Who rules in Rome
Rome appeals to everyone. In Rome everyone can do business. And if Ostia, Tor Bella Monaca and San Basilio, i.e. the strongholds of drug dealing, especially outside the ring road, seem unassailable with criminal plots that also affect the Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta or Sicilian mafia clans, moving however there is room for all because, quoting Romanzo Criminale, “Roma non vo ‘masters”.
There are at least thirty “surveyed” drug dealing squares in the city in the historic center to the alleys, from the nightlife venues to the public gardens. Recently, new areas where drugs are sold are climbing the “ranking” of relevance. Among these, without a doubt, is the Trulli which is the “kingdom of the new narcos” and where they “worked” to fill the gaps left by the historic Gambacurta clanactive in the nearby area of Montespaccato.
One thing is certain, in Rome there are organizations structured in a “professional” manner, even with dedicated welfare for pushers. A “job” that someone, intercepted in the various operations that have decimated drug dealing squares, calls “going to the construction site” and which documents the “corporate” method by which drugs are sold. An “entrepreneurial-criminal model” with a meticulous division of tasks, salaries and legal assistance and the increasingly frequent use of minors.
The Narcommap of Rome
The drug dealing squares of Rome are a criminal phenomenon that has both quantitative and qualitative characteristics. The greatest density of drug dealing squares is in the neighborhoods of Tor Bella Monaca (where there is the “hole famous throughout Rome“), San Basilio, Montespaccato, Romanina, Acilia, Primavalle, Ponte di Nona, Tufello, Giardinetti-Borghesiana, Torre Nova, Nuova Ostia, Quartaccio, and Bastogi. A real Narcommap of Rome.
All the drug dealing squares and the names that command them
These are “closed” drug dealing squares also founded on the criminal reputation of the groups that manage the business and control the territory. In districts such as Quarticciolo-Centocelle, Corviale, Boccea and Trullo, however, criminal associations active in the drug dealing sector developed around particularly “charismatic” figures in the criminal sphere. In other areas of the city, on the other hand, minor drug dealing squares are operational, such as the Laurentina area and open drug dealing squares, i.e. without sentinels and surveillance systems. This is the case of Pigneto and San Lorenzo.
The rise of the ‘Ndrangheta
The ‘Ndrangheta in recent years has increasingly stretched its hands on the city. The families of Bellocco, Marando, Filippone, Molè, Piromalli gradually took root in Rome through a process of “infiltration in the legal and illegal economy, confirmed in numerous sentences, some already definitive”. The organization plays a decisive role in Roman criminal dynamics, “from international drug trafficking to the reinvestment of illicit capital”. Its positioning in the criminal scenario of the city has gradually become evident, as underlined a few years ago by the Rome prosecutor, Michele Prestipino.
It was 2016. Since then, the investigations have brought to light numerous aspects concerning the organizational structure of the ‘ndrine in the capital. The ‘Ndrangheta plays a decisive role in Roman criminal dynamics, from international drug trafficking to the reinvestment of illicit capital. And so in the spring of 2022 it emerges for the first time that the ‘Ndrangheta has created its own branch in Rome. Not individual bosses who meddle in the capital for their personal interests, but the vanguard of colonization conducted on behalf of the entire dome in the city of power.
Cosca Capital. The names of the ‘Ndrangheta in Rome
The “Roman Camorra”
The Camorra in Rome in recent years has shown all its ability to invent and reinvent itself. From north to south, passing through the suburbs such as Tor Bella Monaca up to the historic centre. In every area of the capital, in every business, in every potential coterie. Rome, given its geographical proximity and the possibilities it can offer, has always been a popular destination for the clans of the Camorra. Over the years, however, the scenario has changed, the new generations have gained more and more power, so much so that the Neapolitan criminal magma has reinvented itself, up to splitting into two: the part of the underworld historically infiltrated in the Roman territory and the derived part, the so-called “Roman camorra”, reborn and renewed in the contamination with the socio-economic fabric.
The bosses from Campania have always bet a part of the illicit capital on the legal market of catering and real estate and another on the illegal and even more profitable drug trafficking market, as also certified by an operation which has hit the Moccia clan which cleaned up money from real estate and restaurant businesses, especially in the area of Rome between Castel Sant’Angelo, Quirinale and Piazza Navona. But to tell the phenomenon of the “Roman Camorra”, they cannot be mentioned Michele Senese known as ‘O Pazzo’a point of reference of the “Roman Camorra”, e ‘Mimì or Professor’ with the so-called Neapolitans of Tuscolana.
The dome of the camorra in the capital. All names
Cosa Nostra in Rome
The Sicilian mafia has been doing business in Rome for years. From drugs to gambling to money laundering. Cosa nostra romana works and reinvests. Among the leading figures, and more recent, there is that of Joseph Guttadauro, brother of Matteo Messina Denaro’s brother-in-law, already definitively convicted of mafia in 1996, 1999 and 2002 and now established in Rome after his release from prison. Guttadauro, known as “the doctor”, was and is – even after the last arrest – a leading exponent of the Palermitan Cosa Nostra. A big shot.
The activities of Trastevere and Testaccio, two historic areas of Rome, have instead been and are used as a “washing machine” for Cosa Nostra money in Rome. A 2021 investigation told of a systematic round of money that led to affixing seals to a well-known restaurant that offered Sicilian specialties a stone’s throw from Lungotevere Ripa. According to what RomaToday learned from Arma sources at the time of the events, Salvatore Rubino, his brother Benedetto (arrested in Portuense) and Francesco Paolo Maniscalco, a trusted man of Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, son of the deceased Totò, ended up in handcuffs.