Social networks have become so powerful that even the young soldiers of the very secretive Italian mafia have been drawn into it and flaunt themselves there without embarrassment.
In the Naples region of Italy, the Camorra still dominates. This criminal organization, one of the most powerful in the world, generates revenues of 6 billion Canadian dollars per year. In particular, it controls garbage collection and several other public contracts.
Our Bureau of Investigation spent a week in the heart of the playground of this Neapolitan mafia, which also has representatives in Quebec and Canada, to prepare a report to be presented tonight at 9:30 p.m. on the JE program on TVA.
Once quiet, the Camorra is changing. Its old bosses are being quietly replaced by very young clan leaders: the baby bosses.
Mark the territory
The TikTok application has become the new battlefield of Massimiliano Esposito Junior, the son of a powerful godfather. His social media staging scandalized the Italian police, especially the videos for his 18th birthday. We see him partying with women, champagne and disc jockeys.
“The mafias of digital civilization use social media as territory and above all as a means of communication,” argues Marcello Ravveduto, professor of contemporary history at the University of Salerno.
The mafia is recruiting younger and younger people and many end up in prison. In Naples we met one of them, Gilberto (fictional name), 15 years old and who committed his first crimes at the age of 10.
“We want to have the same things as the big bosses. The nice car, the nice scooter, the money,” he describes.
rehabilitate youth
Gilberto, like three of his friends, must attend classes if he is to settle his scores with justice as quickly as possible. In the overstuffed studio in a suburb of Naples, the first notes of a hip-hop composition easily draw their attention. You have to compose a piece with the artist Lucariello, who created the theme song for the hit series Gomorrah on Netflix.
“He’s a legend for me,” says one of them happily, whose face can hardly be seen under his white hoodie.
The Crisi come Opportunità organization that supports them believes in rehabilitation to make the mafia less attractive to these teenagers, but still… they all respect the clan leaders and refuse to judge their actions.
Two “baby bosses” of the mafia
CRESCENZO MARINO
Photo from Crescenzo Marino’s TikTok account
Crescenzo Marino poses with his Ferrari for his social media followers.
- 25 years
- TikTok Followers: Over 44,600
Crescenzo Marino is one of the mafia’s most popular baby bosses, son of one of the Camorra bosses.
In short videos posted on TikTok, he promotes an extremely luxurious lifestyle. He wears clothes and accessories from renowned designers such as Dior, Versace and Balenciaga.
His 45,000 subscribers can also see him partying in exclusive clubs where the alcohol flows freely.
He prefers to drive some of the most expensive cars in the world. We mostly see him driving a Lamborghini or a Ferrari as he criss-crosses the streets of Paris during a trip.
MASSIMILIANO ESPOSITO JR
Photo from Massimiliano Esposito Jr.’s TikTok account
- 19 years old
- Instagram followers: Over 7500
- TikTok Followers: Over 5600
Son of a prominent local mob boss, Massimiliano Esposito Junior is making the most of his recent adulthood.
Photo from Massimiliano Esposito Jr.’s TikTok account
He shares photos and videos from his trips to bars with his Instagram followers until the early hours of the morning.
Photo from Massimiliano Esposito Jr.’s TikTok account
On TikTok, Massimiliano Esposito Jr regularly shows up in heavenly places handing out his money.
Champagne flows freely, and not just on drunk nights. Any opportunity seems good to drink straight from the bottle: a boat trip on Capri or a dinner in a chic restaurant on the Amalfi Coast, for example. He always poses proudly with several huge gold chains around his neck and without embarrassment shows the wads of money that allow him to afford all these luxuries.
CANADA LOCATION
Italy is the only country in the European Union that has a real anti-mafia law.
Former judge of the anti-mafia group Catello Maresca, always accompanied by armed guards, spent 25 years trying to fight the Camorra.
“It’s cancer,” he says. The judge does not hide his anger at the lack of specific laws for the mafia in Canada.
“We have long recognized the seriousness of the phenomenon and the mafia’s ability to become a business,” he says.
In addition, Canadian authorities have very little information about the connections between the Camorra and Canada.
In a confidential 2021 report available to our Bureau of Investigation, Canadian criminal intelligence suggests doing a little more research on this mafia.
A DISTRICT UNDER CONTROL
About ten kilometers from the center of Naples, huge triangular buildings suddenly rise in the suburb of Scampia, one of the most dangerous in Europe.
Screenshots of the broadcast JE
The huge buildings of Scampia, the Camorra hideout in Naples, will soon be demolished.
In these buildings, called “Sails”, the series Gomorrah was filmed on Netflix. The apartments were built for the less affluent classes in the 1970s, but fell under mafia control in the 1990s.
“It has become the most important place for drug dealers in Europe, but the situation is improving,” says Antonio Talia, a journalist specializing in mafia affairs.
When we arrived in an area controlled by the Camorra, the first drug seller was quick to warn journalists not to film.
“There are people who have nothing to do with this business, but they have to keep quiet,” says rapper Lucariello, who was born in this “state-abandoned suburb.”
The ‘sails’ will soon be hoisted and only one building will remain standing, a reminder of an era residents hope is over.
technology pursued
The Italian police use the latest equipment to hunt down gangsters from Naples.
The Spanish Quarter of Naples is one of the favorite hunting grounds of the Squadra Mobile, one of the Italian police forces fighting the Mafia.
We went to the Squadra’s offices, where facial recognition software gives access to the well-guarded floors where members of the Camorra are being watched.
Screenshot of the broadcast JE
The Italian police have very sophisticated surveillance cameras.
The screen on which the city map is displayed occupies the area of an entire wall. Red dots appear at several intersections. By clicking on one, the technicians pull up images from one of the thousands of hidden cameras in the city center and its suburbs.
Screenshot of the broadcast JE
The offices of the police command that hunts the mafiosos of Naples.
We notice a man talking on his cell phone. In the next room, the eavesdroppers overheard the entire conversation. The content cannot be disclosed due to the ongoing investigation.
Energetic fight
“We see everything and we hear everything,” boasts one police officer. “Look what we confiscated this week! adds another and points to the showroom crowded for upcoming trials.
Sixty arrests have just been made in the Ponticelli neighborhood to dismantle the cartel of five mafia clans.
“The fight against the mafia is essential to give credibility to this country,” declares Squadra Mobile boss Alfredo Fabbrocini proudly.
Two days earlier, his police officers played movers. They evicted illegal tenants from a building by taking all their furniture. The actual tenants had been forced to vacate the premises by Camorrists.
Do you have any information about this story that you would like to share with us?
Do you have a scoop that might be of interest to our readers?