Following the country’s greatest mafia trial in three decades, an Italian court sentenced more than 200 criminal gang members to a total of 2,200 years in jail.
During the trial, which began in January 2021 in a purpose-built bunker in the southern Italian town of Lamezia Terme, more than 400 attorneys defended the accused, and around 900 witnesses testified.
The decision was given Monday by a panel of three judges who had been contemplating the fate of the 338 defendants since the trial finished on October 16. According to the Italian news site Ansa, the court took one hour and forty minutes to issue its decisions.
207 mobsters were imprisoned, and more than 100 were acquitted. The overall punishment consists of five life sentences and three 30-year terms.
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Among those prosecuted were 42 women, a mafia trial record, 39 of whom were convicted.
According to the testimony provided during the trial, several of the defendants had colorful nicknames such as “The Wolf,” “Fatso,” “Sweetie,” and “Lamb Thigh,” which were captured on about 24,000 wiretaps.
According to the sentencing document, the convicted include former Forza Italia lawmaker Giancarlo Pittelli, former police chief Giorgio Naselli, former financial police officer Michele Marinaro, ex-mayor Gianluca Callipo, and former regional councilors Luigi Incarnato and Pietro Giamborino.
The mobsters were linked to Italy’s famed ‘Nrangheta crime syndicate and were convicted of mafia affiliation, extortion, bribery, and five killings.
The Rinascita Scott trial was named after US special agent Scott W. Sieben, who was credited with establishing links between Colombia’s cartels and the ‘Nrangheta.
According to the Italian DIA (Anti-Mafia Directorate), the ‘Ndrangheta, based in the southern Italian region of Calabria, is the most powerful mafia group in the country and one of the most powerful criminal enterprises in the world, with thousands of members and affiliates worldwide. According to Europol, it holds a monopoly on European drug trafficking.
Throughout the two years and ten months of the trial, the three judges were under police protection.
