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19 AWEMainta .com Dialuna, 08 November 2021
INTERNATIONAL

Huge ‘mega-trial’ convicts 70 members of

Italy’s biggest mafia group

The Italian judiciary has dealt a heavy blow
to Italy's most powerful mafia group - the
'Ndrangheta - by convicting 70 of its members
and others with links to it.

It is the biggest mafia trial since the late 1980s.
The verdicts against 91 defendants were read
out in a large courtroom, where a "mega-trial"
of hundreds of alleged 'Ndrangheta members
has been taking place.

Anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri - whose
efforts to defeat the 'Ndrangheta forced him to
live under police protection for more than 30

years - said everything had gone well.

Copyright Gianfranco Stara/AP
"We have an important sentence. Ninety-one
defendants, 70 presumed guilty convicted, two About a third of the group has been sentenced to 10
prescribed and 19 acquitted," he said. years or more and 21 people have been acquitted,

Gratteri said.
"I am not afraid of anything or anyone. I always Of the eight for whom the prosecution had sought 20

say what I think and if I can`'t tell the truth it`s years in prison, six received the full sentence, including
because I can't prove it. Pasquale Gallone, 62, who helped orchestrate his boss’s

three-year run from 2014, two years after Luigi Mancuso
"There are no problems" was released from prison after spending 19 years there.

Some of those convicted received the maximum Trials of members and collaborators of the ‘Ndrangheta
20-year sentence requested by prosecutors. organised crime syndicate have been taking place since

January.
They include Domenico Macri of the group’s Those newly convicted had opted for a quick trial

military wing, Pasquale Gallone, the right- behind closed doors, which allowed them to have their
hand man of alleged mafia boss Luigi Mancuso, sentences reduced by a third if they were convicted.
whose trial is still underway, and Gregorio
Niglia, whose role included procuring weapons There are 355 defendants still to be tried, with
and extortion. proceedings expected to last two years or more

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