Italian mafia bosses get 30 years, hundreds of ‘Ndrangheta members found guilty in historic Calabria trial
- About 200 ‘Ndrangheta members were convicted and sentenced on Monday, although only four top members received the maximum penalty
- The verdicts capped Italy’s largest mafia trial in decades and mark the most significant blow against one of the world’s most powerful crime syndicates
An Italian court on Monday convicted and sentenced around 200 mobsters and their white-collar helpers, the culmination of a historic, nearly three-year trial against Calabria’s notorious ‘Ndrangheta mafia.
For over an hour and a half, the president of the court in southern Vibo Valentia, Brigida Cavasino, read out the names of the guilty and their sentences, which ranged from 30 years to a few months, as defendants incarcerated in prisons across the country watched via video link.
The court in many cases accepted the sentences recommended by the prosecution, which had called for terms totalling more than 4,700 years in all. Judgment went on for hours.
The accused faced charges including murder, membership of a criminal organisation, drug-dealing, money-laundering and corruption of state officials.
Prosecutors had asked for guilty verdicts against 322 accused mafia members operating in the Calabrian province and their white-collar collaborators, requesting 30 years for a dozen of the ‘Ndrangheta’s most seasoned decision-makers.
About 200 were convicted and sentenced on Monday, although only four top members received this maximum penalty. The remainder were either formally or effectively acquitted.