Swiss and Italian prosecutors set their sights on Calabrian mafia

The ‘Ndrangheta is considered the most dangerous of mafia organisations active in Switzerland, in part because many of its members are integrated in Swiss society. © Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

With mafia activity having expanded north of the Alps, Swiss and Italian authorities are stepping up cooperation, including leading joint investigative operations, says Italy’s top mafia and anti-terror prosecutor, Giovanni Melillo.

Recent high-profile arrests of mafiosi, including a boss of the Cosa Nostra, Matteo Messina Denaro, show that “our anti-mafia efforts and transnational cooperation are working,” Melillo told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaperExternal link.

Melillo became his country’s top mafia prosecutor in May 2022, after having headed the country’s largest public prosecutor’s office, in Naples. The mafia, he told the NZZ, has long outgrown the Mezzogiorno, the southern region of Italy.

“Today, this border [for mafia activity] has already moved across the Alps,” he said. His first visit abroad in his new role was to Bern to meet the federal prosecutor, Stefan Blättler, last November.

Stepped-up cooperation between the two countries is focused mainly on the ‘Ndrangheta, a Calabrian mafia syndicate, which Melillo says has cells throughout Switzerland preparing criminal operations that go beyond white-collar crime.

“We also have indications of violent acts carried out by mafiosi who live in Switzerland,” he said, “and do not attract attention there.”

All mafia organisations are active in Switzerland, the head of the Federal Office of Police, Nicoletta della Valle has previously said, but the ‘Ndrangheta is considered the most dangerous, in part because many of its members are integrated in Swiss society. Mafia organisations are particularly active in the construction industry and the restaurant sector in Switzerland, in addition to controlling the illegal trade in cocaine.