The opportunity came out of the blue during the winter of 2009 and it had to be seized at once, or the story would have vanished back into the darkness whence it came. I was sitting at my desk in the newspaper office in the late afternoon when the phone rang. It was the newsroom assistant: ‘I’m putting a man through to you. It’s an unusual case.’ If the call had got through the first filter, it must be important. I heard the connection click through to my phone and, at once, the southern accent: ‘Hello. I’m a state witness.’ There was an intake of breath, then a pause. The voice was quiet and conveyed no emotion, no tone. It went on: ‘I want to tell my story.’
This book is based on the exclusive confessions of Giuseppe Di Bella, who left the ’Ndrangheta – something few members of the organization have ever done – after half a century of total loyalty. He had taken the irrevocable decision to turn state’s evidence. Di Bella was a boyhood friend, and for many years a trusted associate, of Franco Coco Trovato, one of the organization’s bosses, a Calabrian godfather who used violence to establish control over a vast swathe of northern Italy, from Lombardy to the Veneto. His testimony makes it clear how the ’Ndrangheta has successfully penetrated Italian politics, local government, the labour market and businesses large and small, poisoning the population and penetrating even into Parliament, spreading like a cancer throughout the nation.
As an insider, Di Bella knows the ’Ndrangheta’s codes, its unwritten laws and its rituals; he describes its first steps into arms trafficking, acquiring weapons from former Second-World-War partisans, its ability to buy anyone and everything, swallowing up companies, shops, lawyers, accountants, and – quite simply – people’s whole lives.
Giuseppe Di Bella’s credibility is based on several factors. He has always been regarded as a reliable witness by the magistrates and courts that have heard his testimony, in Varese, Como, Milan, Bergamo and other northern Italian towns. Thanks to him, dozens of members of the ’Ndrangheta have been arrested and convicted. This reputation for reliability undoubtedly speaks in his favour, though of course it does not in itself constitute sufficient corroboration of his statements. State witnesses are not oracles or repositories of revealed truth, and every declaration made by Di Bella, however plausible, must be viewed with due scepticism. But three crucial points should be borne in mind.
Firstly, in this book Di Bella reveals his own direct involvement in a series of major crimes, crimes which, until now, were unknown to the anti-mafia investigators. By so doing he is running the risk of incurring new charges and of jeopardizing his relationship with the authorities. Self-accusation lends credibility to any prospective state witness, and Di Bella has been one for a decade.
Secondly, with regard to the most important episodes, Di Bella is not retailing hearsay evidence, but reporting on events in which he himself participated. He himself saw and heard the most dramatic events. Moreover, much of what he says is corroborated by the testimony of another important state witness, Filippo Barreca. The two men have never met – Barreca’s criminal activities took place in an area 1200 kilometres away from Di Bella’s and never overlapped with them – and yet their stories interlock and complement each other.
Thirdly, since Di Bella is no longer under police protection, and has not been for several months now, and since he has accused members of the ’Ndrangheta of new crimes, he is exposing himself to grave danger, even though he refuses to go back under cover.
But why are these former ‘men of honour’ speaking out only now? Or, to put it another way, why have they only now decided to make important new information public, in addition to the testimony that they have already given to the magistrates? Barreca, at least, is only corroborating a few specific episodes, but Di Bella is at the end of a long personal journey, which has led him to the point where he has chosen to ignore his lawyer’s advice.
‘Three or four years ago I told my lawyer that I wanted to make some new statements, but my lawyer said, “No, keep what you know to yourself; don’t say anything else.” So I followed his advice, but I promised myself that one day I’d say all the things I was dissuaded from saying at the time.
‘Then my wife died. As she lay dying I promised her I’d come clean about everything, in order to give our son a future. She was a good person, and over time she altered the course of my life. She tried to change me and she succeeded. She was the reason I turned state’s evidence, and when she died I finally understood that there is no friendship in the mafia, only self-interest and death. It’s unequivocal. If you don’t do what they say, you’re finished. Once, before a meeting between some members of the ’Ndrangheta and of Cosa Nostra, including Giovanni Brusca, who detonated the bomb that blew up Giovanni Falcone, a boss said to me, “The princes and barons are untouchable, because they pull the strings of the political puppets. They control politics.” But that’s not going to stop me. I’m not frightened any more. I’ve decided to tell the whole story and lead you into this hell.’
Di Bella’s original witness statements – perhaps his most important – were crucial to the investigation into, and subsequent conviction of, his old friend Franco Coco Trovato. They date from the period 2002–5, when he reported in particular ‘on the criminal structure of the association and on the evolution of the activities of the “Trovato family”’. So reads the text of the verdict of the Milanese Court of Appeal in 2009, presided over by Cesare Beretta, in a case against the clan to which Di Bella belonged, and which his statements and confessions broke up. More especially, ‘Di Bella made a number of statements in twenty-nine interviews in the period from October 2002 to March 2005 . . . This was deemed to be an attenuating circumstance, in view of the importance of his contribution to preventing criminal activity from leading to further consequences.’ His contribution consisted of making lengthy witness statements and providing information crucial to the identification of the perpetrators of the various crimes. For this reason, ‘considering the significance of the contribution made by Di Bella in relation to the crime of mafia-style criminal association, the maximum reduction’ of the sentence (to a period of two years four months) ‘appears justified’. After his release and, more importantly, after Trovato’s incarceration, Di Bella went underground. No one knew where he was. But you could be sure the organization was trying to find him.