Category Archives: mafia

Camorra boss Iovine arrested

Right on the heels of Saviano’s public row with Maroni comes the arrest of one of the Camorra’s (many) top men who’s been on the lam for 14 years: Antonio Iovine. Maroni jibed back at Saviano through the press, “this is the real antimafia, nothing else bothers me.” And here’s Saviano:

“I’ve waited for this day for fourteen years. The arrest of Antonio Iovine, is a key step in the fight against organized crime. Iovine is a businessman, who handles hundreds of millions of euros. Now, I hope we can do more to clean house. As shown by the DIA report today, we must attack the heart of the criminal economy, Lombardy, where the gangs do business and affect economic, social and political interests.”

Full story at Corriere. Video here.

Amid the applause of the police, at 0.22 you can hear “acciritelo!” — “kill him!”

Saviano

Roberto Saviano’s remarkable talk on Vieni Via con Me (which is really making the news this week) got over 5 million viewers last night. There’s a reason: it’s provocative and damned good, featuring the reenactment of an ‘ndragheta initiation rite and accusations of Lega Nord involvement with organized crime that’s sent Interior Minister and Lega Nord old hand Roberto Maroni into a tizzy. He also takes on the massive building enterprises in Milan, especially around my old ‘hood of P.ta Garibaldi. Of course, all-Italian, but I’ll look for or provide a translation in coming days.

Like certain other Italians, Saviano is both fearless and a survivor. He lived with a police escort after he named names at Casal di Principe in 2006, and there’s strong evidence that the Casalesi clan planned to kill him in 2008, after which he left the country. So here’s to hoping that one of the few brave voices in Italian public life is in an undisclosed location.