Stallion statues and cocaine: Rome has a new mafia
They threatened to dissolve her in acid. But Debora Cerreoni
would not be cowed, and her testimony in Italy has proved decisive in exposing
a new mafia -- the Casamonica.
The organized crime family hit the headlines in 2015 when it
laid on a flashy funeral in Rome for "uncle" Vittorio Casamonica,
with his coffin borne on a gilded horse-drawn carriage.
Rose petals were dropped from a helicopter and posters
outside the church in the east of the capital declared him the "King of
Rome", while mourners were greeted with music from the film "The
Godfather".
Despite family members boasting in wiretapped conversations
of being powerful enough to challenge Italy's storied mafias, the Casamonica
were long seen as a local, if violent, criminal gang.
But that all changed this week, when a Rome court classified
it as a mafia association and sentenced five of its chief members to up to 30
years each, under Italy's strict prison regime for mobsters.
"It's a very important verdict, primarily because it
destroys the illusion that there is no mafia in Rome," said Nando Dalla
Chiesa, a professor of organized crime at Milan University.
"The city has struggled to accept the fact that there
are not just elements of the powerful (Calabrian) 'Ndrangheta or (Neapolitan)
Camorra crime groups here, but there's a homegrown mafia too," he said.
Loan sharks
Two other crime families have been designated as mafia in
the municipality of Rome in recent years, but both are based in the neighboring
seaside town of Ostia, not in the Eternal City itself.
The court found the Casamonica members guilty of drug
trafficking, extortion and usury.
The clan -- which has its roots in the Sinti Roma community
-- controls the southeastern suburbs of the capital and the Alban hills beyond,
according to a report commissioned by the Lazio regional authorities in July.
The Sinti is a traditionally nomadic ethnic group that has
lived in Europe for centuries.
The first Casamonica moved to Rome from the Abruzzo region
in 1939. When Vittorio died in 2015, his descendants were known to police as
particularly fierce loan sharks with a penchant for bling.
Vittorio had learned from a friend in Rome's underworld in
the 1970s -- Enrico Nicoletti, the "cashier" of the Banda della
Magliana, which controlled drug trafficking in the capital.
Like Nicoletti, "Uncle Vittorio" cultivated ties
to the rich and powerful. He was "a man with contacts... (in) the police,
the Vatican... he got in everywhere, got whatever he wanted", one witness
said.
The family grew rich and built villas with marble and gold
furnishings, swimming pools and large stallion statues -- a nod to their horse
trader origins -- as well as bundles of cash hidden in walls, witnesses said.
It forged contacts with Colombian drug dealers and started
trafficking cocaine into the capital.
Thrones and trap music
A major drug bust in 2012 saw 32 members of the clan
arrested and millions of euros in assets seized, and the family came under
greater scrutiny.
Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi ordered eight illegal Casamonica
villas -- complete with chandeliers, ceramic tiger, thrones and imitation
frescoes -- bulldozed in 2018. She vowed this week that "the fight will go
on".
The Casamonica does not have a boss but is an
"archipelago" of genealogical branches joined by arranged marriages,
according to the report by the Observatory on Organized Crime.
Its "eccentric aesthetic taste" sees Romany
traditions given a Camorra-inspired twist, while its members share a passion
for Neapolitan crime songs and trap music, it said.
Women play significant roles, particularly in drug dealing
and loan collection, but are not allowed to work outside the home. Daughters
are removed from school once they get their first period.
Romantic relationships with non-Sinti women are seen as
dangerous and barely tolerated, the report said.
Cerreoni was one such woman. The ex-wife of Massimiliano
Casamonica, who turned state witness after years in which she said she was
controlled, belittled and threatened by the family.
"They ruined my life... I hadn't just married
Massimiliano, but the whole clan," she told the court last year.
When she tried to break free, "They kidnapped me. They
threatened to dissolve me in acid."
She eventually manage to flee, along with her children.
Her testimony has been key for investigators long hampered
by difficulties in understanding the Casamonica, who speak in a mix of Sinti,
the regional dialect of Abbruzzo, and Roman slang.
"How big a blow this verdict is to the clan is yet to
be seen, but one thing is clear: it certainly no longer has the great
cockiness, the impunity, it once enjoyed," Chiesa said.
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