Rome, Interpol-Police summit for the I-CAN project: 10 fugitives have already been arrested in 12 months

Rome, travel restrictions due to the pandemic did not stop the arrival in Italy of the Interpol operational summit for three days between Rome, Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria which ends today with the return to Lyon: it was strategic to take stock of Project I – CAN (Interpol Cooperation Against 'Ndrangheta), promoted by the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police, led by Prefect Vittorio Rizzi, together with Interpol, which involves the State Police, the Carabinieri and the Financial Police and the police forces of 10 other countries around the world (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay, USA).

The 'Ndrangheta is a global threat: it represents, in fact, the most powerful criminal organization in the world, present in 32 countries of which 17 in Europe, but few know its danger outside Italy. In Europe many still consider it only an Italian folklore phenomenon, while in other continents no one has ever heard of the 'Ndrangheta, which despite operating in those territories with millionaire business.

It is an international brand, both in the diffusion of its military force and in its capacity for criminal infiltration in the legal economy. Suffice it to say that the captures of the 'Ndrangheta fugitives in the last month of March all took place abroad; in Spain Giuseppe Romeo, in the Dominican Republic Marc Feren Claude BIART and in Portugal Francesco Pelle known as “Pakistan”.

The objective of the I CAN project, which began just under a year ago, was to immediately create specialized teams in each of the participating countries who knew the 'Ndrangheta and were aware of how it replicates its criminal language around the world, maintaining the top-down structure and operational base in Calabria.

This choice was a winning one if it is true that from May last year to today, 10 'ndrangheta fugitives have been arrested in 12 months (a quarter of the Interpol red notice, which indicates globally the subjects to be arrested, as soon as they are traced) : 3 in Argentina, 2 in Albania, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in Costa Rica, 2 in Spain, 1 in Canada, 1 in Dominican Republic, 1 in Portugal. Assets worth approximately 145 million euros and confiscations worth 75 million euros have been seized throughout the world.

Results that testify to the existence of a rapid exchange of information and an effective operational response made possible by the climate of trust that has been established between the police forces of the various countries (trust is the answer, it has been repeated several times).

The Interpol delegation, led by Stephen Kavanagh, Executive Director Police Services of Interpol - who is the deputy of the Secretary General of Interpol Jurgen Stock - met in Catanzaro with the Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri and in Reggio Calabria with the Prosecutor Giovanni Bombardieri, head of the respective Public Prosecutor's Offices District Anti-Mafia Directorates: both underlined the importance of international police cooperation and the involvement of foreign police forces so that they are able to intercept the first signs of mafia pollution of the economy in the bud.

To this end, a set of questions were sent to the twelve countries participating in the I Can Project to monitor the presence of the 'Ndrangheta in the fabric of those economies (in logistics, in import-export, in the agri-food chain, in airport activities, etc.). The objective is to trace the presence of the 'Ndrangheta at a transnational level to counter the threat and further risks of infiltration into the post-pandemic economy.

The driving force of the project so far has been the Italian investigations: the next step is represented by the driving force of the activity of the foreign police forces that join I-CAN so that, thanks to a new awareness of the threat, they become multipliers of the action of fight against the Italian police forces to protect the safety of citizens and the economy at a global level.