A wanted Italian Mafia boss was pulled by police out of his secret bunker
that was carved out of a hidden apartment built in the back of an old concrete factory
beside a stone quarry. Not creepy at all
The tiny hatch was under a bedroom mirror and could only be opened if you twisted
the correct hook on an adjacent clothes hanger — the middle one as it turns out
Because this is how Calabrian mobsters roll. They love their secret bunkers
The Mob Reporter here with news of the capture of another wanted boss of the 'Ndrangheta, a globally
powerful Mafia group whose fugitive bosses, despite enormous wealth and international connections
more often than not are found close to home, near the people they love and trust the most
Let me tell you about it
Italian federal police searching for the 60-year-old fugitive mob boss Cosimo Damiano Gallace knew they had the right place when they swarmed it at dawn
on Oct. 7, 2021. Inside they found his 34- year-old wife and their four-year-old daughter
But Gallace didn't seem to be home. These cops knew better
Why else would his family be in such an austere, remote apartment far from their usual home
One with an alarm system, guard dog, and 24-hour video surveillance covering the surrounding area
A close search discovered a false wall erected in the bedroom, with a hidden locked hatch
Gallace knew he was busted and eventually emerged, but not before destroying two of
the nine mobile phones he had with him alongside a stack of unused SIM cards
He came out without a fight. Police blurred his face before releasing video of his capture
But here's an alternate view
A search of the apartment and of the bunker discovered 35,000 euros — that's more than 40,000
U.S. dollars. The money had been separated into bundles, each labeled with his own notation. The
apartment was in Isca sullo Ionio, a town in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabrian region of
Italy. It's on the Ionian coast, along the toe of the boot-shaped map of Italy, perched between two
mountains. Centuries ago, the town moved to higher ground to give it a better vantage point to spot
approaching invaders. That may have worked back, then but it did little for Gallace
Gallace had been a fugitive here for almost a year, which isn't long by 'Ndrangheta standards
He faces a 14-year sentence for Mafia association. He was also wanted on new
charges after a large blitz that hit his clan in April. Cosimo Gallace was targeted for arrest then
but wasn't found — despite all of this that you see going on that night, including officers using what
looked like ground-penetrating radar. The April raids and arrests were part of "Operation Molo 13"
and was aimed at mobsters and financiers accused of facilitating an international drug trafficking
organization. 20 people were arrested and assets worth more than 4 million euros were seized. It was
a nationwide operation from Sicily and Calabria in the south through to Piedmont and Lombardy in the
north, the wealthy regions bordering Switzerland and France. "Molo" is the Italian word for pier or
wharf, a nod to seafaring, and wiretaps allegedly caught members of the clan discussing the movement
of shipping containers. Police say they could move large amounts of cocaine from Colombia and Brazil
into Spain, Holland, England, Slovenia, Turkey, New Zealand and Australia. Part of the police
probe involved compromised encrypted messaging including what appears to be information from
the EncroChat hack and by unscrambling messages sent on encrypted Blackberry phones they shipped
in from Canada. I'll include a link here for videos with more information on that. f these allegations
are true, the clan has come a long, long way. The Gallace clan first emerged in the 1950s in the
village of Guardavalle, not far from where Cosimo was captured. There a previous generation
of the Gallace eked out profit from just about the only resource the village had — its surrounding
forest. Mobsters being mobsters, though, they didn't want to work in the woods actually cutting timber
they just forced their way into forestry contracts to take a piece from the work of others
The limited forestry options of the area caused the gangster families to butt heads and throughout
the 1970s a faida, or vendetta, broke out between clans. It was a feud of the forest
so to speak. It pushed the Gallace to reassess and look for new allies and new areas of exploitation
Under its boss Vincenzo Gallace, the clan found success in nearby towns such as Isca and
Badolato, and from there to the populous suburbs of Rome and the wealthy regions of Italy's north
They toppled rivals to reach a place of power and influence. In 1991, in what has become known as the
"Guardavalle massacre," three rivals of the Gallace died in a ferocious fire fight, leaving none
other than Cosimo Gallace, the man who was found in the bunker, with a 20-year prison sentence
Now the source of the clan's wide newfound success, authorities revealed in 2013
was the international drug trade. Apparently a clan member's wife was from South America and helped
put them in direct contact with South American cartels. In June 2013, members of the clan were
pinched in a cocaine smuggling conspiracy that was moving product through Rome's main airport
The next month they were the target of a major anti-Mafia probe that rounded up 25
people, including members of the clan local businessman and the mayor of Badolato, who
professed his innocence. All of these deadly Mafia feuds that built the clan up, however
came back to haunt the clan's boss Vincenzo Gallace, who was arrested for murder and Mafia
association and eventually sentenced to life in prison. As Vincenzo the boss was heading
into prison, Cosimo Gallace was coming out after serving his bid for the Guardavalle massacre
It's believed Cosimo is now running the clan as regent, while the boss is whiling away behind bars
As a result of all this police attention, the Gallace clan has had its fair share of fugitives
Many of whom have been found in circumstances similar to those of Cosimo Gallace's recent
capture. The undoing for many of the Gallace clan's fugitives is their love for their family
And i suppose that's quite touching
In 2016 for instance Antonio Gallace, another of the clan's leading members, was arrested at an
airport in Spain after four years on the run. He arrived at the airport by car, in a Land Rover, to
pick up his family who were flying in from Italy to celebrate his 46th birthday. Rather than run or
fight, Antonio Gallace is said to have actually congratulated the officers for outsmarting him
In 2019, one of the clan's major figures Francesco Riitano, nicknamed "The General"
who was a cousin of the imprisoned boss Vincenzo, was arrested in Sicily after
two years on the run. He was arrested in a tourist town near the Mount Etna volcano
The fugitive had come to a vacation home rented there by his family. When police
arrived, he jumped through a window into the unexpected arms of officers waiting outside
Another veteran Gallace man, Cosmo Leotta, was arrested this May. He was found hiding in
a house just down the road from the clan's hometown of Guardavalle. He was a holdover
fugitive from one of the old investigations targeting the clan stretching back to the 1990s
And in 2015, two more fugitives allegedly linked to the Gallace were found hiding in
a basement bunker. Their hidey-hole was accessed through a trapdoor in the floor of a coal cellar
They also had cell phones and SIM cards with them, as well as portraits of Catholic saints
Look at this guy — he seems pretty chill about being caught
Not unlike Cosimo Gallace's response. To be honest, these Gallace fugitives all seem
cordial, at least on camera and in front of police. Although i'm not sure their rivals would agree
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