Rome is the cocaine capital of the world. The caput mundi has become the centre of the international drug business, according to a dramatic article in La Repubblica on Friday. Roberto Saviano claims his country is turning a blind eye to the fact that Rome is the new Narcocapitale and describes in detail how a new home-grown Roman mafia has taken over the city.

Saviano, an expert on Italy’s mafias and best known for his 2006 book Gomorrah, is a somewhat controversial figure. Umberto Eco called him a “modern Italian hero”: the Daily Beast called him a plagiarist. The superstar journalist has over a million and a half Twitter followers and in the acknowledgements to his latest book, Zero, Zero, Zero he thanks Bono for his lifelong open invitation to U2 concerts, which he sometimes manages to attend, despite living under armed guard after being threatened by the Camorra.

Saviano’s claim is based on two inquiries carried out by the Carabinieri, “Babylonia” and “Tempio 2014”, as well as an investigation by Italy’s finance police, “Luna Nera”. Perhaps his most chilling claim is that, “most probably, none of you will have heard of these inquiries. A few lines on the crime pages. No commentary.” And he is right. Yet the figures speak for themselves: almost one hundred people arrested; the seizure of 46 of the capital’s bars, restaurants, tobacconists and video game arcades bought to recycle drug profits; 578 kilos of 80% pure cocaine, the equivalent of 24 million individual hits, worth 1.3 billion euro. In most countries the seizure of over a billion euros worth of coke would make a bit of a splash.

So why didn’t it? Partly because no one wants to tarnish the image of the Eternal City and il Bel Paese, and partly because;

“In the background is a country that is distracted, in crisis, a country in which an inadequate political class, which is in constant campaign mode, and which takes up every centimetre of the news media, manages to convince the population that Italy’s troubles are due to migrants and immigrants.”

Until relatively recently Italy’s mafias were largely based in the South: Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Camorra in Campania, and the ‘Ndraghetta in Calabria, although their tentacles reached well beyond. Now Saviano believes that indigenous Roman groups have taken on all the characteristics of the southern mafias and negotiate with the southern families on an equal basis.

He is not alone. General Commander of the Carabinieri Tullio della Sette believes the recent operations “have clearly brought to light an alarming fact. And that is that Rome has become a central hub of the international drug trafficking business.” In particular, Rome is where the profits are laundered. Rome public prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone agrees: “Rome is the centre of drug trafficking and money-laundering for the whole of Europe.”

Why Rome? Saviano points out that the capital offers enormous possibilities for money-laundering. A seemingly never-ending economic crisis means that many owners of small businesses want to sell, and to whoever offers the most. Anyone who lives in this city will have noticed the increasing speed with which small businesses close and open again under new ownership: one day a restaurant, the next a gelateria, not long after a cocktail bar. Saviano makes a stark prediction:

“In twenty years time, if things continue at this pace, Italy will be a narcostate... Those who can should enjoy this moment of ignorance.”

Tag: Babylonia Tempi 2014. Luna Nera, cocaine, Rome, Saviano

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