Camorra Clans in the United Kingdom

This chapter discusses the Camorra's presence in the United Kingdom. Mafia and Camorra members and their associates have been present and active in the United Kingdom for some time. However, their specific organizational structures, activities, and accomplices remain unknown. This is often because British police have not investigated mafia members, since they have not officially broken English or Scottish law, and thus the police profile is minimal. Clan members may be involved in illegal activities, but they remain below the radar of local police. For example, in 2013, a local police force identified six criminal groups made up of Italian nationals engaging in money laundering, economic and web-based fraud, violent criminal activity, organized theft, and drug-related activities, but only one was identified as having possible links to an Italian mafia group, whereas the others were not systematically investigated.

Camorra Clans in Germany and the Netherlands

This chapter looks at the Camorra's presence in Germany and the Netherlands. Between 1980 and 2015, Camorra clans were active in acquisitive crime, drug trafficking, and the counterfeit market. Indeed, some pentiti (a camorrista who becomes a state witness), have mentioned that former camorristi or their associates have undertaken acquisitive crimes in Germany and the Netherlands. Three forms of acquisitive crimes were identified. First, there was some evidence of former camorristi permanently moving to Germany and being involved in acquisitive crime. Second, there was evidence of camorristi who travel abroad and, unrelated to their clan's criminal agenda, undertook acquisitive crime—mostly robberies and bag snatchings. Third, the functional mobility of petty criminals was detected. Ultimately, criminal tourism is a type of Camorra presence in Europe, even if it is not in a traditional form.

Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Neapolitan Camorra. The Camorra is the third-largest Italian mafia and is predominately active in Naples and the Campania region. Today, the Camorra has become a powerful criminal force capable of controlling sectors of the European and Italian drug, counterfeit, cigarette, and waste-management markets as well as investing in many legitimate businesses in Naples, Italy, and Europe, and winning many local and national public contracts. Compared to other mafias, the Camorra has always been considered less dangerous because it is more visible, territorial, and amateurish. However, when camorristi move abroad, they become less attached to a specific territory and focus purely on economic activities. They do not migrate as clans but as individuals who manage to “camouflage” themselves so efficiently that it becomes difficult to recognize them as a threat to foreign societies and economies.

Camorra Clans in Spain

This chapter explores the Camorra's presence in Spain. Since its transition to democracy in the late 1970s and its entrance into the European Union in 1986, Spain has been considered by many camorristi as an El Dorado, an accessible paradise in which to conduct criminal activities undisturbed and strike gold. This may explain why, over the last thirty years, many camorristi have made it their second home. However, there is another reason: its place in the European drugs market. From the existing evidence, it could be suggested that of the Camorra clans with links to Europe, around seventy percent have connections to Spain, where they seek to profit from its structural conditions, particularly from Spanish institutions, its legal system, and economic opportunities, especially its wholesale drugs market.

Conclusion

This concluding chapter argues that the Camorra does not migrate, but travel continuously from one operational base to another. Whereas the mobility of other criminal groups might be determined by immigrant communities, strategic decisions, socioeconomic conditions, and political infrastructures, the key to understanding the Camorra's mobility lies in its territory of origin. Indeed, compared to other mafias, the Camorra may still be predominantly Italy focused. However, it is increasingly damaging international economies with its developing European vision. In particular, the cases recounted in this book identified the Camorra's main features abroad, which are functionality, liquidity, invisibility, and a special trait—the interconnectedness of its territories.

Camorra Clans in France

This chapter focuses on the Camorra's presence in France. Camorra clans have been present in France since the early 1980s, but it would be misleading to define this presence as a form of “exportation” or “transplantation.” Rather, clans have operating cells when and where they can; these are flexible, irregular, and haphazard because “the Camorra is interested in everything: it seeks to make money from activities that do not appear at first as criminal, they are into everything.” Indeed, the cases examined in this chapter demonstrate how camorristi adapt to their new settings; they show the ease with which disorganized camorristi can access France, its social communities and its economic fabric.

Functional Mobility

This chapter details how the Camorra connect their territories, move between them, and make them highly interdependent. Mobility is based on locating resources and markets in order to help the clan survive, thrive, and prosper at home. This movement is called “functional mobility” because camorristi, once forced abroad, travel constantly between their different territories in pursuit of a commercial project, for which their foreign territories become paramount. They and their associates interlink local districts with new territories in a continuous two-way exchange, with people, resources, and money moving in both directions. This movement is mainly based on the identity, needs, and activities of the clan in Naples, but also on what camorristi can actually do. They use their existing skill sets, markets, and contacts to continue their criminal activities in local and global contexts; in sum, they adopt a functional approach.

Local Motives, Global Choices

This chapter examines the motives for Camorra mobility. Camorristi decide when to leave and where to go in a three-stage process: first, local push factors propel them to leave Naples, then two phases of global pull factors influence their choice of destination. Push factors are individual and personal, emanating from the local context: being wanted by the judiciary and the police, thus forcing “the escape,” and a fear of gang warfare and being murdered by a criminal rival. Pull factors are structural circumstances that influenced camorristi's exact choice of destination. Indeed, if a Camorra boss did move away from Naples and needed to spend time in a particular location, he would have specific motives for choosing his destination. Three global-structural factors were initially identified: familiar networks, profitable markets, and vulnerable law-enforcement regimes.