Corruption comes in many flavors. Often it's small stuff, sometimes it's huge.Take this for example:
Buying a judge. It does happen and here's the proof — cash-filled envelopes passing in judicial chambers
All caught on secret video. Now this outrage is connected to new allegations of a different flavor
A pact between politicians and the Mafia. The Mob Reporter here with news of another wave
of anti-Mafia arrests, and the charismatic mob rat spilling the secrets of gangsters and politicians
in the birthplace of the 'Ndrangheta mafia, where corruption is never far away
Let me tell you about it
A massive police roundup started a week ago. More than 200 people were arrested in Cosenza
in Calabria, that's the toe of the boot-shaped map of Italy. Among them are mobsters, businessmen,
politicians, and government officials — and some, well, some we're just not sure where they best fit
Revelations of alleged corruption have been spilling out of a veteran mobster
who has been cooperating with prosecutors for eight years. His words, a local paper in Calabria
said, "shake the palaces of power." After the raids, three government officials were suspended from
duty and placed under house arrest, pending further investigation. Among the accused is Marcelo Manna,
the Mayor of Rende, a town in Cosenza province that is home to the University of Calabria
as well as one of his town councillors, Pino Munno, who oversees the town's public works. And
in the neighboring city of Cosenza, the capital of the province of the same name, one of the
city's executive officers was accused, Francesco De Cicco who was in charge of municipal maintenance
It's no longer shocking in Calabria to have city officials hit with Mafia allegations
Many towns have had their entire municipal governments dissolved
and placed under federal control because of Mafia infiltration; 129 dissolutions, in fact, according to
Avviso Pubblico, an anti-Mafia association in Italy. Here's their map of disbanded town administrations
There's just nothing to compare in most parts of the world, perhaps nowhere on earth
But the allegations against Mayor Manna cause more alarm than most. Manna is known as a successful
criminal defense lawyer, he's a popular politician, and president of the Calabrian branch of the
national association of Italian municipalities. The anti-Mafia prosecution alleges that Manna forged
a political pact with members of the local Mafia clan, a crass vote exchange agreement that assured
his re-election in 2019. It must be said, Manna, Munno and De Cicco all appeared in court this week
professing their innocence. Their city councils maintain support for their colleagues, as does
the association Manna leads. Time will tell. This is not Manna's first rodeo. Among his past clients
as a lawyer were members of the 'Ndrangheta, the proper name for the Mafia that formed in Calabria
One mobster in particular got him in hot water and this brings us to the bought-and-paid for crooked judge
Marco Petrini, former judge of the court of appeal in Catanzaro, 45 miles southeast of Cosenza, was
caught red-handed accepting envelopes of cash by hidden police cameras placed inside his judicial
office. You gotta hand it to Italian authorities — not many cops or prosecutors have the parts to
wire up a judge's chamber. In one video he opens a white envelope, sits down in his office chair
and starts counting out the 100 euro notes. Whenever he reaches a thousand euros he places
the stack on his desk. In return for these bribes, prosecutors said, the judge would issue acquittals,
sentence reductions, or favorable rulings. Among those accused of passing envelopes
of cash to the crooked judge was Manna, the mayor of Rende, during his work as a lawyer
He is accused of passing on a bribe on behalf of a mafioso named Francesco
Patitucci in return for an acquittal. We'll come back to Patitucci in a moment
Among the evidence presented in Cosenza corruption cases
is testimony from a mob turncoat, a so-called rat, a gangster cooperating with prosecutors
In Italy, informants are called "pentiti" meaning repentant, as they supposedly repent of their
evil by resolving their own crimes and the crimes of others. That elevates finking to
a religious status, even though most are likely motivated by selfishness
The pentiti pointing fingers in this case is Adolfo Foggetti. Foggetti has always been
a charismatic guy. I mean here he is being arrested in 2014, blowing kisses to the camera
Before his arrest, Foggetti was an active mobster. He was named as lieutenant in
the Bruni Mafia clan. He then defected to an upstart gang known as the New Family or
the Zangari, which is Italian for "gypsy." The New Family was challenging the old order
Foggetti's defection was spectacular — helping shoot his boss
Luca Bruni, with a shotgun and burying his body in 2012. After Foggetti's arrest for that murder
in 2014, he defected again, quickly deciding to cooperate with prosecutors. He grabbed
attention as a high-value informant when he took police to where Bruni was buried and revealing
both the boss's skeleton near a cottage in the countryside and details of the internal mob war
He revealed how the top seven gangs of Cosenza set their rivalries aside to cooperate and then divide
the spoils of crime between them, an arrangement they called The Confederation. With Foggetti's help
dozens of mobsters were convicted. In return for his cooperation Foggetti was sentenced to just six
years, in 2019, for murder and Mafia association, and given a new life in witness protection
After he was done testifying, though, he couldn't shut up. While in witness protection Foggetti
uploaded an outlandish video to TikTok in 2020. With a Latin beat pulsing, he stands with a gun
tucked in his pants and slides off 50 euro notes from a stack, like he's starring in a hip-hop video
He then draws the gun and points it directly at the camera. The supposed repentant is waving
gangland's two most powerful symbols: the gun and money. It sure seems he's mocking mobsters who
condemned him for his betrayal, reminding them that while they're in prison he is enjoying his life
The song playing in the video is called Envidiosos, which translates from Spanish as "envious." The
Spanish lyrics extol crime lords, real life narco Pablo Escobar and Hollywood narco Tony Montagna
from the movie Scarface. What a provocation. What a character. A Mafia rat dancing on TikTok
Surely now we've seen everything — although all I have to show you is some screenshots
Italy's prosecutors got an eye full of it though and used the video to return him to prison. Now, I
said we'd come back to that Mafia boss, Francesco Patitucci, one of the mayor's criminal clients
It was on behalf of that mob boss that Mayor Manna allegedly passed the bribe to the crooked judge
Patitucci, as it turns out, has a much bigger role than just that to play in this Calabrian tragedy
He has been named as the head of The Confederation, the grand gangland alliance revealed by Foggetti
And the conviction Patitucci was trying to dodge with the bribe was for ordering the
murder of Luca Bruni, that very same mob murder that pushed Foggetti to start singing. That's
just how life often goes in Calabria. Please subscribe, comment, and like this video. Tap
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