Death Comes To Locri

Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005 By JEFF ISRAELY / LOCRI

TOWN SPIRIT: Mourners at the funeral of mob victim Fortugno flowers left in the street

NICK CORNISH FOR TIME

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After Fortugno's funeral, police launched a series of coordinated raids in Calabria, Rome and Milan — as well as in Belgium, France, Serbia and Montenegro, and Spain — that has so far netted more than 40 suspected 'Ndrangheta members and associates believed to be involved in the cocaine trade. But Italian officials worry that the clan has a lucrative new financial target in its sights. Earlier this month, a general contractor was chosen to build what will be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge to connect Calabria to Sicily. Antimob investigators say the criminal networks on both sides of the Strait of Messina are hungrily eyeing the j5.7 billion project in hopes of a slice.

The local strength and worldwide reach of 'Ndrangheta is a bit hard to imagine amid the dilapidated piazzas and alleyways of Plati, a small town perched in the jagged hillside above Locri. The municipality of 4,000 is considered one of the clan's main strongholds. From here, the bosses orchestrate their international drug ring and send hit men out to whack rivals down in the flatlands of Calabria and beyond. Three years ago, local police discovered that town funds had been used to construct an intricate system of escape hatches leading from the center of town through the underground sewage system to help wanted men flee the authorities. After pointing out several of the concrete covers now blocking the hatches, a police officer notes the surreptitious signals from a few locals as they pass by. It means, he says, "we're being watched."

Part of what makes 'Ndrangheta so hard to crack is the way it can still rely on strong family ties, cemented through marriage, to keep its secrets. "Cosa Nostra is much more hierarchical," says the police officer. "Here, control is even stronger because no one talks." Not a single arrest has been made for any of the past year's 23 murders in this stretch of eastern Calabria. Local residents say that they are not complicit in omertà, the mob code of protective silence. But most are scared that the government cannot protect them if they talk.

Lingering in front of the cathedral after Fortugno's funeral, Giuseppe Macri, 50, says he was skeptical that all the strong words spoken from the pulpit would be followed by action. "Calabria is the most neglected region in Italy," he says. "There's always someone else's emergency that comes before ours. We Calabrians have lost faith. We know next week, all the attention will be gone."

Macri's only son will be finishing high school in the spring and the father, proud of his Calabrian roots, says he'd always hoped his boy would study at a local university, just like dad. After the assassination, though, he has advised his son to go north to university — and stay there afterward. "I can't delude myself anymore," says Macri. But the departing steps of honest folk are music to the ears of 'Ndrangheta — and a blaring alarm to the rest of Italy.