
:29:11. > :29:15.
:29:15. > :29:22.Brutality like that is all too familiar for Antonio Prestieri.
:29:22. > :29:26.This is Monterosa, where all of my family used to live. And at this
:29:26. > :29:32.bar on the 18th May 1992 they killed my two Uncles. They called
:29:32. > :29:34.it the Monterosa Massacre. In the wake of these killings,
:29:34. > :29:44.Antonio's father and surviving uncle were left to run the family
:29:44. > :29:45.
:29:45. > :29:48.clan. And act as Camorra generals The hours of darkness held
:29:48. > :29:58.particular perils for Antonio when he feared death just because of his
:29:58. > :29:59.
:29:59. > :30:02.During the turf wars, when everyone was killing each other, there would
:30:02. > :30:07.be these nights after rehearsals where I'd walk down the street,
:30:07. > :30:16.hear the sound of a motorbike and be terrified. And all because I
:30:16. > :30:20.bore my father's name, which made And I would simply hope that they
:30:20. > :30:30.would shoot me in the back so I wouldn't have to stare death in the
:30:30. > :30:31.
:30:31. > :30:41.face. I lived with that fear Italy has not one but three police
:30:41. > :30:46.
:30:46. > :30:56.This is one of a series of co- ordinated police raids taking place
:30:56. > :31:05.
:31:05. > :31:09.tonight. This time by the state Tonight, I see with my own eyes
:31:09. > :31:12.what success for the authorities looks like. Many of the big clan
:31:12. > :31:15.leaders are in jail for life after being picked up in police raids
:31:16. > :31:18.like this. But with a constant supply of new recruits ready to
:31:18. > :31:27.take their place it's a never ending battle. Tonight the Polizia
:31:27. > :31:32.This man is facing a lengthy sentence on charges of extortion
:31:32. > :31:37.and being a Camorra member. But the authorities have an even more
:31:37. > :31:43.powerful weapon against the Camorra. Supergrasses, known here as pentiti.
:31:43. > :31:47.Camorristi who turn informants as part of a plea bargain. No one
:31:47. > :31:49.knows better than them where the bodies are buried - literally. This
:31:49. > :31:59.top Camorrista gave evidence against his own brother - this man,
:31:59. > :32:02.
:32:02. > :32:05.the father of Antonio Prestieri. father got life for murder. How did
:32:05. > :32:12.you feel about the fact that your uncle has betrayed and accused his
:32:12. > :32:17.own brother? It felt very strange, because I would never think of
:32:17. > :32:27.betraying my own sister, my own blood. But, on the other hand, what
:32:27. > :32:37.
:32:37. > :32:40.can you expect from people who have Very few members of the Camorra are
:32:40. > :32:47.prepared to shed light on its secret inner workings, but I'm on
:32:47. > :32:51.my way to meet a high-ranking Camorra insider. It took weeks of
:32:51. > :32:57.negotiation to get him to talk and even then he only agreed on
:32:57. > :33:00.condition that his identity be concealed. He was a racketeer, but
:33:00. > :33:08.says he's now out of the organisation that locals call il
:33:08. > :33:12.Sistema. I liked living a life of crime. I still like it.
:33:12. > :33:16.racketeer joined the Camorra during his first stretch in prison.
:33:16. > :33:21.make a blood pact. I first cut myself and then so did my sponsor
:33:21. > :33:29.and then his sponsor. And all the blood flows together. You make this
:33:29. > :33:32.blood pact on the Bible. You swear on the Bible? Yes. You swear on
:33:32. > :33:36.being faithful to the boss and the whole organisation. So you have to
:33:36. > :33:39.keep your mouth shut and if you don't they will shut it for you.
:33:39. > :33:46.That's the omerta, the code of silence. There are things you can't
:33:46. > :33:51.even tell your wife or family. From then on you start to specialise.
:33:51. > :33:54.And what did you specialise in? Extortion. That was my speciality.
:33:54. > :33:58.At that time the very sound of my name would make people tremble and
:33:58. > :34:04.pay up. If someone refused to pay, who would decide what to do, was it
:34:04. > :34:07.you? I was the area boss, so it was up to me. A bit of intimidation,
:34:07. > :34:17.burn a few cars, destroy part of a factory, but we wouldn't kill
:34:17. > :34:20.
:34:20. > :34:24.anyone. But there wasn't that much need for it, because everyone paid.
:34:24. > :34:27.Crossing the Camorra can have dire consequences. When this group of
:34:27. > :34:36.Camorra thugs came to a bowling alley to intimidate its owner, they
:34:36. > :34:38.brought a can of petrol. The same methods were used against Pietro
:34:38. > :34:47.Russo's mattress factory after he'd testified against those who'd
:34:47. > :34:49.forced him to pay up. I saw the flames from a distance. It was a
:34:50. > :34:55.ball of fire, there wasn't a centimetre where you didn't see
:34:56. > :35:02.flames. And you understood straight away that it was the clan?
:35:02. > :35:12.couldn't be anyone else. The fire in 2008 completely gutted his
:35:12. > :35:13.
:35:13. > :35:21.factory. Pietro would still not be cowered. He rebuilt it and it's now
:35:21. > :35:25.producing mattresses again. But it's not quite business as usual.
:35:25. > :35:29.This is one of the bags which we always used before I reported the
:35:29. > :35:33.Camorra. But after that, I couldn't use it anymore because our name was
:35:33. > :35:43.written on it and if we used it we wouldn't be able to sell any more
:35:43. > :35:51.mattresses. Not round here. So now we use unmarked bags. Just because
:35:51. > :35:54.people are scared? Because people are scared. Even before the fire,
:35:54. > :36:00.the Camorra threats against Pietro were so serious that he'd been
:36:00. > :36:03.given a round-the-clock armed police guard. I've seen a long
:36:03. > :36:07.queue of people lining up around a courtyard, business people I knew,
:36:07. > :36:13.all waiting their turn to pay protection money. It was like a
:36:13. > :36:19.line of people waiting at the post office to pay their bills. When
:36:19. > :36:22.Pietro refused to join that line, life became very lonely. From the
:36:22. > :36:26.moment I reported the Carmorra, all my friends started avoiding me.
:36:26. > :36:36.They were scared even of being in the same car as me. You start
:36:36. > :36:38.
:36:38. > :36:42.feeling like you're a leper. stress even broke up his marriage.
:36:42. > :36:51.Do you feel you are paying a very high price for your decision?
:36:51. > :36:58.freedom. Pietro turned to this anti-racketeering organisation for
:36:58. > :37:01.help. Alessandra Clemente has recently begun volunteering here.
:37:01. > :37:11.It's a centre which provides support and legal advice for those
:37:11. > :37:33.
:37:33. > :37:42.who have been targeted by the Coming here is interesting, I learn
:37:42. > :37:48.how you can help someone who rrts - reports cases of exor theion. In
:37:48. > :37:53.this city a place like this is important. People who have found
:37:53. > :37:58.the courage to again against it need to have that spark kindled. If
:37:58. > :38:04.you don't have a place like this, that spark will die out. Because it
:38:04. > :38:07.is a very hard road to go down alone. Over the past few years, the
:38:07. > :38:16.Camorra hasn't only extorted money from business, it's also gone into
:38:16. > :38:19.business - making more money with less risk by appearing to go legit.
:38:19. > :38:28.Camorra Inc is a field in which prosecutor Simona di Monte
:38:28. > :38:30.specialises. For the Camorra, it's much better to launder money which
:38:30. > :38:40.comes from drugs and from racketeering by reinvesting it into
:38:40. > :38:47.the world of business. There are now entire sectors of business that
:38:47. > :38:50.are controlled by the Camorra. In the area where I work, for instance,
:38:50. > :38:56.which has a very strong textile industry, the Camorra has gone into
:38:56. > :39:05.the textile business. In another area which is famous for mozzarella,
:39:05. > :39:08.the Camorra goes into cheese-making businesses. It damages the free
:39:08. > :39:18.market, because a Camorra business has no cash flow problems and can
:39:18. > :39:20.
:39:20. > :39:30.sell at a cut price. And so it completely destroys competition. It
:39:30. > :39:34.
:39:34. > :39:37.is Camorra Inc. On bread, on wine... Plastic bags, paper bags, meat -
:39:37. > :39:41.everything. Where there's business there's the Camorra. So if I stay
:39:41. > :39:51.here in Naples for a month, is it possible not to end up paying money
:39:51. > :39:58.to the Camorra? It's not possible. The Camorra is into drugs,
:39:58. > :40:02.racketeering and business. It's also into this, waste. Every few
:40:02. > :40:10.months the city drowns in it. The locals blame the politicians and
:40:10. > :40:16.organised crime. At times there are thousand of tons of household
:40:16. > :40:20.rubbish on Naples' streets - even down by the bay. The crisis is so
:40:20. > :40:25.bad that the city has been under a state of emergency for the last 17
:40:25. > :40:28.years. And that's just the way the Camorra likes it. The emergency
:40:28. > :40:33.status brings public funds and the clans are experts at tapping into
:40:33. > :40:35.them. The bigger the river of state money, the greater the
:40:35. > :40:44.opportunities for embezzlement by the Camorra - which investigators
:40:44. > :40:46.say has muscled in on some of the waste companies. There's an acute
:40:46. > :40:50.shortage of official landfill in the region, but nobody in Naples
:40:50. > :40:52.wants rubbish dumped near them: it could be deadly. These
:40:53. > :41:00.demonstrators are angry about illegal dumping at a local public
:41:00. > :41:03.tip which is supposed to be used for domestic refuse. Lorries - some
:41:03. > :41:05.owned by Camorra-front companies - are taking the garbage to the tip
:41:05. > :41:15.and the protestors' biggest fear is that they're also dumping poisonous
:41:15. > :41:21.toxic waste. They're killing us with waste and the politicians
:41:22. > :41:26.aren't protecting us. We're in a really bad way. We're getting ill.
:41:26. > :41:31.The Camorra isn't just boys going around on the streets with guns.
:41:31. > :41:38.The Camorra is much more subtle than that. Most Neapolitans agree
:41:38. > :41:45.but these protesters are determined to do something about it. Later at
:41:45. > :41:55.the public tip they check every lorry. They don't trust the local
:41:55. > :42:16.
:42:16. > :42:26.inspector here to keep out illegal Finally, some of the lorries are
:42:26. > :42:28.
:42:28. > :42:34.turned away. The land of the Naples region, Campagnia, has been fabled
:42:34. > :42:39.for its fertility since Roman times. For generations, the fields around
:42:39. > :42:42.here have kept the people of southern Italy nourished. But the
:42:42. > :42:52.Camorra has raked in billions by illegally dumping toxic waste on
:42:52. > :42:53.
:42:53. > :42:56.this land. Some farms have had to be abandoned altogether.
:42:56. > :43:01.Environmental campaigner Raffaele del Giudice agreed to show me the
:43:01. > :43:04.scale of the devastation. The deadlier the cargo the more
:43:04. > :43:12.lucrative - much of it transported hundreds of miles from Italy's
:43:12. > :43:19.industrial North and even from abroad. This is industrial waste -
:43:19. > :43:23.filters, oil, waste from iron foundries, tyres. I was born here.
:43:23. > :43:26.This is the land where I used to play. There were farmers here - my
:43:26. > :43:32.relatives, my grandfather. Then they were chased away and under
:43:32. > :43:35.here they dumped toxic waste. All of a sudden, some of the farm
:43:35. > :43:40.labourers who worked in this area started having problems with their
:43:40. > :43:43.hands, bad throats, blisters. As a result of all the dumped waste,
:43:43. > :43:52.even mice were dying. This is all in the findings of an official
:43:52. > :43:54.inquiry. To add insult to injury, acres of land polluted by the
:43:54. > :44:00.Camorra's poisonous waste has been used by the state to stockpile
:44:01. > :44:07.mountains of domestic rubbish. It's bundled up and dumped in bales on
:44:07. > :44:15.top of toxic waste sites. Here they stretch as far as the eye can see -
:44:15. > :44:21.tens of thousands of waste bales. We're in this area here look, 15
:44:21. > :44:30.square kilometres, and there are 43 waste dumps here, legal and illegal.
:44:30. > :44:35.So who controls things here? Here the Camorra's very strong. Naples
:44:35. > :44:38.lies in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius - an active volcano. This
:44:38. > :44:46.road was built to quickly evacuate thousands of people the next time
:44:46. > :44:48.Vesuvius erupts - which sooner or later it will. But work on the
:44:48. > :44:51.escape route has stopped before it could be finished because the
:44:51. > :44:58.Camorra dumped tons of toxic waste - including asbestos - in its
:44:58. > :45:06.foundations. Prosecutor Simona di Monte, who is investigating the
:45:07. > :45:10.case, took me there. It's expensive to dispose of industrial waste. The
:45:10. > :45:15.Camorra can do it at a knockdown price because it dumps it illegally
:45:15. > :45:19.in fields, disused quarries and under roads like this one. On paper,
:45:19. > :45:27.the waste looks as though it was disposed of but in fact it was only
:45:27. > :45:32.hidden. In making its billions, the Camorra has destroyed countless
:45:32. > :45:40.livelihoods - and even lives. I went to see these two farmers on
:45:40. > :45:44.the outskirts of Naples. When I used to come here with my grandad,
:45:44. > :45:48.you could drink the ground water. You could scoop it up with a
:45:48. > :45:53.cauliflower leaf. Now it's all poisoned. Mario Cannavacciuolo and
:45:53. > :46:00.his son, Allessandro, used to graze sheep on this land. Then something
:46:00. > :46:02.sinister began to happen. Day after day we noticed more and more of the
:46:02. > :46:08.animals' heads were deformed and they had growths all over their
:46:08. > :46:12.bodies. Our animals started dying and when they started dying our
:46:12. > :46:17.herd was destroyed. And when that happened the authorities sequested
:46:17. > :46:22.everything. 2,000 sheep were slaughtered by order. The farmers
:46:22. > :46:25.claim they had been poisoned by illegally-dumped deadly dioxins.
:46:25. > :46:30.First time round it said that the Dioxin level was 13 parts per
:46:30. > :46:33.trillion. And what should it be? Three. Then my brother got sick.
:46:33. > :46:38.And the doctor took blood samples. My brother's sample showed 255
:46:38. > :46:43.parts per trillion Within 40 days there was nothing we could do. He
:46:43. > :46:47.was eaten away. What did he die of? He was riddled with cancer. He was
:46:47. > :46:49.eaten up by it. There is no conclusive evidence to back their
:46:49. > :46:52.claims, but Italy's national research council has found that
:46:52. > :47:02.cancer rates in this part of the country are significantly higher
:47:02. > :47:02.
:47:02. > :47:06.than average. A company produces the toxic waste. It has to dispose
:47:06. > :47:09.of it somewhere but to do that you need hell of a lot of money. So it
:47:09. > :47:13.gets in touch with politicians, and the politicians go to the Camorra
:47:13. > :47:21.who in turn go to people who can dump it on their behalf. It's all
:47:21. > :47:30.connected. It's all one delinquent organisation. Dumping on this scale
:47:30. > :47:33.has even stretched the cynicism of the Camorra. There was a summit.
:47:33. > :47:37.And someone with a tiniest amount of conscience said "Look, we are
:47:38. > :47:45.poisoning everything around here, even the water". And the boss
:47:45. > :47:50.answered, "What do we care? We drink mineral water." As you see, I
:47:50. > :47:58.drink bottled water, not water from the tap. Why? Because they've
:47:58. > :48:01.poisoned everything here. Well not everything around here is poisoned.
:48:01. > :48:07.Naples' mains water has not been polluted and look at this Camorra
:48:07. > :48:17.pizza. All the ingredients here are of the highest quality. They're
:48:17. > :48:27.
:48:27. > :48:30.Tonight Alessandra Clemente and her family have come out to this anti-
:48:30. > :48:40.Camorra restaurant for a special feast a few days before her
:48:40. > :48:48.
:48:48. > :48:53.This restaurant was created in a property once owned by people who
:48:53. > :48:56.became rich from drug trafficking, murders and racketeering. It sends
:48:56. > :49:01.the strongest possible message in the fight against the Camorra and
:49:01. > :49:05.organised crime because you're hitting the Camorra in its pocket.
:49:05. > :49:10.I simply won't accept that things have to stay as they are and that
:49:10. > :49:16.we must resign ourselves to them. Naples' Camorra crisis is no longer
:49:16. > :49:19.just a local issue. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to clamp
:49:19. > :49:29.down on the Camorra when he was elected three years ago. And to
:49:29. > :49:38.
:49:38. > :49:46.But three years later the rubbish is still on the streets of Naples.
:49:46. > :49:49.And the Camorra is still here. Some politicians have been accused of
:49:49. > :49:53.working with the Camorra - including this man, Nicola
:49:53. > :50:03.Cosentino. He's the leader of Mr Berlusconi's party in this region
:50:03. > :50:10.
:50:11. > :50:13.and six months ago they came to He's in court after a supergrass
:50:13. > :50:15.alleged that he'd enjoyed links to a Camorra company which illegally
:50:16. > :50:22.disposed of toxic waste but Cosentino vehemently denies the
:50:22. > :50:25.charges. After the hearing, I found him at the courthouse coffee bar.
:50:25. > :50:30.Abroad you often hear people say that the Camorra could not exist
:50:30. > :50:34.without political support. That it could never have survived to many
:50:34. > :50:42.years without it. I agree, but you need to address this question to
:50:42. > :50:48.those who have been control in Campania for the last twenty years.
:50:48. > :50:53.In the last 20 years there has been a centre-left party in power.
:50:53. > :50:56.You've got to ask them how the Camorra has expanded here. Don't
:50:56. > :51:06.ask those who have always been in opposition and today have to defend
:51:06. > :51:17.
:51:17. > :51:20.themselves from accusations. Sure, but if you say the Camorra always
:51:20. > :51:23.does business with those in power; this would now apply to you since
:51:23. > :51:27.you're now in power. Well, we have been in power now for six months,
:51:27. > :51:30.and we are still formulating our plan of action and then we will
:51:30. > :51:36.address this issue. But I also think that no government has taken
:51:36. > :51:39.on organised crime like the Berlusconi government. But the
:51:39. > :51:45.sobering reality is that even clan leaders languishing in jails like
:51:45. > :51:51.this one can pull the political strings round here. This is Naples'
:51:51. > :51:54.notorious Poggeriale prison. Almost every Cammorista ends up being
:51:54. > :52:02.locked up here sooner or later. Prosecutor Simona di Monte has just
:52:02. > :52:05.been in to interrogate a Camorra suspect. It's essential for the
:52:05. > :52:13.Camorra to have links with politicians, both at a local and a
:52:13. > :52:23.national level. The Camorra needs the politicians to look after its
:52:23. > :52:30.
:52:30. > :52:33.interests when they award public contracts. And of course they're
:52:33. > :52:35.able to do this because they control their territory and their
:52:35. > :52:42.communities. Even from prison, the Camorra leaders say who their
:52:42. > :52:49.preferred candidate is. The Camorra racketeer knows exactly how it can
:52:49. > :52:52.work when organised crime decides to dabble in politics. Before the
:52:52. > :52:58.election, the candidate will visit the head of the clan, the local big
:52:58. > :53:01.'boss', and he'll say, "Listen, you'll have to get me elected." So
:53:01. > :53:05.if there's a thousand voters, you need to secure five or six hundred
:53:06. > :53:14.- sometimes with a gift, sometimes you pay their electric bill. Or you
:53:14. > :53:18.give them some cash. How did you check on the people who've voted?
:53:18. > :53:22.With mobile phones. They used to take a picture of the ballot paper
:53:22. > :53:25.and show you outside until it was banned. But you go to the families
:53:25. > :53:31.who have absolutely nothing and for a hundred Euros they'll give you
:53:31. > :53:38.their vote. Who does the Camorra do deals with? With whoever is in
:53:38. > :53:45.power. So the clans wouldn't do deals with the opposition? No.
:53:45. > :53:50.Because those with no power have nothing. Of course most politicians
:53:51. > :53:54.here do not have links to organised crime. The Camorra relies on the
:53:54. > :54:00.corrupt ones. But in this troubled city it also often gets support
:54:00. > :54:03.from a surprising quarter - the public themselves. Not least
:54:03. > :54:11.because the Camorra is perceived as being far more efficient than the
:54:11. > :54:18.state. The Camorra does not put itself into open conflict with the
:54:18. > :54:21.state. It's more like a woodworm It takes the place of the state and
:54:21. > :54:31.it's all the more credible because it's able to offer the same
:54:31. > :54:34.services as the state in direct competition. In the Camorra
:54:35. > :54:37.stronghold of Le Vele, take this football pitch, for instance.
:54:37. > :54:46.According to residents here it's not courtesy of the local authority,
:54:46. > :54:50.it's a gift from a clan boss. field for instance, the law,
:54:50. > :54:55.everyone knows that you can get "justice" from the Camorra. State
:54:55. > :55:05.justice is slow and its outcome is uncertain. Camorra justice is
:55:05. > :55:13.
:55:13. > :55:16.immediate, you can't appeal against it. And it's very certain. If a
:55:16. > :55:19.drug addict goes and robs someone, the Camorra takes that person and
:55:19. > :55:25.makes them give back the money and the goods they've stolen. So even
:55:25. > :55:30.the police have to work less. if the Camorra's hold is so far-
:55:30. > :55:37.reaching, can Naples ever be free of it? One man who cut himself
:55:37. > :55:40.loose is the former Camorrista who became an actor. Every Camorrista
:55:40. > :55:46.has a bag full of arms, four or five guns, his rifle and machine
:55:47. > :55:49.gun. I gave them my arms as a present and then they finally
:55:49. > :55:56.understood that I had abandoned their world and I didn't want
:55:56. > :56:06.anything to do with it any more. Today is graduation day for
:56:06. > :56:20.
:56:20. > :56:30.She needs the top mark of 110 to give her a really good chance of
:56:30. > :56:35.
:56:35. > :56:45.Her father, brother and grandparents have all come to share
:56:45. > :56:46.
:56:46. > :56:49.this emotional moment. Also there to offer his good wishes is the man
:56:49. > :56:59.from the other side of the tracks but with very similar ideals,
:56:59. > :57:10.
:57:10. > :57:20.It's the most significant moment of my life and I'm with the people who
:57:20. > :57:24.
:57:24. > :57:27.mean the most to me. I dedicate it to my Mum. As an Italian I find it
:57:27. > :57:32.shaming that the Camorra should still have such a grip in a
:57:32. > :57:37.European democracy. But its roots are so deep-seated that, like many
:57:37. > :57:42.here, I struggle to imagine Naples without it. Few people can -
:57:43. > :57:48.whichever side of the law they stand on. Take away the word Naples
:57:48. > :57:53.and leave the word Camorra. It's the city of the Camorra! It's
:57:53. > :57:58.difficult if not impossible to imagine Naples without the Camorra.
:57:58. > :58:02.But without the Camorra, Naples would be the most beautiful city.
:58:02. > :58:04.But if Naples is to stand any chance of ridding itself of the
:58:04. > :58:14.Camorra, IT desperately needs young idealists like Alessandra and
:58:14. > :58:15.
:58:15. > :58:18.Antonio. One day I can see my city without crime. I can see it free
:58:18. > :58:24.and see how beautiful it is. Because this is one of the most