The Camorra (; ) is an Italian Mafia-typeMafia and Mafia-type organizations in Italy , by Umberto Santino, in: Albanese, Das & Verma, Organized Crime. World Perspectives, pp. 82–100 criminal organization and criminal society originating in the region of Campania. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century. The Camorra's organizational structure is divided into individual groups called "clans". Every capo or "boss" is the head of a clan, in which there may be tens or hundreds of affiliates, depending on the clan's power and structure. The Camorra's main businesses are drug trafficking, racketeering, counterfeiting, and money laundering. It is also not unusual for Camorra clans to infiltrate the politics of their respective areas.
Since the early 1980s and its involvement in the drug trafficking business, the Camorra has acquired a strong presence in other European countries, particularly Spain. Usually, Camorra clans maintain close contact with South American drug cartels, which facilitates the arrival of drugs in Europe.
According to Naples public prosecutor Giovanni Melillo, during a 2023 speech of the Antimafia Commission, the most powerful groups of the Camorra in the present day are the Mazzarella clan and the Secondigliano Alliance. The latter is an alliance of the Licciardi, Contini and Mallardo clans.
History
The most accepted hypothesis is that the term "Camorra" was born directly in Campania, around the 16th-17th century, finding its original etymological root in the same expression in Neapolitan and being formed from the junction of the words c' 'a-morra (with the morra), in reference to the homonymous street game. The first official use of camorra as a word dates from 1735, when a royal decree authorised the establishment of eight gambling houses in Naples. By virtue of the historical information confirmed, it is widely agreed that the birth of the Neapolitan Camorra, intended as a secret criminal organization, in the form in which it is known today, was created around the 18th century.Behan, The Camorra, pp. 9–10
The ancestors of the Camorra existed in Campania, in particular in Naples, in the centuries preceding it and were called "compagniani" who moved in groups of four and lived off prostitutes, controlling gambling and committing robberies. In every Neapolitan neighborhood there was a group of compagniani of which some nobleman was also a member. Their meeting place was the "del Crispano" tavern, near the current Napoli Centrale station. Even the canon Giulio Genoino, the inspirer of Masaniello's revolt, was protected by compagniani. There were also the "cappiatori", street thieves, and the "campeatori", robbers with knives. At the end of the 17th century in Naples there were 1338 hanged, 17 executed leaders, 57 beheaded, 913 condemned to prison. During those centuries, some of the most famous "compagniani" were Fucillo Micone in the 16th century and Cesare Riccardi, called "abate Cesare", in the 17th century, both heads of groups of compagniani.
The Camorra, known in that period as Bella Società Riformata, emerged during the chaotic power vacuum between 1799 and 1815, when the Parthenopean Republic was proclaimed on the wave of the French Revolution and the Bourbon Restoration. The first official mention of the Camorra as an organisation dates from 1820, when police records detail a disciplinary meeting of the Camorra, a tribunal known as the Gran Mamma. That year the first written statute of the Camorra, the frieno, was discovered, indicating a stable organisational structure in the underworld. Another statute was discovered in 1842, related to initiation rites and funds set aside for the families of those imprisoned.Behan, The Camorra, pp. 12Sales, La camorra, le camorre, pp. 72–73
The Camorristi in that period also defined their organization as "Società della Umirtà" or "Annurata Suggità" ("Honoured Society") to allude to the defense of their "honour", which consisted of omertà (Umirtà), that is, the criminal code of silence and the obligation not to speak about the internal affairs of the organization with the police.
The evolution into more organised formations indicated a qualitative change: the Camorra and camorristi were no longer local gangs living off theft and extortion; they had a fixed structure and some kind of hierarchy. Another qualitative leap was the agreement between the liberal opposition and the Camorra, following the defeat of the 1848 revolution.Fiore, Camorra e polizia nella Napoli borbonica (1840-1860), pp. 190-195 The liberals realised that they needed popular support to overthrow the king. They turned to the Camorra and paid them because the camorristi were the leaders of the city's poor. The new police chief, Liborio Romano, appealed to the head of the Camorra, Salvatore De Crescenzo, to maintain order and appointed him as head of the municipal guard. Paliotti, Storia della Camorra, pp. 149–153 In a few decades, the Camorra had developed into power brokers. In 1869, Ciccio Cappuccio was elected as the capintesta (head-in-chief) of the Camorra by the twelve district heads (capintriti), succeeding De Crescenzo after a short interregnum. Paliotti, Storia della Camorra, p. 143 Nicknamed "The king of Naples" ("o rre 'e Napole"), he died in 1892. La morte di Ciccio Cappuccio , Il Mattino, 6 December 1892 Di Fiore, Potere camorrista: quattro secoli di malanapoli, p. 96–97
Following Italian unification in 1861, the government made attempts to suppress the Camorra.Fiore, Camorra e polizia nella Napoli borbonica (1840-1860), pp. 257-259 From 1882, it conducted a series of manhunts. The Saredo Inquiry (1900–1901), established to investigate corruption and bad governance in Naples, identified a system of political patronage run by what the report called the "high Camorra":
The inquiry introduced the terminology of "high Camorra", as having a bourgeois character, and distinct from the plebeian Camorra proper. The two groups were in close contact through the figure of the intermediary (faccendiere). L'Inchiesta Saredo , by Antonella Migliaccio, Cultura della Legalità e Biblioteca digitale sulla Camorra, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell'Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Access date: 5 September 2016)
Scholars dispute whether the "high Camorra" was an integral part of the Camorra proper. Although the inquiry did not prove specific collusion between the Camorra and politics, it did reveal the patronage mechanisms that contributed to corruption in the municipality. The society's influence was weakened, which was exemplified by the defeat of all of their candidates in the 1901 Naples election.
The Camorra received another blow with the Cuocolo Trial (1911–1912). The trial was ostensibly to prosecute those charged with the murder on 6 June 1906 of the Camorra boss Gennaro Cuocolo and his wife, who were suspected of being police spies. The main investigator, Carabinieri Captain Carlo Fabbroni, transformed the trial into one against the Camorra as a whole, intending to use it to strike the final blow to the Camorra.The Cuocolo trial: the Camorra in the dock, Museo criminologico (Retrieved 25 May 2011)Cuocolo Trial May Be Death Blow of the Camorra, The New York Times, 5 March 1911
The trial attracted much attention among newspapers and the general public, both in Italy and the United States, including by Pathé's Gazette.Dickie, Blood Brotherhoods, p. 191 The hearings began in 1911. After 17 months, the often tumultuous proceedings ended with a guilty verdict on 8 July 1912 against defendants who included 27 leading Camorra bosses. They were sentenced to a total of 354 years' imprisonment. Enrico Alfano, the main defendant and nominal head of the Camorra, was sentenced to 30 years.Behan, The Camorra, p. 23Camorrist Leaders Get 30-Year Terms, The New York Times, 9 July 1912"Camorra Verdict; All Found Guilty", New York Tribune, 9 July 1912
The Camorra has never been a unified, centralised organisation, but instead a loose confederation of different, independent clans, groups or families. Each group is bound by kinship ties and controlled economic activities that took place in its particular geographic territory. Each clan takes care of its own business, protects its territory, and sometimes tries to expand at another group's expense. There is some minimal coordination to avoid mutual interference. The families compete to maintain a system of checks and balances among equal powers.Jacquemet, Credibility in Court, p. 24
One of the Camorra's strategies to gain social prestige was and remains political patronage. The family clans became the preferred go-betweens of local politicians and public officials because of their grip on the community. In turn, the family bosses used their political sway to assist and protect their clients against the local authorities. Through a mixture of brute force, political status, and social leadership, the Camorra clans gained ground as middlemen between the local community and bureaucrats and politicians at national level. They granted privileges and protection, and intervened in favour of their clients, in return for their silence and connivance against local authorities and the police. With their political connections, the heads of the major Neapolitan families became power brokers in local and national political contexts, providing Neapolitan politicians with broad electoral support, and in return receiving benefits for their constituency.
From the 1950s until the 1980s, the Camorra played a central role in the cigarette smuggling trade, making Naples the hub of this illicit activity. The smuggling networks extended throughout Italy and beyond, with the trade offering economic relief in a post-war economy struggling with hardships. Smuggling became a key economic lifeline, and fast boats, known as "scafi blu," were used to transport the contraband while evading authorities. Prominent figures like Pio Vittorio Giuliano and Michele Zaza profited from this illegal trade, using the proceeds to expand their criminal empires. The competition for control over smuggling routes led to increased violence between rival clans. For many Neapolitans, cigarette smuggling became a vital part of life, not only as a criminal endeavor but also as a means of survival amid economic hardship.
Activities Compared to the Sicilian Mafia's pyramidal structure, the Camorra has more of a 'horizontal' structure. As a result, Camorra clans act independently of one another and are more prone to feuding. This, however, makes the Camorra more resilient when top leaders are arrested or killed, as new clans and organisations emerge from the remnants of old ones. Clan leader Pasquale Galasso stated in court, "Campania can get worse because you could cut into a Camorra group, but another ten could emerge from it."Behan, Camorra, pp. 184
In the 1970s and 1980s, Raffaele Cutolo made an unsuccessful attempt to unify the Camorra families in the manner of the Sicilian Mafia, by forming the New Organized Camorra (Nuova Camorra Organizzata or NCO). Drive-by shootings by camorristi often result in casualties among the local population but such episodes are often difficult to investigate because of the widespread practise of omertà (code of silence). According to a report published in 2007 by Confesercenti, the second-largest Italian trade organisation, the Camorra control the milk and fish industries, the coffee trade, and over 2,500 bakeries in Naples."Die Mafia ist Italiens führendes Unternehmen" , Die Welt, 23 October 2007