U.S. Says Italy Crime Group Poses Growing Threat

The 'Ndrangheta, the Italian organised crime group, is a growing threat in the United States with a presence primarily in the U.S. Northeast, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Mark Filip said on Thursday.

Crime experts say the 'Ndrangheta, based in the southern Calabria region, overtook the Sicilian Mafia in the 1990s as Italy's largest drug trafficking group and has since spread its tentacles throughout Europe and beyond.

Filip, speaking to reporters in Rome, said its U.S. activities included drug trafficking and extortion and added they had become a "very serious threat to the rule of law".

"I think they are a group that has been rising in power. We view them as a serious law enforcement threat and intend to continue acting accordingly," Filip said, asked about the 'Ndrangheta's U.S. presence.

A study released this week in Italy estimated their global revenue at 44 billion euros ($70 billion) last year, equivalent to 3 percent of Italy's economy and more than that of some small European nations.

Filip said they were an example of how organised crime groups had evolved into multi-billion dollar global conglomerates.

Feuds between various clans of the 'Ndrangheta have flared over the years, with the latest explosion of violence occurring in Duisberg, Germany. Six Italians were shot dead outside a pizzeria there in August.

"The massacre showed that this criminal organisation could stretch into any town in Europe, and we know they also have a presence in the United States, primarily in the Northeast," Filip said.

Unlike the Sicilian Mafia, which ran large drug operations in the 1980s, the tightly knit and family-based 'Ndrangheta has not been haemorrhaged by defections by so-called "pentiti" -- defectors who cooperate with investigators.

With a few exceptions, it has also avoided the kind of high-profile killings of politicians and magistrates carried out by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in the 1990s that sparked a harsh crackdown by the state.

Filip travels to Sicily for ceremonies on Friday commemorating the 16th anniversary of the death of anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, killed on May 23, 1992, when a bomb planted under a highway blew up his speeding motorcade.

"People in America marvelled at his bravery," Filip said.