Giuseppe Piromalli (born 1945)
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Giuseppe Piromalli (Gioia Tauro, January 4, 1945), is an Italian criminal known as a member of the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria. He succeeded his uncle Giuseppe Piromalli as head of the clan. He was a fugitive since 1993 and included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy until his capture in March 1999.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Controlling the Gioia Tauro port
The Piromalli clan managed to condition the management of the new container terminal in the port of Gioia Tauro. Established in the mid-1990s, it became the largest terminal in the Mediterranean, moving over 2 million containers in 1998. Since 1994, when Contship Italia rented the port area to start transhipment activity and the Medcenter Container Terminal was set up thanks to 138 billion lire (about US$86 million) in state financing, the Piromalli’s aimed to oblige the Medcenter company, through its vice president Walter Lugli, and the Contship company, through its president Enrico Ravano, to pay a kickback of US$1.50 for each transhipped container, a sum which corresponded to about half the net profits earned by the two companies.[1][2]
Additionally, the Piromalli’s desired contracts, subcontracts, and jobs in the two firms that run the port, as well as from other companies in the surrounding area. Despite subscribing to an anti corruption pact with the government, the managers of both Contship and Medcenter gave in to the demands. The arrest warrant issued in January 1999 against members of the Piromalli group stated that the two companies contracted firms indicated by the defendants (and in some cases belonging to the latter) in the port-servicing activities and hired people recommended by the Piromalli clan, reinforcing the latter’s power in the Gioia Tauro plain.”[1]
[edit] Extorting Berlusconi
He is also accused of trying to wring £100,000 a year from Silvio Berlusconi's television network, in return for not blowing up its relay stations in Calabria.[3]
[edit] Cocaine trafficking
Together with their cousins of the Molè family the Piromalli clan are involved in trafficking cocaine using their contacts in the port of Gioia Tauro. The shipments were sent to Sicily, Lazio and Lombardy.[4]
[edit] Arrest
He was arrested at dawn on March 11, 1999, in a secret hideout concealed in a derelict hut that turned out to be fortified complex packed with hidden rooms, protected by electronic metal shutters and a remote operated secret escape route. He was unarmed and did not oppose arrest. In his bedroom there was an altar dedicated to the Madonna of Polsi, in the municipality of San Luca, where the chiefs of the 'Ndrangheta locali meet regularly during the September Feast.[5][6][7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 218
- ^ (Italian) Il caso Gioia Tauro, Relazione sullo stato della lotta alla criminalità organizzata in Calabria, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia e delle altre associazioni criminali similari, July 2000
- ^ Top mafia chief seized in 'James Bond' hide-out, The Guardian, March 12, 1999
- ^ (Italian) Mafia, 'ndrangheta e camorra, tre blitz della polizia in poche ore, La Repubblica, October 20, 2005
- ^ Mafia boss caught in hi-tech bunker, The Independent, March 13, 1999
- ^ Mafia boss run to ground, The Independent, March 13, 1999
- ^ (Italian) Arrestato nella notte Piromalli, superboss della 'ndrangheta, La Repubblica, March 11, 1999
- Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-515724-9 (Review by Klaus Von Lampe) (Review by Alexandra V. Orlova)
