well the largest mafia trial in over
three decades is starting
in italy the defendants include more
than 350 suspects
they are members of one of the world's
most feared
organized crime groups the endran
gaeta they are accused of offenses
dating back to the 1990s including
murder
drug trafficking extortion and money
laundering
dw's max sanders spoke to the lead
prosecutors in the case
and also a former mobster turned
informant
who fears for his life now
he has to move quickly the chief
prosecutor of catanzado nicolas
has powerful enemies italy's number one
mafia hunter is leading the fight
against the notorious calabrian network
thendrangita
there are men of the indrangeta within
the public administration
they attempt to manage it in whole or in
part
trying to succeed in dominating not only
on the economic level
but also on the administrative and
political level
grateri has been fighting them for more
than 30 years
and he has been preparing a strong
message to send to the calabrian
families
and the public over the next two years
more than 350 mafiosi and accomplices
will take this stand in the biggest
mafia trial in decades
here in a specially built bunker
courtroom set up to accommodate them
together with hundreds of lawyers and
witnesses
the family's reach and influence go far
beyond calabria
over the years its business model has
evolved from fighting
bloody wars in the streets to more
sophisticated financial crime
the indrangata now operates in the
shadows for example by importing tons of
cocaine from latin america
and quietly buying power and influence
all over europe
this and their twisted but strong sense
of family are the main reasons
why it's so hard to fight the family
clans luigi bonaventura tells us
now working with prosecutors he was
raised to become a powerful mafusi
you start with guns as a child they make
you shoot
they carry guns and you're a kid and
it's all a game to you
the other kids have toy guns but your
guns are real
you're not afraid of being beaten but of
disappointing those who are training you
when a ventura smuggled drugs extorted
people and even participated in murders
but after the birth of his second child
he decided this life was no longer for
him
and turned against his own family
when it became known they ambushed me
twice within 12 hours
the first time i managed to escape the
second time i was armed and returned
fire wounding three people they tried to
kill me several times
and set fire to my wife's shop since
then
aventura has helped authorities put
hundreds of mafiosi behind bars
he welcomes the efforts of prosecutors
like krateri
but he is not the only one worried then
drangeta will fight back
they have understood that if they knock
me down all this great work and this
great team will stop
there are thousands and thousands of
people who believe in me
and therefore i am the last hope
so this also gives me courage and helps
we have to carry on whatever it takes
if i pulled out today i would feel like
a coward
while this trial won't free calabria
from the clutches of the mafia
it is a real chance to bring attention
to the cause of suffering
for millions of people not just here in
italy
and let's bring in correspondent
maxander who you also saw there and that
report max is standing by for us in
limitia terme
where the trial is taking place max
what's expected
right this is a historic day not just
for calabria
but also for italy this is a very
important trial that just
is about to kick off um but to
understand the magnitude of this process
it's important to understand how the
andrangata operates
their core businesses to import cocaine
from latin america
to europe they make a lot of money with
it they control the majority of the
cocaine
trafficking and and selling and
throughout throughout europe and they
use this money
to invest to buy power to buy influence
to buy politicians and even for
legitimate uh legitimate businesses and
a lot of white-collar crimes
and the aim of this process is not to
take out the andran gata
but more so to shine a light on their
business
shine a light how they operate in the
shadows
we've just heard from a witness from the
prosecutor
in your report the trial is of course
dangerous for them
how do they handle that
right it's incredibly dangerous uh for
ex malfiosi who cooperate uh with the
authorities that's why there are so few
actually
but even for the chief prosecutor we
talked to nikola grateri
he has he is from the region he is from
calabria he grew up with some of the
mafiosi that he's putting uh putting
away putting behind bars uh
in the in the process of this uh this
this this trial
um he tells us he played with soccer
with him in the streets he knows their
mentality and
as a kid at a very early age when he
would go to school he'd walk past
bodies people shot dead by by the mafia
so he decided an early point
that he wanted to do something against
it and he has been living
at a great risk for a very long time he
has been under police protection for 30
years he told us
yesterday that he sleeps in a bunker
eats in his office he doesn't have a
life
and he lives with constant death threats
but he also says
it's worth it even having a target on
his back because if he can
take back the country from the mafia and
give it back to
law-abiding citizens then it's worth
living like that
do citizens seem to agree that it is
indeed worth it max people that you've
been speaking with there
what has been the reaction given the
influence
of this group in calabria and also
perhaps the fear among some
that they could retaliate
look the reactions are twofold um you
have the anti-mafia movement
people who are active against the
corruption um
who suffer from the corruption and
people who are just simply afraid of the
mafia but on the other hand
you have a lot of benefactors a lot of
people who who benefit
from government contracts for example
business people who benefit from
who get uh who get assignments uh from
politicians who are in the pockets of
the mafia
so the endurance they have tools to
control
public and to control the public opinion
and this is also something that we've
seen here that they are
attempting to do so leading up to this
trial today
max sander in la mezza terme where the
trial is getting underway
thank you
you