“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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| ‘Ndrangheta clan leaders. |
Italian Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA) confirmed in its latest report that the ‘Ndrangheta, the dangerous Calabrian mafia organization that controls wholesale cocaine trafficking in Europe, has a “consolidated” relationship with the Mexican Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).
According to the DIA investigators, the Calabrian criminal organization has a “front page role” in the drug trafficking sector also “thanks to its alliances with the Mexican drug traffickers”, which allow it to manage “both the main links intercontinental between America and Europe”, as well as “the sale in Europe”, continues the anti-mafia agency in another report, in which it also warns about the danger posed by the infiltration of the three Italian mafias in Latin American societies.
These networks make use of the also consolidated relations between the Calabrian criminal group and Balkan organized crime. “The main shipments depart from the Pacific ports and pass through the Strait of Panama before reaching the countries of northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the coasts of West Africa”, they have concluded, considering the CJNG one of those networks “most aggressive” in Mexico.
Neither Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, nor the Sinaloa Cartel appears in the latest DIA analyses. This is the first news that they are no longer designated as partners of the ‘Ndrangheta, but that this position is now occupied by the CJNG. This is a significant change as those Mexican cartel groups were in business with the Italian mafias, some sources speak of relationships that began in the 1980s.
Previous Connections
The first time that the link between the Gulf Cartel and the ‘Ndrangheta (among them, the Schirripa Clan) was uncovered was in 2008. It happened with the transnational operation Operación Solare (or Project Reckoning), carried out between Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, and Italy, which led to the arrest of some 200 people.
Later, in 2011, Operation Solare 2 (also known as Crimine 3), also coordinated by Italy, revealed how the then-rising Los Zetas had begun to operate with the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta (particularly with the Jerino, Aquino, Bruzzese, Siderno, and Fish Clans).
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Sources Proceso, Brookings Journal, Borderland Beat