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Documentary, The Mafias Secret Bunkers BBC Documentary Ndrangheta
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00:07there's a new front line in the war against organized crime in southern
00:15italy's rugged highlands a previously unknown criminal group meets just about
00:23here some of the top bosses were standing having their secret meeting called the
00:28ndrangheta its bosses are Europe's biggest cocaine traffickers the police are fighting
00:38back forcing mafiosi underground into bizarre and sophisticated bunkers
00:54holy moly from here they run their criminal empires protected by a wall of silence
01:02they dug up the whole street to bury their bunkers nobody breathed a word
01:14this is the story of a little-known mafia whose secret inner workings are only now coming to light
01:37this is Calabria a beautiful and blighted region at the very tip of Italy's boot as a historian I've
01:46spent years studying Italian organized crime now I've come to this mountainous peninsula a stone's
01:54throw from the island of Sicily to investigate Italy's most mysterious and powerful mafia the
02:09ndrangheta the cacciatori the hunters are an elite law enforcement unit they've agreed to take me deep into
02:17ndrangheta territory in realtà la locride si possiamo considerarlo un territorio nemico
02:26e perché è rappresentato per anni roccaforte dell'andrangheta il consenso era per la quasi totalitÃ
02:36rivolto alla criminalità organizzata lieutenant angelo zizi and his men often have to operate under the cover of
03:00darkness after two and a half hours we reach a small village high up in the mountains it's four in
03:12the morning
03:21with the mist on the mountains here and the silence there's something really spooky about this place
03:32now abandoned this house was once used as a base by Calabrian criminals
03:46that's what is this point of access is a complicated mechanism of the carruple azionato
03:52attraverso a system elettrico is essentially a part of a wall that scorre sul pavimento
03:59col bunker chiuso all'esterno è praticamente impossibile individuare l'accesso geniale
04:08there's something fiendishly clever about this mechanism that kind of james bond villain fashion
04:25the concealed entrance leads to a narrow passage
04:32pretty tight in here
04:35this secret hideout was discovered almost by chance when the team were pursuing a group of andrangheta gangsters
04:43mouro piantati dei chiodi quindi state attenti mantenetevi al centro
04:49when zizi and his team first entered there was no sign of the men they were after
04:56quando abbiamo scoperto quella parte quella botola quella apertura sotto il pavimento eravamo convinti di trovare lì dentro il latitante
05:05in realtà non abbiamo trovato nessuno per quale motivo perché quest'altra apertura all'interno del muro
05:11era chiusa e occultata molto molto bene
05:13cioè un sistema di scatole cinesi praticamente
05:16esattamente
05:17e quindi
05:32l'interno del bunker siamo passati all'interno di una vera e propria rete di cunicoli
05:37che porta in direzioni differenti
05:39una all'interno delle fogne
05:41in un'altra direzione attraverso un tunnel di circa 30 metri
05:45arriviamo in due abitazioni differenti e nella quarta direzione andiamo all'interno di una di un'altra abitazione
05:54il tunnels fan out under the village linking hideouts and escape routes
05:59so the tunnel system was a kind of map of the andrangheta network in this village
06:08it's a claustrophobic maze completely disorientating
06:26this is a completely different house
06:28it's a completely different house
06:31another secret entrance
06:32under the stairs
06:35and we're into a completely new house
06:40absolutely amazing
06:44by the time I got out
06:45dawn had broken
06:49we came in somewhere over there
06:54when the cacciatore got into the first part of this system
06:58there were six people in there
06:59the cacciatore had surrounded the whole area
07:02and there was a chase through this bunker system
07:05with its different exits
07:07each cacciatore having to follow a different andranghetista
07:10as he made his escape
07:11three of the andranghetisti got away
07:13and having been through that system of tunnels
07:16I can really see why
07:22building this subterranean labyrinth was a major enterprise
07:25somebody must have noticed all the work going on
07:28but not a soul told the authorities
07:32for more than a century
07:34the men of the andrangheta
07:35have been the undisputed authority in these mountain villages
07:39to understand the nature of their dominance
07:42you need to understand the geography of Calabria
07:45and that means taking to the air
07:54this is very exciting
07:56for two reasons
07:57one because I've never been in a helicopter before
08:01and two because now we're going to see
08:03some of the wildest parts of Calabria from the air
08:11we took off from the city of Reggio Calabria
08:14one of the mafia power bases on the coast
08:17but the heart of andrangheta territory
08:20is Aspromonte
08:21the harsh mountain
08:29there's no other word for Aspromonte
08:32but for chested, extraordinary sight
08:38Aspromonte is inaccessible
08:42the law has never had much of a foothold here
08:47the Andrangheta is a secret society of criminals
08:50and for a long time
08:52these remote mountain settlements
08:54have been its fortresses
08:58in the 1970s and 80s
09:00the Andrangheta took to kidnapping for ransom
09:03using these remote mountains to hide the captives
09:08often for years
09:12each of these villages is controlled by a different clan
09:21if you know where to look
09:23it's not hard to see who's in charge
09:27we're about to fly over a villa
09:29that Andrangheta boss had built for himself
09:32and he wanted him to look exactly like
09:35Tony Montana's villa in Scarface the movie
09:39I suppose all gangsters are gangster wannabes at heart
09:50today
09:51the main source of the Andrangheta's wealth and power
09:54lies 20 minutes flight northwest
09:56at the port of Joya Tauru
10:04opened in the 1990s
10:06Joya Tauru is now the biggest container port in the Mediterranean
10:10it should have been good news for this underdeveloped region
10:13it should have been good news for this underdeveloped region
10:27for the Andrangheta
10:40the port of Joya Tauru is the headluck like the golden eggs
10:50extorting a protection payment on every container is just the start
10:55the main illegal business here is smuggling
11:02ordinary commercial roofs are used as Trojan horses
11:07from bananas to frozen prawns
11:10from iron to hazelnuts
11:13any cargo shipped from South America to Europe
11:16and the port of Joya Tauru
11:18can be used as cover for Andrangheta's cocaine
11:29thousands of containers pass through the port every day
11:32it's impossible to check and scan more than a handful of them
11:36the best chance of catching a cocaine shipment is through intelligence on the ground
11:41but even there the criminals are often one step ahead
11:47the Andrangheta plant their own men in the port
11:50just like we watch them, they watch us
11:56the sheer scale of this place is awe-inspiring
12:00the ships are like tower blocks
12:03the piles of containers go on for kilometers
12:06and if you think that a big load of cocaine is about the size of a wardrobe
12:11makes it very clear that the old cliche about looking for a needle in a haystack
12:16just doesn't come close
12:20it's estimated that no more than 20% of the cocaine coming through the port
12:24is intercepted by the authorities
12:27but even that amounts to an impressive haul
12:32All'interno di questa cassaforte abbiamo parte della cocaina sottoposta a sequestro il 6 ottobre 2011
12:40costituita da una partita di ben 520 kg di cocaina
12:44purissima, direttamente proveniente dal Sud America
12:47era stata ritirata all'interno di un container
12:49il soggetto arrestato
12:51era stato colto in flagranza di reato
12:54mentre tentava di trasportare all'esterno dell'area portuale
12:57questa partita di cocaina
12:59questa è circa un chilo di cocaina
13:01ma questa quanto vale?
13:03se lo vendiamo così puro
13:05sono circa 120.000 euro
13:07se lo vendiamo tagliato tre o quattro volte
13:11quindi moltiplichiamo 100.000 euro per due, tre o quattro volte
13:15100.000 euro per due, tre o quattro volte
13:19and look at it
13:20this is a whole wardrobe full of the stuff
13:23la partita complessiva ha un valore di circa 135 milioni di euro
13:29se fosse giunto al mercato finale
13:31quindi noi abbiamo tolto dal mercato finale
13:33135 milioni di euro di introiti all'andrangheta
13:37and that's not all
13:40come potete vedere in questa stanza
13:43non abbiamo più la disponibilità di armadi blindati
13:47scusami, sento un odore strano
13:49l'odore acre degli acidi utilizzati per la produzione della cocaina
13:553 tonne di cocaina
13:57ha stato scegliato qui nel ultimo 2 anni
14:02e questo è solo un piccolo
14:05di un totale
14:07di cocaina
14:09che sta scegliando
14:10il porto di Giotardo
14:13questo è davvero straordinario
14:17La mafia Calabria
14:18l'andrangheta
14:20è oggi la maggiora
14:21della cortesia di corazonna
14:22è un amico
14:22un sindicato di caccia
14:23in Europe
14:23la scena è una caccia di caccia
14:35in Europa
14:35l'andrangheta
14:36è il quale
14:36diventare
14:38la piada
14:39del pese
14:40il impresionale
14:42il risultato
14:43la piada
14:45che ormai esiste
14:47operativa
14:48padrona del territorio
14:52The Carabinieri special agent, Giuseppe Lumia, knows more about the Pesce clan than anyone.
15:11As well as cocaine trafficking, the Pesce clan grew rich from extortion and fraud.
15:19In this small run-down town, the clan members enjoyed the good life.
15:24None more so than their chief, Ciccio Pesce.
15:32That is the house of Ciccio Pesce, the village of Ciccio Pesce,
15:35built by the father, just there, beautiful, rich, great, sfarzosa,
15:40in the midst of so much poverty, so that everyone could see it
15:43and because they, from above that hill, could dominate the entire Rosario.
15:49It's a real fortress with perimetral walls,
15:53high more than 3 meters,
15:56completely surrounded by cameras.
16:00It's impossible to reach there without being seen.
16:05The house occupies a position like a baron's castle in the old days.
16:10At 30 years of age, Ciccio Pesce became the youngest known boss of an Andrangheta clan.
16:16His swift rise to power was witnessed by a man who has since become one of the very few Calabrian
16:23mafiosi to turn state witness.
16:26For security reasons, we can't reveal his identity.
16:29We'll call him Tony.
16:34What kind of man is Ciccio Pesce?
16:39I have known him since he was a child, Ciccio Pesce.
16:42When he was 14 or 15, on New Year's Eve, he went round town with his friends with some Kalashnikovs.
16:49He sprayed the streets and the shop shutters with bullets.
16:54There was no particular reason to do so.
16:56He just wanted to make a mess because power was growing in his hands.
17:01Extreme violence was the basis of Ciccio Pesce's power.
17:08People respected him out of fear.
17:11They were scared of rebelling because he'd become the absolute ruler of our area.
17:17As one of the poorest regions in Europe, Calabria receives huge subsidies from the European Union for public construction works
17:25and farming.
17:26Mobsters like Ciccio Pesce have stolen much of that money.
17:31Tony helped Pesce make millions through a colossal scam involving oranges.
17:40The oranges had to be delivered to a plant, but we wouldn't take anything there.
17:46We would take the paperwork the night before, however, and in the morning it would be signed by corrupt officials
17:52saying the oranges had been delivered.
17:55After 90 days, we would receive the funds for the oranges from the European Union.
18:03And how much did you make in an average year?
18:09I was small fry, but in a good year I could make three, four hundred thousand euros from oranges.
18:15And a boss like Ciccio Pesce, how much would he make?
18:20Someone like Ciccio Pesce, who owned the farms, the plants, the transport companies, everything.
18:26He'd make, out of the oranges scam alone, some five to six million euros a year.
18:34The clan would invest the money in drugs and weapons.
18:37And they would double it, even treble it.
18:41The Andrangheta is highly territorial.
18:44When they fall foul of the law, bosses like Ciccio Pesce very rarely take flight.
18:50Instead, they go to ground, close to home.
18:55The man of honour, the leader, never leaves his own turf.
19:03For them, a bunker is an investment.
19:06If someone needs to lay low for a while, hoping the police will lose interest in them.
19:15Many of these bunkers were made of old shipping containers,
19:18sunk into the soil of the orange groves,
19:22and kitted out with everything a boss would need to lie low.
19:29Of course, a bunker is only safe if its location is kept secret.
19:39In Calabria, where the Andrangheta is more feared than the law,
19:43the blanket of silence known as Omerta is as thick as anywhere in Italy.
19:53So it's not surprising that not many people have broken the regime of Omerta.
20:00I'm on the way now to find out what happens when you do.
20:11I've been given an address some ten miles south of Rosano.
20:23It looks like my arrival is being closely monitored.
20:36This fortified compound is where construction entrepreneur Gaetano Saffiotti lives and works.
20:45It's the only place Saffiotti would agree to meet.
21:01The company grew from nothing into a multi-million pound business until, in 2002, the profits crashed.
21:10This is the profit. The company was always positive since 1981, when it was born.
21:17After the year of the Ardesti, it was collapsed.
21:19For years, like most businesses in the area, Saffiotti had paid regular extortion money to the Andrangheta.
21:26But as he became more successful, they wanted more and more control.
21:31When he tried to buy a plot of land, the mobsters made their move.
21:37And then what happened? One night, they set fire to my bulldozer to tell me,
21:41you've done something you shouldn't have.
21:44Saffiotti turned to the state for help.
21:46But he soon learned who's really in charge in Calabria.
21:52I went to report who'd done it.
21:54I was told, perhaps it's better you keep that to yourself.
21:56We know how these things end up.
21:58And my heart sank.
22:01And so there is this facade of a state and there is this real state.
22:05Paradoxically, the real state is the Andrangheta.
22:09The campaign of intimidation escalated.
22:16In the middle of the day, they showed up and threatened my staff, including my brother.
22:21They gave him a tank of petrol and told him, pour this petrol over the vehicle and set it alight.
22:27Here is the fire and the fire.
22:31Saffiotti had been pushed to the edge.
22:34He decided to fight back.
22:39This is a particular story.
22:41This is the moment he takes the money.
22:43For months, Saffiotti risked his life to capture his tormentors on film, as they came for their payoff.
22:51On this occasion, several thousand pounds.
22:55You see that these are the money I put here.
22:58I go a little behind.
23:01I take the money in the cassette.
23:03These are 10 million.
23:06You see?
23:07I'll show you the camera while they're distracted.
23:12You see?
23:13Now, he takes the 10 million.
23:17And how much is the other one?
23:19You see?
23:21In an unprecedented act, Saffiotti took this evidence to a public prosecutor.
23:27On the night of January the 25th, 2002, 45 Andrangheta members were arrested.
23:34But this was not the end of Saffiotti's problems.
23:40When someone talks about one's life changing overnight, it may sound exaggerated.
23:46But in this case, my world was really turned upside down overnight.
23:51My 65 employees must have learnt about the arrests before they came out in the papers.
23:56Because in the morning, only five showed up for work.
24:01On the same day, all of our orders dried up.
24:08The banks closed my accounts, even the active ones, not just the overdrafts.
24:14Cancelling my overdrafts was bad enough, but I couldn't even withdraw my own money.
24:18It was completely absurd. I was ostracized by everyone, as if I'd become a terrible criminal.
24:28Many of Saffiotti's friends shunned him.
24:31In Calabria, even law-abiding citizens wouldn't risk defying the Andrangheta by being seen with a man like him.
24:40This, instead, is a message from friends, right?
24:45Yes.
24:45It says,
24:46How far before, on your body, you will get 45 coats of pallets, so you will get them.
24:53Not from palm, but from on the ground.
24:55This is the message.
24:5945 bullets, one for each of the men that Saffiotti had had arrested.
25:07And then the police turned up.
25:09They said, we are here for you, because from now on, you are under protection.
25:15That was it.
25:17The beginning.
25:18The beginning.
25:31The situation in Calabria can seem incomprehensible at first glance.
25:37But to really understand what's going on there, we need to take a step back.
25:41Or rather, take a trip across the straits.
25:44To Sicily.
25:51This beautiful island has long been home to the notorious Cosa Nostra.
25:56For the last 30 years, the Italian state has been struggling to contain the most powerful criminal organization in modern
26:03history.
26:16Coming to Palomo today, you have to make an effort to remember that 25 years ago, this was a city
26:22in the grip of terror.
26:25The bloodiest mafia war in history was going on.
26:29Hundreds of people were being killed, bodies were being left burning in the street or taken out to the sea
26:35and dumped.
26:36Cosa Nostra was killing magistrates, policemen, journalists, politicians.
26:42That violence reached its savage climax with the 1992 bombing assassinations of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
26:55Cosa Nostra had declared war on the state and seemed to be winning.
27:05It felt like the country was on its knees.
27:08If they were able to blow up a motorway, and kill magistrates under the highest level of protection, and also
27:14kill our police colleagues escorting them,
27:18then I felt this was an extremely powerful and terrifying organization, which would stop at nothing.
27:26It's been a long, hard road for the state to win back credibility.
27:30A key success came in 2006 when, after 43 years on the run, Cosa Nostra's boss of bosses was finally
27:39arrested.
27:41The uncatchable had been caught.
27:45In that moment, the people felt a burst of courage and wanted to show it by coming to our Palermo
27:50headquarters to express solidarity with us.
27:53And the belief that this battle could be won.
27:58If organized crime is to be defeated, ordinary people need to be empowered to resist.
28:04They have to believe that police and judges are not in the pay of the mobsters, and that those who
28:10stand up to the mafia will be protected.
28:14Now, in Sicily, that is beginning to happen.
28:18We promote a sort of rebellion, a cultural revolution against them.
28:22Eduardo Zafuto is one of the founders of a grassroots anti-mafia group.
28:27Addio Pizzo, or farewell extortion, encourages ordinary Sicilians to come out and defy the mafia.
28:36Cosa Nostra works like a shadow state, using extortion as its tax.
28:44Sometimes here, the mafia asks just 10, 15 euros per month, that's nominal payment.
28:50It's important for the mafia that even the fish shop, as well as the vegetable shop, accept to pay protection.
28:56Yeah.
28:57So, how many people do you think actually pay protection money in this market, for example?
29:0480% of...
29:0580%?!
29:06Yes.
29:08Just round the corner from the market is a shop selling traditional Sicilian caps.
29:15When we started our campaign, we started to distribute these stickers to the shopkeepers that are members of our campaign.
29:23The stickers say, I pay who does not pay.
29:26So, in the sense, of course, I support those who say no to the mafia.
29:31Have you ever had any problems with extortion?
29:34Of course, yes.
29:35In my past, the last one, the last one was when we opened a shop in the center.
29:44The next day of the inauguration, we found an attack in the serratura.
29:51Instead of calling you and telling you, give me your money, they put the attack and then they call you.
29:56And you're already exhausted, according to the mafia message.
30:02And so, how did you react to this?
30:04Now, I put on the second pizza, and this is the answer I have to give.
30:08It works like a sort of beware to the dog sign, you know, so it says, as soon as you
30:14dare to ask pizza here, you will be immediately reported to the police.
30:19And the consumers, they know for sure, just seeing this sticker, that in this shop, not a single cent goes
30:28to the mafia.
30:29And it works?
30:30It works.
30:32It works.
30:32It works.
30:33So, you don't have fear?
30:34Absolutely not.
30:36The mafia is a victim.
30:38They go to where they find the weak people, where they find the isolated people.
30:42When they see a group of people who are now at Diopizzo, they think about it twice.
30:47Because they say, I'm going to agree with you.
30:48I'm going to agree with you.
30:51800 businesses have joined Diopizzo's anti-extortion campaign.
30:57In the huge task of eradicating the mafia's scourge, this is a small start, but the potential is revolutionary.
31:08Back in Calabria, the anti-mafia fight is a generation behind.
31:13In fact, as the state focused on Sicily, the Andrangheta grew unchecked.
31:21While Cosa Nostra was committed to its strategy of terror, the Andrangheta made a completely different choice.
31:30They were not interested in a war against the state.
31:33They bought the state, piece by piece.
31:36They seeped into it.
31:37They didn't need to fight it.
31:43Andrangheta remained in the shadows, and in the shadows it grew in strength, power, organization, and above all, in wealth.
31:56The Calabrian mafia thrived on neglect, unknown to the world.
32:01Even most Italians struggled to pronounce its name.
32:06Until one night in 2007.
32:10On the 15th of August, a frantic call was received in a small village in Calabria.
32:20A distraught caller asked for the Mama.
32:25Codename for a notorious Andrangheta boss.
32:29NO, NO.
32:30No, look at him.
32:37No, no.
32:38No, I'm dead.
32:39No.
32:40No, his mother.
32:40No, he's dead.
32:41No, I'm dead nearby.
32:41No, he's dead.
32:42No, and the house is back at home.
32:43No.
32:43That's the law.
32:44No, no!
32:44He died, brother!
32:45He died, brother!
32:47He died, son, and he died?
32:49No.
32:49Oh, brother!
32:50He died, son, he died!
32:51No!
32:52I died, son!
32:56This dramatic call was not made from Calabria, not even from Italy.
33:01It came from a thousand miles away.
33:06From the German city of Duisburg.
33:16They'd likely never seen anything like this in Germany.
33:21At the scene there were two cars, bodies splayed out, the acrid smell of cordite that we are so used
33:28to here, blood running on the street.
33:32This is a German street, clean, orderly, it's not the woods of Aspromonte.
33:41Six men were murdered that night.
33:44In the pocket of one of the victims, baffled German police found a mysterious charred image.
33:52Looking inside the pockets of those boys, they found an image of St Michael the Archangel, with a burnt hole
33:58in the centre.
34:00That's what's used in the initiation ceremony for young Andrangheta members.
34:04That was the business card of the Andrangheta.
34:09The dead men were Calabrian gangsters, investing their criminal profits in German hotels and restaurants.
34:16But their murders were the result of a bloody feud back in Calabria.
34:23For the world, it was like a slap in the face.
34:27What on earth is happening?
34:29Where do these people come from?
34:31Who are they?
34:32What is the Andrangheta?
34:35The killings stung the Italian state into action.
34:40Seasoned anti-mafia investigators were recruited to lead a crackdown.
34:48The Duisburg incident revealed how dangerous Andrangheta was.
34:52And that made the state realise even more that it needed to act strongly and decisively.
34:58And so it did.
35:02Within months, police rounded up the foot soldiers of the feuding clans.
35:09But a key boss remained at large.
35:11The ruthless, violent man nicknamed the Mama.
35:21When listening to the phone tabs, we heard reference to the Mama.
35:25We knew it was their codename for Antonio Pele.
35:28That's what he was known as.
35:32But the hunt for Antonio Pele was to demonstrate just what investigators were up against.
35:39In Calabria, fugitive bosses usually hide within their own communities, protected by a wall of silence.
35:48It was more than a year before a heavily armed squad swooped on a deserted warehouse, just outside Pele's hometown.
36:01Nothing suggested there might be a bunker or anything like that.
36:05Until we noticed something about part of the floor that made us suspicious.
36:18Suddenly, we see this platform coming up from the floor.
36:33And then we hear the fugitive's voice from below.
36:42Antonio Pele.
37:03Below the hydraulic lift, police found a fully furnished living space.
37:11The bunker was perfectly organized, like a flat.
37:18It was one of the most sophisticated ever found in Calabria.
37:28He even had a greenhouse to grow cannabis.
37:31So his hobby, too, was taken care of.
37:39The capture of Antonio Pele was a major coup.
37:43But when, two years later, he mysteriously managed to escape from custody,
37:48it became clear just how fragile any victory against the Andrangheta can be.
38:02Scouring the mountainsides for fugitive bosses is important.
38:11But to really attack the Andrangheta, investigators needed to penetrate the deepest secrets of its structure.
38:23In 2009, they made a historic breakthrough.
38:27It came in a secluded valley.
38:32At Palsi, home to one of the oldest shrines in Italy.
38:47The Madonna of Palsi, an object of religious veneration for centuries,
38:53a whole host of miracles have been attributed to this statue.
38:56Every year, a smaller wooden copy gets carried around the sanctuary here in procession,
39:03while women bellow ancient hymns and the crowd shouts,
39:07Viva Maria!
39:08This is one of the holiest places in southern Italy,
39:12but it's also a place with a very sinister history.
39:20Thousands of believers come to the shrine every summer.
39:27It was long suspected that Mafiosi used the pilgrimage as cover.
39:31But for what?
39:33Then, in 2009, undercover agents spotted a very different kind of pilgrim.
39:42It's just about here, on the 2nd of September, 2009,
39:47that some of the top bosses in the Andrangheta were standing,
39:51in a circle, as Andrangheta tradition dictates,
39:55having their secret meeting.
39:57Little did they know that the carabinieri were filming them.
40:02The men spoke in a quasi-religious code.
40:22The scene we witnessed in Palsi harks back to ancient rituals and mysticism.
40:28But really, it has little to do with religion,
40:31and more to do with crime.
40:33It has a lot to do with the criminality.
40:37Investigators had filmed a scene that surpassed Hollywood fiction,
40:41the highest body of the Andrangheta,
40:44in full session.
40:53This previously unknown ruling council had a name,
40:57Il Crimine, the crime.
41:07The Andrangheta was believed to be a family-based organisation,
41:11with lots of families,
41:12some more, some less organised,
41:14clashing with each other,
41:15making alliances.
41:22Instead, a new structure emerged,
41:24hierarchical and pyramid-like,
41:26similar to the Sicilian Mafia,
41:29with a provincial executive deciding the criminal strategy,
41:32not only here in Reggio Calabria,
41:34but also in Italy, Europe, and around the world.
41:39What months of investigation revealed was a global mafia federation,
41:44with an annual turnover estimated at 44 billion euros.
41:50If accurate, that figure would be the equivalent of 3% of Italy's entire economic output.
42:01The State Offensive also revealed the extraordinary lengths that Andrangheta bosses will go to protect their power.
42:10To evade capture and continue to operate,
42:13they've built hundreds of bunkers.
42:20Many are ingeniously concealed beneath water tanks,
42:26behind radiators,
42:29wine racks,
42:31or apparently solid walls.
42:35The elite unit known as the Cacciatore, or Hunters,
42:39were keen to show me one of their particular favourites.
42:45Now we're going to the most interesting part of the whole room,
42:50which is this small tent,
42:54where, as you would say,
42:56there is a bunker hidden,
42:58a hidden hidden inside of this oven.
43:03In the inside, we already have a distinctive sign that has never been opened.
43:08This has never been cooked a single margarita in its life.
43:12And that was one of the clues
43:14that told the Cacciatore that there was something fishy about this particular oven.
43:29A door inside the oven slides back on tracks,
43:34revealing a 30-metre corridor dug deep into the hillside behind the house.
43:44I like it again.
43:50Holy moly.
43:53This was once a rather nice bedroom suite,
43:57complete with mirrors, stereo TV, bedroom furniture, heater.
44:06This was clearly a perfectly decent living space once upon a time.
44:15So we've come through the pizza oven, down the tunnel,
44:20through the bedroom, into the bathroom.
44:24And there's another secret entrance here, leading who knows where.
44:30Here there are tunnels leading to bunkers,
44:33leading to more tunnels, leading to more bunkers.
44:36There's a kind of madness at work here.
44:57The Endrangheta has also dug itself deep into Calabrian society.
45:01And to do that, it draws on more than just violence and intimidation.
45:07Bribery, corruption and political patronage
45:10have won some key players over to the Endrangheta's side.
45:18Unfortunately, the characteristic of the Endrangheta
45:21is that it's not only a criminal power,
45:23it also penetrates all layers of social and professional life.
45:30It's the collusion with politics, institutions and the business world.
45:34That's what strengthens the organisation.
45:40Power to buy people, power to offer someone a job,
45:44power to buy an official, a magistrate, a police officer.
45:48This is what money does.
45:53Calabria's institutions have been profoundly infiltrated.
45:57In 2012, the city council of Reggio Calabria
46:00was suspended by Italy's national government.
46:04The reason? Links to organised crime.
46:08The rise of the Pesce clan and its young boss Ciccio
46:11is a typical tale of mafia power.
46:17Since we were kids, we've been taught that every man has his price.
46:21Ciccio Pesce was like the mayor.
46:24By 2010, investigators had amassed enough evidence
46:27to put Ciccio Pesce on trial and raided his hilltop mansion.
46:35Here, too, they found a bunker.
46:38But of the boss himself, hardly any trace.
46:42It was evidence that the gangsters hold the real power in the region.
46:49If we don't catch a fugitive, it is because the state has failed.
46:54And people can't quite comprehend why some fugitives can be on the run for so long.
47:02Catching Ciccio Pesce became an absolute priority.
47:06A special Carabinieri team began looking for a lead and for a bunker.
47:11They concentrated on what they knew Ciccio Pesce could not live without.
47:19Football and beautiful women.
47:21It was clearly difficult for him to bring a football pitch inside a bunker,
47:24but a woman would definitely have been easier.
47:28And so we concentrated on one woman in particular.
47:38This girl was different from all the others,
47:40because she had a lifestyle that didn't match her means.
47:49So the boyfriend must have been rich, but we didn't see one.
47:53She took too much care of herself to be a single woman.
47:57We studied her habits.
47:58We began to follow her day and night.
48:04For months, surveillance was trained on Ciccio Pesce's suspected mistress.
48:09Until one day, there was a breakthrough.
48:12A car turned up outside the woman's house.
48:18We recognised the driver.
48:20He was the armourer of the Pesce clan, a man in contact with Ciccio Pesce.
48:26The investigators thought this man could be carrying messages between Pesce and his mistress.
48:34They tracked him to an isolated scrapyard, a couple of miles outside Rosano.
48:45Surveillance was difficult in this area because there was no cover.
48:50It was impossible to go right up there and get a close look without being seen.
48:55This was a big problem for us.
48:59Faced with such difficulties on the ground,
49:02those hunting the Andrangheta bosses can now call on help from above.
49:16These observation windows are absolutely amazing.
49:19You can stick your head literally out of the fuselage of the aircraft and look straight down.
49:26The Italian government has invested millions in state-of-the-art spy planes like this one.
49:34We have two types of cameras, one long range and one short range.
49:39This is what we have in real life.
49:43And this is where we can enter practically in the house of people.
49:47You can see very definite images.
49:50And considerate that we are traveling at about 250kmh.
49:55This allows us to be completely invisible
49:57and in a controlled territory,
50:00very concretely by Andrangheta,
50:02like this one.
50:03This aircraft is being developed as an indispensable instrument
50:05for our investigations.
50:08It seems to be in this place.
50:10As you can see, you can see the people.
50:12You can see if there are cars,
50:16if the house is built or not built.
50:19You can see the details of the comignols,
50:22if there is a recharge that works.
50:25We are at something like 2500 feet at the moment.
50:28And when they do these extraordinary zooms,
50:31they tell me that even from several kilometers away,
50:35they can identify the number plate on a car.
50:40Even if there is a helicopter,
50:43the aircraft is not on the ground.
50:47Even if there is a helicopter,
50:47And even looking at the sky,
50:50it is hard to think that the aircraft
50:52can be filming yourself.
50:57Investigators were trawling through all conceivable evidence
51:01about the scrapyard,
51:02suspected of being Pesce's lair.
51:08And so we began to get hold of satellite images
51:10of the previous two-year period.
51:14We were looking to identify structural changes made to the area.
51:20And then we got lucky.
51:25The presence of a bulldozer,
51:27wooden boards to spread mortar,
51:29heaps of cement mix,
51:31sand, the cement mixer.
51:33The photos showed that six months earlier,
51:36builders had been at work,
51:38but there was no evidence of any new buildings,
51:41at least not above ground.
51:50And this is the road that we walked on the afternoon,
51:54of August 9, 2011,
51:55the night when we caught the fish fish.
51:58We arrived at that road,
51:59with our truckloads.
52:03When we arrived here,
52:05a part of my men
52:07brought us on this front.
52:09They had wrapped up all this roof
52:11to be sure that no one could go out.
52:14We had to kill this cancer.
52:17We had to kill this cancer.
52:18We had to kill it right here.
52:20We had a big advantage,
52:22which was the surprise effect.
52:24In fact, as the carabinieri entered
52:26and searched every inch of the compound,
52:29secret cameras were trained on them.
52:32The owner of the compound finally appeared
52:35and reluctantly led Lumia and his men to a chicken coop.
52:45A few moments later, the trap door opens.
52:53He comes out and he's white, like a corpse.
52:57He's lost 15 kilos.
52:59But we had recognized his voice
53:01when he'd shouted from the tomb
53:02in which he'd buried himself for months.
53:06We'd got him.
53:09He's lost 15 kilos.
53:10He's lost 15 kilos.
53:11He's lost 15 kilos.
53:13He's lost 15 kilos.
53:15He's lost 15 kilos.
53:16The hunt for one of Italy's most dangerous men
53:18was over.
53:19I don't take a prize if I'm going to do
53:21a bad thing.
53:22You have to have a family of your friends.
53:24We don't have to be a family of your friends.
53:26We don't have to be a family of your friends.
53:26I know that you want.
53:28We'll go.
53:28Go.
53:43Go.
53:44The bunker had been Pesce's command center for months.
53:51Through a dozen CCTV cameras
53:53he watched his hunters closing in.
53:56That gave him just enough time
53:58to destroy any incriminating evidence.
54:28Pesce has begun a 20-year prison sentence.
54:30Now the Italian state is putting 64 alleged members of his clan on trial.
54:37Ironically, they are being tried in a so-called bunker courtroom,
54:42bomb-proof and several metres underground.
54:51This is one of the first major trials against the Andrangheta
54:55since its secret structure was revealed.
54:58The state is trying to show that it can fight the Mafia and win.
55:03The stakes are high, and not only for Italy.
55:09Andrangheta clones its own criminal structure,
55:12multiplies it, and plants itself in new territories.
55:18In Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Germany,
55:25there is no bit of territory, no social category,
55:30which is immune from the possibility of contagion by the Andrangheta,
55:34by the Mafia.
55:37There isn't any.
55:40But even the vast resources being poured into the fight against the Andrangheta
55:44can only begin to tackle the problem.
55:48We can arrest a hundred, two hundred, three hundred,
55:52but there will always be offspring ready to take the reins of the clan.
55:58Until Calabrian society stops shaking the hand of the Mafioso,
56:03pretending not to know he is a Mafioso,
56:06until that happens, there's no chance of uprooting the weed.
56:15The battle in Calabria is still tough.
56:20It's still difficult.
56:22In Sicily, it took years of fighting to get results.
56:26Public opinion, the people must be reassured the state is strong,
56:30credible, and in charge.
56:32In Calabria, the road is still long.
56:39It's more than ten years since businessman Gaetano Safiotti
56:42took his brave stand and defied the Andrangheta.
56:46He is still a pariah and a prisoner in his own community.
56:53Here, we are in a kind of bunker.
56:57This is the price you have to pay.
57:00I pay this willingly for what I set out to achieve.
57:05But only when there are many of us,
57:07then I'll be able to call myself completely free.
57:11Free to walk around like everyone else,
57:12to go for a ride on my bike,
57:15to go to the beach, to watch the sea and swim.
57:19All these things that normal people do,
57:21but I'm prevented from doing.
57:24Sooner or later, it will happen.
57:28We need more time, but it will happen.
57:31I'm sure of it.
57:32I'm not convinced.
57:52What I've seen in Calabria
57:54are scenes from a war,
57:57a war that the rest of the world
57:59doesn't even know is going on.
58:01The tragedy of this land
58:03is that it took so long
58:05for the Italian state
58:06to begin a serious fight back.
58:08But having seen what I've seen
58:11on this journey,
58:12I have a hope,
58:14a belief,
58:16that the tide of history
58:17has finally begun to turn.
58:36Paralympian Hannah Cockroft
58:38is amongst the famous faces
58:39in the chair
58:40for Celebrity Mastermind,
58:42next on BBC Two.
58:43And we have a round-up
58:44of today's play at The Crucible
58:46with World Snooker Highlights
58:48at 11.20.
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