Post articles about OC in Germany here.
’Ndrangheta Mafia seen firmly established in Germany
August 13, 2009
The officials believe there are 229 family clans of the Calabria-based ’Ndrangheta active in Germany. Many of the 900 members are found in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
The paper reported on Thursday that much of the criminal activity carried out by the German-based Mafia members includes arms trafficking, murder, money laundering, drug trafficking, toxic waste disposal and extortion. The 400-page report also lists hundreds of German restaurants under Mafia control.
The ’Ndrangheta Mafia clan is based in the Calabrian region of Italy, located right on the country’s “toe.” Despite its geographical proximity to Sicily, the ’Ndrangheta clan operates separately from the Sicilian Cosa Nostra clan.
The ’Ndrangheta first made its presence in Germany known almost two years ago when six Italians in Duisburg were shot dead in front of their restaurant. The apparent motive was a feud between the family that owned the restaurant and a family of the clan. Giovanni Strangio, who operated two pizzerias in the area, and his brother-in-law Giuseppe Nirta have both been arrested for the crime.
Organized Crime In Germany.
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Discuss anything about Western European street gangs and organized crime.
Discuss anything about Western European street gangs and organized crime.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Italian Mafia Invests Millions in Germany
A classified intelligence report said two mafia clans have a
A secret study by the German foreign intelligence service said members of the Calabrian mafia are using Germany to invest cash from drugs and weapons smuggling, according to a German newspaper.
The study said the 'Ndrangheta, as the Calabrian mafia is known, have invested double-digit millions of its profits in German hotels, restaurants and houses, especially along the Baltic coast and in eastern German states of Thuringia and Saxony, the Berliner Zeitung reported Saturday.
Two 'Ndrangheta clans have entrenched themselves in Germany and have smuggled weapons from Switzerland and Germany in close co-operation with Albanian mafia groups, the paper said.
'Ndrangheta investing in German shares
German airports are being used for drug smugglingBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: German airports are being used for drug smuggling
As part of its money laundering activities, the 'Ndrangheta have also bought up large packages of shares in companies listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange, particularly energy firms.
Some clans have also invested in shares in Gazprom, in which German gas market leader E.ON has a 6 percent stake.
A BND spokesperson refused to comment on the newspaper report.
Criminologist Letizia Paoli has written several books on the mafia, including the 'Ndrangheta. She said the Calabrian members are "certainly operational" in Germany but are not more active there than in other northern European countries.
Although German airports were used for smuggling drugs, the 'Ndrangheta's main activity in Germany was money laundering, according to Paoli.
"Most Italian mafia members, including those in the 'Ndrangheta, are still relatively unsophisticated," she said. "They tend to invest their cash in properties."
Germany a hiding place for mafia on the run
Almost 700,000 Italians came to work in GermanyBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Almost 700,000 Italians came to work in Germany
She added that when mafia members left Italy, this was usually because they were on run from the law and tend to establish themselves in regions with a high number of Italian immigrants.
"The mafia members are mostly present -- as are the migrants themselves -- in countries that took in a high number of Italian migrants in the 1950s, and Germany is certainly one of them," Paoli said.
"I would certainly expect more 'Ndranghetisti in Germany than say, in Sweden."
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,214 ... 23,00.html
A classified intelligence report said two mafia clans have a
A secret study by the German foreign intelligence service said members of the Calabrian mafia are using Germany to invest cash from drugs and weapons smuggling, according to a German newspaper.
The study said the 'Ndrangheta, as the Calabrian mafia is known, have invested double-digit millions of its profits in German hotels, restaurants and houses, especially along the Baltic coast and in eastern German states of Thuringia and Saxony, the Berliner Zeitung reported Saturday.
Two 'Ndrangheta clans have entrenched themselves in Germany and have smuggled weapons from Switzerland and Germany in close co-operation with Albanian mafia groups, the paper said.
'Ndrangheta investing in German shares
German airports are being used for drug smugglingBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: German airports are being used for drug smuggling
As part of its money laundering activities, the 'Ndrangheta have also bought up large packages of shares in companies listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange, particularly energy firms.
Some clans have also invested in shares in Gazprom, in which German gas market leader E.ON has a 6 percent stake.
A BND spokesperson refused to comment on the newspaper report.
Criminologist Letizia Paoli has written several books on the mafia, including the 'Ndrangheta. She said the Calabrian members are "certainly operational" in Germany but are not more active there than in other northern European countries.
Although German airports were used for smuggling drugs, the 'Ndrangheta's main activity in Germany was money laundering, according to Paoli.
"Most Italian mafia members, including those in the 'Ndrangheta, are still relatively unsophisticated," she said. "They tend to invest their cash in properties."
Germany a hiding place for mafia on the run
Almost 700,000 Italians came to work in GermanyBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Almost 700,000 Italians came to work in Germany
She added that when mafia members left Italy, this was usually because they were on run from the law and tend to establish themselves in regions with a high number of Italian immigrants.
"The mafia members are mostly present -- as are the migrants themselves -- in countries that took in a high number of Italian migrants in the 1950s, and Germany is certainly one of them," Paoli said.
"I would certainly expect more 'Ndranghetisti in Germany than say, in Sweden."
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,214 ... 23,00.html
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Azure9920
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- Joined: March 7th, 2008, 5:47 pm
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Vendetta on the Rhine
A Mafia Wake-Up Call
Following the recent bloodbath in Duisburg, investigators have concluded that the Italian mafia is now using Germany as more than just a place to take time out. The mafia set up drug-dealing and money-laundering operations throughout the country years ago.
Even mafia thugs take a break when it comes time to paying respect to the Madonna of the Mountain. In early September, mafia bosses and their foot soldiers will come together at a shrine to the Virgin Mary near San Luca, a village of 4,000 inhabitants in the Aspromonte Mountains in Italy's Calabria region, to worship their patron saint. The annual ritual includes a procession, a church service and the traditional tarantella dance.
What may seem like a quaint folk festival to tourists in fact reveals the current power structure among gangsters to those in the know. Whomever the clan leader invites into the dancing circle, and when, speaks volumes about rank and status in the mafia.
This year German investigators will also be showing a keen interest in traditional rituals at San Luca. Most of the men who will be dancing the tarantella there are members of the 'Ndrangheta, one of the most vicious mafia organizations. Italian mafia investigators estimate that its 7,000 members rake in at least €35 billion ($47 billion) a year in revenues from worldwide cocaine, weapons and counterfeit money deals.
It was probably mafia hit men from the village who mowed down six Italians at the Bruno, a restaurant in Duisburg, last Wednesday. The murders serve as evidence of something that German investigators have long refused to acknowledge: that the mafia has been active in Germany for years.
Giuliano Amato, the Italian interior minister, promptly named the warring clans and their motives. Italian investigators complained that German prosecutors have been far too hesitant to proceed against the types of gangsters believed to be behind the Duisburg killings. In fact, experts with Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) had already identified the the Bruno restaurant as a "base for criminal drug and counterfeit money activities" a full 15 years ago, but it apparently never took any action.
A Birthday Party Turns into a Bloodbath
On Tuesday night, the restaurant was the scene of late-night festivities to celebrate the 18th birthday, at midnight, of Tommaso-Francesco Venturi, a new trainee. Restaurant manager Sebastiano Strangio, 38, locked the door at 2:15 a.m. Then he and five other men walked to their parked cars. These would be the last steps for Strangio, trainee Venturi, the two waiters (Marco and Francesco Pergola, 19 and 21), and two visitors from Italy (Francesco Giorgi, 16, and Marco Marmo, 25).
Police investigators presume that there were probably two killers waiting for the men in an alley. As soon as the six victims were sitting in their cars, the killers fired at least 70 shots at them with automatic weapons. The bullets pierced windshields, metal and the heads, abdomens and lower bodies of the victims -- until all six were dead. Then they shot each victim once in the head for good measure.
Although the authorities insist they are following many leads in their investigation, by late last week, German police were clearly focusing on the connection to San Luca and wading into the midst of a bloody gang war between two warring family clans, the Vottari-Pelle-Romeo and the Strangio-Nirta, both part of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.
Police speculate that Marco Marmo was the principal target of the Duisburg attack. Italian investigators say that Marmo was a mafia killer who killed a woman in San Luca last Christmas. The 33-year-old victim, Maria Strangio, was the wife of a man who authorities believe heads the family clan, Giovanni Luca Nirta. According to investigators, Marmo fled to Duisburg, where he had relatives, to escape the clan's vendetta.
Tentacles across Germany
'Ndrangheta men are all too familiar with the journey northward. By 2000, some 160 members of the group, including close relatives of clan leaders, were officially registered in Germany. According to an internal BKA document from 2000, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta has already expanded its operations from its original base in Duisburg to points throughout Germany.
One of those places is the eastern city of Erfurt, another base for the 'Ndrangheta in Germany since the mid-1990s. According to Italian and German investigators, members of Calabrian mafia families now own various properties in the capital of the German state of Thuringia. They also operate a number of restaurants, some in prime downtown locations.
According to investigators' documents, some of the mafiosi are already established members of the upper-middle-class in Erfurt, where they have long sponsored the local football club, FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt, and donated money to orphanages and cultural institutions. Indeed, the mafia's roots in the eastern German city go back many years. When police stormed the Paganini Restaurant in 1996 as part of the investigation of a mafia murder, they encountered their boss, Richard Dewes, the state's interior minister at the time, and even his boss, then-state Governor Bernhard Vogel.
A noticeably large number of the staff at the Erfurt Italian restaurant is of Calabrian descent. Many waiters share the same last names as known mafia families whose members figure prominently in Italian police investigation files. Some of the Italian employees previously worked in the the Bruno pizzeria or in other Duisburg restaurants, which Italian authorities say are controlled by the 'Ndrangheta clan.
Investigators believe that the mafia's bases in Germany are used primarily for clandestine financial transactions. In 1999, the state Office of Criminal Investigation in Stuttgart investigated an Italian from San Luca who had allegedly laundered millions through a local bank, the Sparkasse Ulm. The man claimed that he managed a profitable car dealership, and authorities were unable to prove that the business was not the source of his money.
The BKA concluded -- seven years ago -- that "the activities of this 'Ndrangheta clan represent a multi-regional criminal phenomenon." But despite their certainty, they have done little since then to address the problem.
Germany Seen as 'Very Soft' on the Mafia
Salvatore Boemi, a prosecutor who investigates the mafia, says that the Germans have "underestimated" the organization in the past. Alberto Cisterna, who is with Italy's Direzione Nazionale Antimafia, agrees, calling German investigators' approach to dealing with the 'Ndrangheta "very soft." Ercole D'Alessandro, an anti-mafia specialist with the Italian police in Calabria, says that the German judiciary should "finally realize" that quick action is needed. The mafia is not just using Germany as a "place to relax," but "also as a field of operations," especially for drug deals, says Hermann von Langsdorff, a federal prosecutor and German member of Eurojust, a European Union investigative unit.
In most cases so far, German prosecutors have only managed to peg individual crimes to individual mobsters. German criminal laws offer much more latitude to prosecutors than they have actually used against organized crime. But it is extremely difficult to build a case based on charges of forming or being a member of a foreign criminal organization. The 'Ndrangheta clan, in particular, adheres strictly to omertà, a mafia code of silence. This makes it difficult to find evidence sufficiently airtight to satisfy the strict standards of German judges.
The Italian mafia was implicated in about two dozen criminal investigations in Germany in 2006, and yet not a single conviction has been handed down to date for membership in the Italian mafia.
Part of the problem is that there are few German specialists who understand the clan structures. Respectable Italian immigrants are often the mafia's advance guard in Germany. Criminal relatives from their Italian villages come to Germany and settle in their neighborhoods. This explains why men from San Luca's 'Ndrangheta clan have shown a preference for Duisburg, while the Corigliano crime family has established itself in the neighboring city of Mülheim.
The German cases being brought against mafiosi are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true scope of the Italian mafia's dealings in Germany. In 1999, police in Cologne seized assets worth about €9 million from an Italian man from Calabria nicknamed "Billionaire." The man lived in a mansion and drove a Ferrari. According to the police, the "Billionaire" earned his fortune with criminal activities in the construction business, which the BKA believed had already been widely infiltrated by the Italian mafia.
Former mafia killer Giorgio Basile, a member of the Carelli clan in Corigliano Calabro, has played an important role in more recent investigations. Police arrested Basile, nicknamed "Angel Face," in Germany's southern Allgäu region in 1997. When questioned by the Bavarian state Office of Criminal Investigation, Basile admitted to taking part in more than 30 murders. In return for identifying many fellow mobsters in Germany, he was accepted into the Italian witness protection program. His testimony in Italy helped put more than 50 mafiosi behind bars, but most of his former accomplices in Germany have remained at-large to this day.
One of the few exceptions is the current trial in the western German city of Wuppertal against a presumed mafia drug dealer known as "Tony the Pimp." Basile, who testified as the case's star witness by video from a secret location, described how former fellow mobster Tony once harbored him, bought drugs from him and occasionally worked as a driver.
The Basile case highlights how little German investigators know about the ways of the Italian mafia. The judges in Basile's case were not even familiar with the name of his mafia clan, nor did they bother to make the necessary inquiries in Italy. When the district court in Duisburg convicted Basile of one of the many murders, the judges wrote that he was apparently a member of a criminal organization known as the "Trangeda." They were referring, erroneously, to the 'Ndrangheta.
A Second Home for the Mafia
Italian investigations into the captured "bosses of bosses," Sicilian godfathers Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, also show that Germany has long been a second home for the mafia. According to the BKA, Riina and Provenzano were "in Germany on several occasions." When Provenzano's wife showed up with her family in the Sicilian town of Corleone in 1993, her children were more fluent in German than Italian.
Many members of the 'Ndrangheta have put down roots in Germany, working as innkeepers, pizzeria owners and hoteliers, especially in the industrial Ruhr region. German investigators have had detailed knowledge -- from Italian sources -- of the 'Ndrangheta's close ties to Duisburg since at least 2000. Virtually all members of the old clans from San Luca and nearby Locri who have moved to the Ruhr region in recent decades are on record. According to the Italian authorities, Duisburg has long served as a washing machine for dirty money from the drug and weapons trades. Sebastiano Strangio, one of the men murdered last Wednesday and the owner of the Bruno, was also apparently mafia-connected. He came to Germany from Locri in 1987. His name first surfaced in a 1998 German investigation into a mafia murder in Borgia, when investigators discovered Strangio's number stored in the victim's mobile phone.
Strangio's unsuspecting German neighbors remembered him as the friendly Italian from next door, as helpful as he was charming. He called all women "bella signora" and used to wink at them. He and his associates "were only noticeable because of the nice clothes they wore," says a former neighbor. Strangio was apparently detained for a short time in October 2005 in Amsterdam, where he was charged with cocaine trafficking.
No one believes that the hail of bullets that killed the six men last week marks the end of the vendetta. Gianni Venturi, the father of the murdered restaurant trainee, weeps over his son who, as he says, died "so senselessly." He fetches a package containing a silver ring -- a present for the boy on his 18th birthday. Venturi plans to place the ring on his dead son's finger as soon as the forensic pathologists release the body. Will there be revenge? Gianni Venturi, as eloquent as he is bitter, says nothing.
Wolfgang Gatzke, head of the state Office of Criminal Investigation in Düsseldorf, fears that there could be "acts of revenge on German soil." With the help of BKA agents and Italian investigators, Gatzke's team is trying to figure out which Italians in the area belong to which clans -- in other words, which of them could use police protection. Their goal is to save lives -- even those of mobsters.
By the end of last week, hundreds of bouquets had already been placed on the pavement in front of the the Bruno restaurant. When a young man added two gerbera daisies to the pile, he murmured: "It isn't over yet."
A wax sculpture of two black fists holding a rolled cigarette had also been placed with the flowers in front of the restaurant. An unaccustomed sight in Germany, the cigarette is often seen at mafia funerals in Italy. It is a sign of respect from the members of the clan, and it signifies that the deceased will not lack for anything in the afterworld. It also symbolizes the revenge that will be taken in this life.
ANDREA BRANDT, GUIDO KLEINHUBBERT, AURELIANA SORRENTO, ANDREAS ULRICH, ANDREAS WASSERMANN
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
A Mafia Wake-Up Call
Following the recent bloodbath in Duisburg, investigators have concluded that the Italian mafia is now using Germany as more than just a place to take time out. The mafia set up drug-dealing and money-laundering operations throughout the country years ago.
Even mafia thugs take a break when it comes time to paying respect to the Madonna of the Mountain. In early September, mafia bosses and their foot soldiers will come together at a shrine to the Virgin Mary near San Luca, a village of 4,000 inhabitants in the Aspromonte Mountains in Italy's Calabria region, to worship their patron saint. The annual ritual includes a procession, a church service and the traditional tarantella dance.
What may seem like a quaint folk festival to tourists in fact reveals the current power structure among gangsters to those in the know. Whomever the clan leader invites into the dancing circle, and when, speaks volumes about rank and status in the mafia.
This year German investigators will also be showing a keen interest in traditional rituals at San Luca. Most of the men who will be dancing the tarantella there are members of the 'Ndrangheta, one of the most vicious mafia organizations. Italian mafia investigators estimate that its 7,000 members rake in at least €35 billion ($47 billion) a year in revenues from worldwide cocaine, weapons and counterfeit money deals.
It was probably mafia hit men from the village who mowed down six Italians at the Bruno, a restaurant in Duisburg, last Wednesday. The murders serve as evidence of something that German investigators have long refused to acknowledge: that the mafia has been active in Germany for years.
Giuliano Amato, the Italian interior minister, promptly named the warring clans and their motives. Italian investigators complained that German prosecutors have been far too hesitant to proceed against the types of gangsters believed to be behind the Duisburg killings. In fact, experts with Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) had already identified the the Bruno restaurant as a "base for criminal drug and counterfeit money activities" a full 15 years ago, but it apparently never took any action.
A Birthday Party Turns into a Bloodbath
On Tuesday night, the restaurant was the scene of late-night festivities to celebrate the 18th birthday, at midnight, of Tommaso-Francesco Venturi, a new trainee. Restaurant manager Sebastiano Strangio, 38, locked the door at 2:15 a.m. Then he and five other men walked to their parked cars. These would be the last steps for Strangio, trainee Venturi, the two waiters (Marco and Francesco Pergola, 19 and 21), and two visitors from Italy (Francesco Giorgi, 16, and Marco Marmo, 25).
Police investigators presume that there were probably two killers waiting for the men in an alley. As soon as the six victims were sitting in their cars, the killers fired at least 70 shots at them with automatic weapons. The bullets pierced windshields, metal and the heads, abdomens and lower bodies of the victims -- until all six were dead. Then they shot each victim once in the head for good measure.
Although the authorities insist they are following many leads in their investigation, by late last week, German police were clearly focusing on the connection to San Luca and wading into the midst of a bloody gang war between two warring family clans, the Vottari-Pelle-Romeo and the Strangio-Nirta, both part of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.
Police speculate that Marco Marmo was the principal target of the Duisburg attack. Italian investigators say that Marmo was a mafia killer who killed a woman in San Luca last Christmas. The 33-year-old victim, Maria Strangio, was the wife of a man who authorities believe heads the family clan, Giovanni Luca Nirta. According to investigators, Marmo fled to Duisburg, where he had relatives, to escape the clan's vendetta.
Tentacles across Germany
'Ndrangheta men are all too familiar with the journey northward. By 2000, some 160 members of the group, including close relatives of clan leaders, were officially registered in Germany. According to an internal BKA document from 2000, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta has already expanded its operations from its original base in Duisburg to points throughout Germany.
One of those places is the eastern city of Erfurt, another base for the 'Ndrangheta in Germany since the mid-1990s. According to Italian and German investigators, members of Calabrian mafia families now own various properties in the capital of the German state of Thuringia. They also operate a number of restaurants, some in prime downtown locations.
According to investigators' documents, some of the mafiosi are already established members of the upper-middle-class in Erfurt, where they have long sponsored the local football club, FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt, and donated money to orphanages and cultural institutions. Indeed, the mafia's roots in the eastern German city go back many years. When police stormed the Paganini Restaurant in 1996 as part of the investigation of a mafia murder, they encountered their boss, Richard Dewes, the state's interior minister at the time, and even his boss, then-state Governor Bernhard Vogel.
A noticeably large number of the staff at the Erfurt Italian restaurant is of Calabrian descent. Many waiters share the same last names as known mafia families whose members figure prominently in Italian police investigation files. Some of the Italian employees previously worked in the the Bruno pizzeria or in other Duisburg restaurants, which Italian authorities say are controlled by the 'Ndrangheta clan.
Investigators believe that the mafia's bases in Germany are used primarily for clandestine financial transactions. In 1999, the state Office of Criminal Investigation in Stuttgart investigated an Italian from San Luca who had allegedly laundered millions through a local bank, the Sparkasse Ulm. The man claimed that he managed a profitable car dealership, and authorities were unable to prove that the business was not the source of his money.
The BKA concluded -- seven years ago -- that "the activities of this 'Ndrangheta clan represent a multi-regional criminal phenomenon." But despite their certainty, they have done little since then to address the problem.
Germany Seen as 'Very Soft' on the Mafia
Salvatore Boemi, a prosecutor who investigates the mafia, says that the Germans have "underestimated" the organization in the past. Alberto Cisterna, who is with Italy's Direzione Nazionale Antimafia, agrees, calling German investigators' approach to dealing with the 'Ndrangheta "very soft." Ercole D'Alessandro, an anti-mafia specialist with the Italian police in Calabria, says that the German judiciary should "finally realize" that quick action is needed. The mafia is not just using Germany as a "place to relax," but "also as a field of operations," especially for drug deals, says Hermann von Langsdorff, a federal prosecutor and German member of Eurojust, a European Union investigative unit.
In most cases so far, German prosecutors have only managed to peg individual crimes to individual mobsters. German criminal laws offer much more latitude to prosecutors than they have actually used against organized crime. But it is extremely difficult to build a case based on charges of forming or being a member of a foreign criminal organization. The 'Ndrangheta clan, in particular, adheres strictly to omertà, a mafia code of silence. This makes it difficult to find evidence sufficiently airtight to satisfy the strict standards of German judges.
The Italian mafia was implicated in about two dozen criminal investigations in Germany in 2006, and yet not a single conviction has been handed down to date for membership in the Italian mafia.
Part of the problem is that there are few German specialists who understand the clan structures. Respectable Italian immigrants are often the mafia's advance guard in Germany. Criminal relatives from their Italian villages come to Germany and settle in their neighborhoods. This explains why men from San Luca's 'Ndrangheta clan have shown a preference for Duisburg, while the Corigliano crime family has established itself in the neighboring city of Mülheim.
The German cases being brought against mafiosi are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true scope of the Italian mafia's dealings in Germany. In 1999, police in Cologne seized assets worth about €9 million from an Italian man from Calabria nicknamed "Billionaire." The man lived in a mansion and drove a Ferrari. According to the police, the "Billionaire" earned his fortune with criminal activities in the construction business, which the BKA believed had already been widely infiltrated by the Italian mafia.
Former mafia killer Giorgio Basile, a member of the Carelli clan in Corigliano Calabro, has played an important role in more recent investigations. Police arrested Basile, nicknamed "Angel Face," in Germany's southern Allgäu region in 1997. When questioned by the Bavarian state Office of Criminal Investigation, Basile admitted to taking part in more than 30 murders. In return for identifying many fellow mobsters in Germany, he was accepted into the Italian witness protection program. His testimony in Italy helped put more than 50 mafiosi behind bars, but most of his former accomplices in Germany have remained at-large to this day.
One of the few exceptions is the current trial in the western German city of Wuppertal against a presumed mafia drug dealer known as "Tony the Pimp." Basile, who testified as the case's star witness by video from a secret location, described how former fellow mobster Tony once harbored him, bought drugs from him and occasionally worked as a driver.
The Basile case highlights how little German investigators know about the ways of the Italian mafia. The judges in Basile's case were not even familiar with the name of his mafia clan, nor did they bother to make the necessary inquiries in Italy. When the district court in Duisburg convicted Basile of one of the many murders, the judges wrote that he was apparently a member of a criminal organization known as the "Trangeda." They were referring, erroneously, to the 'Ndrangheta.
A Second Home for the Mafia
Italian investigations into the captured "bosses of bosses," Sicilian godfathers Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, also show that Germany has long been a second home for the mafia. According to the BKA, Riina and Provenzano were "in Germany on several occasions." When Provenzano's wife showed up with her family in the Sicilian town of Corleone in 1993, her children were more fluent in German than Italian.
Many members of the 'Ndrangheta have put down roots in Germany, working as innkeepers, pizzeria owners and hoteliers, especially in the industrial Ruhr region. German investigators have had detailed knowledge -- from Italian sources -- of the 'Ndrangheta's close ties to Duisburg since at least 2000. Virtually all members of the old clans from San Luca and nearby Locri who have moved to the Ruhr region in recent decades are on record. According to the Italian authorities, Duisburg has long served as a washing machine for dirty money from the drug and weapons trades. Sebastiano Strangio, one of the men murdered last Wednesday and the owner of the Bruno, was also apparently mafia-connected. He came to Germany from Locri in 1987. His name first surfaced in a 1998 German investigation into a mafia murder in Borgia, when investigators discovered Strangio's number stored in the victim's mobile phone.
Strangio's unsuspecting German neighbors remembered him as the friendly Italian from next door, as helpful as he was charming. He called all women "bella signora" and used to wink at them. He and his associates "were only noticeable because of the nice clothes they wore," says a former neighbor. Strangio was apparently detained for a short time in October 2005 in Amsterdam, where he was charged with cocaine trafficking.
No one believes that the hail of bullets that killed the six men last week marks the end of the vendetta. Gianni Venturi, the father of the murdered restaurant trainee, weeps over his son who, as he says, died "so senselessly." He fetches a package containing a silver ring -- a present for the boy on his 18th birthday. Venturi plans to place the ring on his dead son's finger as soon as the forensic pathologists release the body. Will there be revenge? Gianni Venturi, as eloquent as he is bitter, says nothing.
Wolfgang Gatzke, head of the state Office of Criminal Investigation in Düsseldorf, fears that there could be "acts of revenge on German soil." With the help of BKA agents and Italian investigators, Gatzke's team is trying to figure out which Italians in the area belong to which clans -- in other words, which of them could use police protection. Their goal is to save lives -- even those of mobsters.
By the end of last week, hundreds of bouquets had already been placed on the pavement in front of the the Bruno restaurant. When a young man added two gerbera daisies to the pile, he murmured: "It isn't over yet."
A wax sculpture of two black fists holding a rolled cigarette had also been placed with the flowers in front of the restaurant. An unaccustomed sight in Germany, the cigarette is often seen at mafia funerals in Italy. It is a sign of respect from the members of the clan, and it signifies that the deceased will not lack for anything in the afterworld. It also symbolizes the revenge that will be taken in this life.
ANDREA BRANDT, GUIDO KLEINHUBBERT, AURELIANA SORRENTO, ANDREAS ULRICH, ANDREAS WASSERMANN
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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CheGuevara
- Heavy Weight
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
oh, please don't tell me this is your way of trying to actually imply the italian mafia even comes close to the albanian mafia in germany.
if it's not, good reads. if it is, sad attempt.
if it's not, good reads. if it is, sad attempt.
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DutchGangster69
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
There goes Johnny again he gets all uptight and offended when Other groups are being talked about other then Albanian.oh, please don't tell me this is your way of trying to actually imply the italian mafia even comes close to the albanian mafia in germany.
if it's not, good reads. if it is, sad attempt.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
no but azure has a funny way of arguing. he brings sources that he thinks make others look foolish and me and thevirginside have been mentioning germany lately so i know this is azure's way of implying something against what i said.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
But let him say whatever he wants. Here's my information for this topic since he labelled it organized crime in Germany.
Name: Burim Osmani; Networth: $400-500mn depending on the Euro-Dollar conversion; Alias: The Godfather, Don of Hamburg, Felix; Governor of Hamburg.
Translation: The Germany Clan: The unscrupulous network from politicians, top managers to law.
Name: Burim Osmani; Networth: $400-500mn depending on the Euro-Dollar conversion; Alias: The Godfather, Don of Hamburg, Felix; Governor of Hamburg.
Translation: The Germany Clan: The unscrupulous network from politicians, top managers to law.
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DutchGangster69
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
I think that video talks about an indictment...and how he invests in real estate.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Can you speak German? I'm not 100% fluent but the video covered his court hearing and his brothers and how they came to such a mass fortune. They then went into news reports and examined why reporters have been refused to cover the clan's business numerous times and forbidden from using BND reports in any news article mentioning Burim Osmani or his brothers. They also cover the "alleged claims" of him controlling St. Pauli as well as the book Der Deutschland Clan which was written by Jurgen Roth which examines the Clan's political, law enforcement and business connections as well as their role in illegal activities. The book I believe was a best seller in Germany.DutchGangster69 wrote:I think that video talks about an indictment...and how he invests in real estate.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Of course not..no one even comes to Albanians anywhere at any time at anything, or even remotely close for that matter. The only person who can surpass an Albanian at anything is another Albanian, and he better watch out, lest the other Albanian start a blood feud and kill his entire family, as only Albanians are capable of such violence.CheGuevara wrote:oh, please don't tell me this is your way of trying to actually imply the italian mafia even comes close to the albanian mafia in germany.
if it's not, good reads. if it is, sad attempt.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
I did a quick background search on that Roth guy, apparently he's gotten in quite a bit of trouble for the things he's written.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Any articles, or anything tangible? In English preferably.CheGuevara wrote:Dobre-esque post
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
ahhhhh shut the fvck up and get your head out your ass. i gave you reports from the bnd and numerous other articles and you shut up because you got what you wanted? you wanna star the same conversation again?Azure9920 wrote:Any articles, or anything tangible? In English preferably.CheGuevara wrote:Dobre-esque post
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
so have many reporters that opened their mouth about the osmani clan.Azure9920 wrote:I did a quick background search on that Roth guy, apparently he's gotten in quite a bit of trouble for the things he's written.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
well according to figures (since thevirginside only looks at available evidence) the osmani clan seems to be richer than the entire n'drangheta in germany. i mean n'drangheta invested $90mn, the osmani clan invested how much? just one of their recent projects is totalling $75mn.Azure9920 wrote:Of course not..no one even comes to Albanians anywhere at any time at anything, or even remotely close for that matter. The only person who can surpass an Albanian at anything is another Albanian, and he better watch out, lest the other Albanian start a blood feud and kill his entire family, as only Albanians are capable of such violence.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
I've seen those articles, I was asking if you had anything else to post. No need to get angry because Burim won't tuck you in at night.CheGuevara wrote:ahhhhh shut the fvck up and get your head out your ass. i gave you reports from the bnd and numerous other articles and you shut up because you got what you wanted? you wanna star the same conversation again?
Oh yes, everyone quakes at the thought of Felix Osmani. I was specifically referring to the lawsuits filed against him. The translations I found were shaky, but from what I gather it amounted to something about him lying.CheGuevara wrote:so have many reporters that opened their mouth about the osmani clan.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
What a wacky concept!CheGuevara wrote:(since thevirginside only looks at available evidence)
Just wondering, where'd you get the 90 million figure from?
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
lol, i have many more articles, however, i think my time would be better spent posting articles about other gangsters. we already know about felix osmani.Azure9920 wrote:I've seen those articles, I was asking if you had anything else to post. No need to get angry because Burim won't tuck you in at night.
lol, actually it seems like everyone does. there was even an article that was titled, "a muzzle for reports on felix osmani?" i found it amusing. well roth is a jew so he's trying his best but he's obviously going to lie sooner or later lol.CheGuevara wrote:Oh yes, everyone quakes at the thought of Felix Osmani. I was specifically referring to the lawsuits filed against him. The translations I found were shaky, but from what I gather it amounted to something about him lying.
of course it's wacky, silly and downright stupid because there are many factors that this comparison leaves in the dark which has to be looked at. but that is how he looks at things. only what we can bring to the table. well, felix and his clan invested more into germany than the entire n'drangheta. so he MUST be richer! the available facts prove it! right virginside?Azure9920 wrote:What a wacky concept!
Just wondering, where'd you get the 90 million figure from?
the 90mn number i got from an article similar to yours. not to mention your own article said they invested in the tens of millions of dollars.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Do you have any others? In your posts about Germany that I've seen, I don't recall you ever mentioning anyone who wasn't an Osmani.CheGuevara wrote:i think my time would be better spent posting articles about other gangsters.
Is he?jew
How crazy of him. What might have happened is almost as important as what actually happened.but that is how he looks at things.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
lol, yes i have othersAzure9920 wrote:Do you have any others? In your posts about Germany that I've seen, I don't recall you ever mentioning anyone who wasn't an Osmani.
roth, rothstein, bernstein, goldberg, all jewish names. is prenaj albanian? i think so.Is he?
it is crazy of him, you cannot ignore the reason why statistics might vary.How crazy of him. What might have happened is almost as important as what actually happened.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
I'm surprised.CheGuevara wrote:lol, yes i have others
I'm aware Roth is a Jewish surname. However, names mean very little in today's world. Particularly in advanced countries like those of North America and Western Europe.roth, rothstein, bernstein, goldberg, all jewish names. is prenaj albanian? i think so.
Statistics? I was referring to your oft-repeated arguments of "this might have happened" and presenting them as fact.it is crazy of him, you cannot ignore the reason why statistics might vary.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
when have i ever said this might of happened and claimed it as a fact? about what?Azure9920 wrote:Statistics? I was referring to your oft-repeated arguments of "this might have happened" and presenting them as fact.
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Azure9920
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Quick example. I'll go digging up more tomorrow if you'd like, but the lag on this site is fucking crazy right now. Are you guys getting it too?CheGuevara wrote:again, just because i don't have any sources that cite specific killings between albanian/italian organizations, doesn't mean there isn't any.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
it doesn't, i have countless sources that specifically mention that there is. just because i don't have specific killings on file, it doesn't mean they don't exist. i am constantly running into new material on the internet about albanian clans all around the world.
and yes i am getting it.
and yes i am getting it.
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thewestside
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Yeah, it's been acting that way for the last few days now. Very annoying.Azure9920 wrote:Quick example. I'll go digging up more tomorrow if you'd like, but the lag on this site is #%@&#%@ crazy right now. Are you guys getting it too?
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thewestside
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
CheGuevara wrote:i am constantly running into new material on the internet about albanian clans all around the world.
Of course you are because that's all you read about. Nothing else. But what else is new huh?
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
just like you read only about italian criminals. absolutely nothing new. i am solely interested in albanian criminals. at least i don't lie about it. the mafia and criminals do not impress me, i don't value them like you do. you just hide and say you research all groups but you don't. you research the italians alone and you barely crack a page open about any other groups ESPECIALLY the albanians. you read how much was it? 4 books about al capone? how many books did you read on the entire albanian mafia again? exactly... have the balls to admit it.
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thewestside
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
Sorry pal, that's not true. I have dozens of books on the Colombian cartels, Russian/Eastern European organized crime, the Yakuza, the Triads, etc. Also some books that cover Albanians in part, though they are not the sole focus. And likewise, I have a whole collection of reports, articles, etc. that I've gathered online over the years about all sorts of groups in addition to Italians.CheGuevara wrote:just like you read only about italian criminals. absolutely nothing new. i am solely interested in albanian criminals. at least i don't lie about it. the mafia and criminals do not impress me, i don't value them like you do. you just hide and say you research all groups but you don't. you research the italians alone and you barely crack a page open about any other groups ESPECIALLY the albanians. you read how much was it? 4 books about al capone? how many books did you read on the entire albanian mafia again? exactly... have the balls to admit it.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
i've read about pablo escobar, the cali cartel, russian groups and chinese groups as well. but my main focus has been the albanian criminals. same thing with you except your main focus is on the italian criminals.
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thewestside
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
As I've explained before, I've read about Italians the most because - A) there is more material about them than any other group; and B) they have had the single biggest historical effect in the country I live in.CheGuevara wrote:i've read about pablo escobar, the cali cartel, russian groups and chinese groups as well. but my main focus has been the albanian criminals. same thing with you except your main focus is on the italian criminals.
You, on the other hand, read mainly about Albanians because - A) You are Albanian and it boosts your self esteem to live vicariously through Albanian criminals; and B) so you can come on interent forums and brag about them.
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CheGuevara
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
why you think i read about the albanian mafia doesn't interested me as your explanation are usually moronic. but why you can't just simply say from the beginning, yes, i do read about the italians for the most part is what i really want to know.
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Dobre
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Re: Organized Crime In Germany.
If you really want to know you dumb fucking prick, do what I do and make some friends in Albania! For the love of Christ, I remember posting back 2-3 years ago about a guy named Bajrush Sejdiu being the major Albanian boss in Kumanovo, and everyone said: ...CheGuevara wrote:why you think i read about the albanian mafia doesn't interested me as your explanation are usually moronic. but why you can't just simply say from the beginning, yes, i do read about the italians for the most part is what i really want to know.
But hey, look what happens 2-3 years later
Now..not that I want that to happen to people I know lol xD
With the people I know, it's like, hey, who gives a fuck if they smuggle drugs or are clean? We'll work for them some day anyhow... :/