Mafiosos are having a blast on social networks

and Maude Boutet MISE À DAY

Social networks have become so powerful that even the young soldiers of the very secret Italian mafia have fallen under their spell and post without embarrassment.

In the region of Naples, Italy, the Camorra still dominates. This criminal organization, one of the most powerful on the planet, generates revenues of 6 billion Canadian dollars a year. In particular, it controls garbage collection and several other public contracts.

Our Bureau of Investigation spent a week at the heart of the playground of this Neapolitan mafia, which also has representatives in Quebec and Canada, to prepare a report that will be presented on the program J.E this evening at 9:30 p.m. on TVA.

The once discreet Camorra is in the process of to change. His old bosses are slowly being replaced by very young clan leaders: the baby bosses. 

Marking the territory

The TikTok application has become the new battleground of Massimiliano Esposito Junior, the son of a powerful godfather. His social media stagings scandalize Italian police, especially the videos of his 18th birthday. We see him partying with women, champagne and disc jockeys. 

“The mafias of the digital civilization use social media as a territory and above all as a communication tool”, argues Marcello Ravveduto, professor of contemporary history at the University of Salerno. 

The mafia recruits younger and younger and many end up in prison. In Naples, we met one of them, Gilberto (fictitious name), aged 15, who committed his first crimes at age 10. 

“We want to have the same things than the big bosses. The nice car, the nice scooter, the money”, he describes. 

Rehabilitating teenagers

Gilberto, like three of his friends, must take courses if he wants to settle his accounts with justice as soon as possible. In the padded studio in a suburb of Naples, the first notes of a hip-hop composition easily capture their attention. They are to compose a piece with the artist Lucariello, who created the theme song for the hit series Gomorrah on Netflix. 

“He's a legend to me,” rejoices one of them, whose face is barely visible under his white hoodie.  

The organization Crisi come Opportunità , who supports them, believes in rehabilitation to make the mafia less appealing to these teenagers, but yet… they all respect the clan leaders and refuse to condemn their actions. 

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Two mafia 'baby bosses'

CRESCENZO MARINO

Crescenzo Marino poses with his Ferrari for its social media followers.

• 25 years
• TikTok followers: Over 44,600

Crescenzo Marino is one of the most popular Mafia baby bosses, the son of one of the Camorra bosses.  

In short videos posted on TikTok, he promotes an extremely luxurious lifestyle. He wears the clothes and accessories of well-known designers, such as Dior, Versace and Balenciaga.  

His 45,000 subscribers can also see him partying in exclusive clubs, where the alcohol flows freely. 

He prefers to drive some of the most expensive cars in the world. We see him in particular driving a Lamborghini or a Ferrari as he criss-crosses the streets of Paris during a trip. 

MASSIMILIANO ESPOSITO JR

• 19 years old
• Instagram Followers: Over 7500
• TikTok Followers: Over 5,600

Massimiliano Esposito Junior, son of a prominent local mafia leader, is taking full advantage of his recent coming of age achieved.  

He shares photos and videos of his outings to bars until the wee hours of the morning to his Instagram followers.  

On TikTok, Massimiliano Esposito Jr appears regularly in heavenly places, and spreads his money.

Champagne flows freely, and not only during drunken evenings. Any occasion seems good to drink straight from the bottle: a boat trip in Capri or a dinner in a chic restaurant on the Amalfi Coast, for example. He always poses proudly with several huge gold chains around his neck, and he shows without embarrassment the wads of money that allow him to afford all this luxury. 

CANADA LAGING

Italy is the only country in the European Union to have a real law to counter the Mafia. 

The former judge of the anti-Mafia group Catello Maresca, always escorted by armed guards, tried to fight the Camorra for 25 years. 

“It's a cancer,” he says. The judge did not hide his annoyance at the absence of specific laws for the Mafia in Canada. 

“We have long been aware of the seriousness of the phenomenon and of the Mafia's ability to become a company”, he says. 

In fact, the Canadian authorities have very little information on the links between the Camorra and Canada. 

In a confidential report dating from 2021, obtained by our Bureau of Investigation , the Canadian criminal intelligence services suggest taking a little more interest in this mafia.

A NEIGHBORHOOD UNDER CONTROL

About ten kilometers from the center of Naples, huge triangular buildings rise sharply in the suburb of Scampia, one of the most dangerous in Europe. 

The huge buildings of Scampia, lair of the Camorra in Naples, will soon be demolished.

It is in these buildings, known as the “sails”, that the series Gomorrah, on Netflix, was filmed. The dwellings were built in the 1970s for the less wealthy classes, but fell under Mafia control in the 1990s. 

“It has become the most important place for drug dealers in Europe, but the situation is improving,” says journalist specializing in Mafia affairs Antonio Talia. 

As soon as we arrived in an area controlled by the Camorra, the first seller of narcotics, quickly warned journalists not to film. 

“There are people who have nothing to do with this trade, but they must remain silent says rapper Lucariello, who was born in this “state-abandoned” suburb.  

The “veils” must soon be razed and only one building will be left in place, in memory of an era that the inhabitants hope is over.

 

Hunted thanks to technology

Italian police are using state-of-the-art equipment to hunt down the mobsters in Naples.

The Spanish quarter of Naples is one of the favorite hunting grounds of the Squadra Mobile, one of the Italian police forces fighting against the mafia.

We went to the offices of the Squadra, where facial recognition software allows access to the well-guarded floors from which members of the Camorra are watched.

Italian police have very sophisticated surveillance cameras.

The screen on which the city map is displayed takes up the space of an entire wall. At several intersections, red dots appear. By clicking on one of them, the technicians bring up the images of one of the thousands of cameras hidden in the city center and its suburbs. 

Offices of the police squad that hunts down the mafiosos of Naples.

There is a man chatting on his cell phone. In the adjoining room, the wiretaps overheard the entire conversation. The content cannot be revealed due to the ongoing investigation. 

Strong fight

“We see everything and we hear everything,” boasts a police officer. “Look what we seized this week! adds another, pointing to the exhibit room, which is overflowing for the upcoming trials. 

Sixty arrests have just been made in the Ponticelli district to dismantle the cartel five mafia clans. 

“The fight against the mafia is essential to give credibility to this country”, proudly asserts the leader of the Squadra Mobile, Alfredo Fabbrocini.  

Two days earlier, his policemen played movers. They evicted illegal tenants from a building by taking out all their furniture. The real tenants had been forced out by Camorrists.  

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