The No. 1 target of the mafia in Italy is Nicola Grateri. He is the prosecutor leading the country’s fight against organized crime.

He has learned to live in constant danger, and his life has nothing to do with the life of any other prosecutor.

BBC journalist Marl Lowen told the British media about the meeting with him, which is clearly taken from the police series.

“We are ordered to wait for him outside the court in the southern region of Calabria, where he is overseeing the largest trial since the 1980s. The number of suspects exceeds 330 people, and 70 members of the Italian mafia “Ndrangheta” have already been arrested. condemned.

“As soon as Grateri appears, everything is scanned. He is surrounded by his entourage of five patrol cars,” Lowen says, explaining that Gateri is on the hit list of Italy’s most powerful mafia, the ’Ndrangheta.

“I have been living with this level of security since 1989, when my fiancée’s house was shelled and someone called her in the middle of the night to say she was marrying a dead man,” says an Italian judge, explaining how he achieved this suffocating level of control.

He even mentioned the murdered judges and how they, too, became moving targets as they crossed areas of Italy “poisoned by organized crime.”

I often talk to death

“I often talk to death because in order to move forward, you have to rationalize fear,” he says, pointing out that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to do this job either.

The ‘Ndrangheta Crime Syndicate is based on the family clans that have traditionally controlled the mountain villages of Calabria, fiercely loyal to the organization while their bonds are… bound by blood.

Their currency is cocaine. The group dominates the global market and is believed to currently control up to 80% of the drug trade in Europe.

This trial is the largest of Grathery’s career.

“The gang’s arrests in May 2021 stripped the ’Ndrangheta of 70% control over Vibo Valentia, one of its stronghold provinces,” the judge says, adding: “If everyone is convicted, it would mean a respite for the community.”

Although when this particular case is over, Grateri will simply move on to the next one, because he himself has devoted his entire life to this fight against the mafia.

I haven’t been to a movie theater or a restaurant in 25 years

“I have no life. To go to a cafe, we have to stop and check everything with my security team. Someone comes in to pay, and then we go in and have coffee. Before we stop and discuss where I will go to the toilet. I haven’t been to a movie theater or a restaurant in 25 years. My hairdresser comes here to the office when I need a haircut. I hardly ever see my family. But I’m a free person at heart,” he says.

When asked by a journalist if it’s worth it, he sighs heavily.

“It’s worth it if you believe in it – and I do. I believe that I am doing something important. There are thousands of people who believe in me and for whom I am the last refuge, the last hope for change. I can’t let them down,” he concluded.

“Tentacles” of the ‘Ndrangheta

The economic activities of the ‘Ndrangheta include the international cocaine trade and arms smuggling. Italian investigators estimate that 80% of Europe’s cocaine passes through the ‘Ndrangheta-controlled port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria.

However, according to a report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Europol, the Iberian Peninsula is considered the main entry point for cocaine into Europe and the gateway to the European market.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that in 2007 Spain seized almost ten times more cocaine (almost 38 tons) than Italy (almost 4 tons).

The ‘Ndrangheta groups and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra sometimes operate as a syndicate in cocaine trafficking operations. Other activities include procurement for major construction projects, money laundering, and traditional crimes such as loansharking and extortion.

The ‘Ndrangheta invests illegal profits in legal real estate and financial activities. According to the European Institute of Political, Economic and Social Studies in Italy, the ‘Ndrangheta’s business volume was estimated at nearly €44 billion in 2007, about 2.9% of Italy’s GDP.

Drug trafficking is the most profitable activity, accounting for 62% of the total turnover.