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Talking Italian can get you a good distance on this sleepy postindustrial city on Belgium’s jap edge. The empty sidewalks of Maasmechelen are studded with shabby pizzerias, delis, espresso bars and sports activities outlets showcasing alternatives of Italy merch — the legacy of a wave of Italian immigration that began within the late Forties.
Lately nonetheless the Flemish city was additionally the positioning of one other, extra sinister Italian import. On an early spring morning earlier this 12 months, Belgian police carrying a global arrest warrant swooped in on a gated villa. Then got here a loud knock on the door, and Lucio Aquino — referred to as the “Godfather of Maasmechelen” — was handcuffed and led to a ready police automotive.
The arrest was a part of a pan-European bust, as police in 10 international locations stormed the bolt-holes of Europe’s most feared mobsters in Might, seizing stacks of money, luggage of cocaine and circumstances of Rolex gold watches. Their goal: the worldwide branches of the scary ‘ndrangheta, a prison group with origins in rural Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot, that has unfold throughout Europe to manage the profitable cocaine commerce.
“That is the biggest-ever crackdown on the ‘ndrangheta in Europe,” trumpeted the Belgian prosecutor Antoon Schotsaert. Police arrested 13 folks in Belgium and seized unlawful weapons, luxurious automobiles and €60,000 in money. In an operation that concerned 1000’s of law enforcement officials, greater than 130 folks have been taken into custody in Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia — amongst them Lucio Aquino.
Aquino’s story — how he and his household got here to stay in Belgium and the way he joined a worldwide community that stretches from the hilltops of Calabria to locations as far-flung as Colombia and Australia — provides a window into the trendy mafia. The place organized crime, particularly in Italy, was as soon as linked to the soil, with tight-knit clans controlling household territories; at the moment, the ‘ndrangheta operates internationally, increasing not solely via hit jobs and turf battles however via one thing akin to a franchise system, with native gamers like Aquino working as a part of a worldwide community of crime.
Establishing a international outpost for the ‘ndrangheta “is like opening a McDonald’s retailer,” stated Antonio Nicaso, an writer and knowledgeable on the Calabrian prison group.
“The hyperlink to Calabria is what provides you credibility, and a recognizable model,” Nicaso stated. “With out that, you’re like a raft within the ocean.”
Belgian Sopranos
Lucio Aquino might have labored with the Italian mob, however he was born and raised in Maasmechelen. Sarcastically, his father left Calabria within the Nineteen Seventies partly as a result of he was fed up with the ‘ndrangheta, relocating along with his spouse and two children to Limburg, a Belgian area abutting the Netherlands, the place the a now-defunct coal-mining business had attracted waves of earlier Italian immigration.
“Since I used to be 9 I’ve been to Italy twice. On trip with my dad and mom!” Lucio recalled in a uncommon interview with the native each day Het Laatste Nieuws in 2015. Quickly after the Aquinos arrived, the Limburg mines began to close down, plunging the area into financial decline. The household grew to embody eight siblings and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than some have been pulled into the burgeoning prison underworld. Of the six brothers and two sisters, Antonio, Lucio and Mario could be sentenced for drug trafficking and Pasquale could be sentenced in 2017 for headbutting a jailer whereas visiting his brothers. A fifth brother, Silvio, was murdered whereas awaiting trial on drug fees.
“They have been poor and didn’t wish to ask their dad and mom for cash. That’s why they began hanging out with the incorrect folks,” recollects Loredana Capocciuti, a childhood buddy of the Aquinos and the proprietor of Gianni’s, a Nineteen Sixties-style Italian grocery store in Maasmechelen the place the clan nonetheless buys their edibles.
The Italians on the town bear in mind Lucio Aquino as an adolescent like many others: He frolicked with mates within the miners’ neighborhood and had a watch for girls and flashy sports activities vehicles.
“However you can inform that he was essentially the most severe of all brothers; he’s somebody who would thoughts his personal enterprise,” recalled Franco, a 60-year-old man who grew up with Aquino within the Italian emigré circle however, he stated, distanced himself when his buddy joined the underworld.
Franco — who most popular to not disclose his surname — stood on the sidewalk in an SSC Napoli soccer tracksuit and a flashy black watch. He stated that Lucio’s rise to energy began with small robberies within the Netherlands and cash-for-protection preparations with native companies when he was in his teenagers. Different members of his household joined him, establishing a sprawling drug trafficking community funneling tons of cocaine from South America to the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in fruit crates.
Inside a matter of years, the Aquino group turned among the many most worthwhile household companies within the Limburg area.
For a few years the household operated undetected, stated Guido Vermeiren, the prosecutor common in Limburg. “Once they did seem on the radar, the police wanted time to collect enough proof towards this clan.”
Although Lucio is now in jail, his instant household has stayed behind in what neighbors name the “White Home,” a gated villa shielded by guard canine and photo voltaic panels. Twenty minutes away, his older brother Antonio — nicknamed “Rafke” — lives in a brick townhouse overlooking a forest.
“I’m not talking whereas my brother is in [prison], however I promise I’ll in the event you come one other time,” he stated politely when a reporter knocked. He leaned on a crutch, flanked by an intimidating guard canine. His brothers couldn’t be reached for remark.
The rise of the Aquinos
Being a household enterprise was one of many Aquinos’ early secrets and techniques to success. Not like different drug gangs, the clan was certain by blood ties, making certain a level of loyalty to the agency.
“They solely work with folks they will totally belief … They’re Italians, and household is an enormous deal for Italians,” stated an individual with intimate information of the Aquino household who spoke on situation of anonymity.
There was no godfather-like determine presiding — decision-making was collegial. The household insider described Silvio because the early chief of the clan, along with his brother Mario accountable for the logistics.
Bald and beefy, with darkish sun shades seemingly perched completely on their heads, the Aquino brothers turned well-known figures among the many Belgian public.
“Everybody in Belgium was afraid of them merely for the way they seemed,” stated the Flemish lawyer Walter Van Steenbrugge, who got here throughout the Aquino household when he defended one in all their associates.
Prison operations are by their nature weak to machinations by rival clans — and the Aquino household was no exception. Their rise to energy was punctuated by private vendettas and household drama.
In February 2015, 4 males broke into the house of Lucia Aquino — one in all Lucio’s sisters — and tortured her for hours hoping to discover a hidden household stash. “If there was any crime cash, do you suppose we’d cover it with our sister?” snapped Lucio within the interview with Het Laatste Nieuws.
Like many different Italians in Maasmechelen, the Aquinos favored to frequent a restaurant owned by Martino Trotta — a person they thought was a buddy, wrongly because it turned out.
“Martino might need had a limoncello or an Averna an excessive amount of,” recalled Franco. “He determined to kidnap Silvio Aquino in alternate for cash.” However the plan went terribly incorrect.
On an August night in 2015, Silvio and his spouse Silvia Lišková have been all of the sudden reduce off as they drove on a shady, wooded avenue close to the close by village of Opglabbeek. Issues apparently didn’t look proper to the seasoned drug supplier. “Run, Silvia, run!” he shouted, pulling out his gun. Within the ensuing chaos, he was struck by seven bullets, two within the physique and 5 within the head.
Silvia had damaged free and escaped into the woods to name Lucio, who arrived earlier than the police. Silvio was useless on the street, his pockets filled with €4,050 in €50 notes, based on media reviews. His assailants, members of a Bosnian clan, fled in a Jaguar — one in all them fatally shot within the chest — and have been rapidly arrested. Trotta, it seems, had not too long ago served time with members of the Bosnian clan and was in common contact with them within the days earlier than the assault. In 2020, Trotta and the 4 Bosnian hitmen have been convicted over the killing of Silvio Aquino.
For Maasmechelen, it was the top of an period — and Lucio’s flip to helm the agency. It was throughout his tenure on the high that the household opened as much as highly effective outsiders.
In 2020, Lucio joined forces with the ‘ndrangheta, working with highly effective clans just like the Nirta and Strangio households, based on his arrest warrant, to funnel cocaine from South America to Europe and overseas, so far as Australia.
Lucio brokered offers with the native underworld throughout totally different continents; oversaw the supply of drug shipments to the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria; and laundered the earnings from these operations to purchase bars and eating places in France and Germany, based on the warrant.
Prosecutors describe Aquino because the chief of the drug community, “the large man, the one who set all the things up,” his Belgian lawyer Jan Keulen instructed POLITICO.
The Aquino household is “the most important gang we’ve got ever caught in our nation,” a spokesperson from the Limburg prosecutor’s workplace instructed journalists after Lucio’s arrest. “It’s a household on the head of a global group … Along with accountants, they also have a courtroom interpreter on their payroll.”
The mafia strikes north
As soon as a clique of Calabrian mountain dwellers specialised in shootings and kidnappings, the ‘ndrangheta now operates in round 40 international locations, based on Jürgen Inventory, the secretary-general of Interpol. Current in Canada, South America and Australia, it has turn into one of many greatest and most worldwide prison organizations on the planet. Estimates of its annual revenues run as excessive as €60 billion.
Whereas the ‘ndrangheta as soon as had a popularity for brutal violence, it has typically tried to keep up a low profile since a 2007 bloodbath outdoors a restaurant within the German metropolis of Duisburg left six useless and made headlines throughout Europe. “They aren’t conducting this kind of violent crime, however stay silent, doing their enterprise attempting to stay underneath the radar of regulation enforcement,” Inventory stated.
The group is “extra considering money than blood,” based on Nicola Gratteri, the newly appointed prosecutor common of Naples, who has turn into a family title within the combat towards the ‘ndrangheta in Calabria. “The mafia is there to purchase cocaine and reinvest the cash to purchase resorts, eating places, and pizzerias. It’s not essential to shoot.”
The change in techniques has facilitated the ‘ndrangheta’s worldwide growth. Reasonably than attempting to manage territory, the group has been content material to staff up with different organizations worldwide. “It’s higher to take a position along with the competitors,” stated Koen Voskuil, a journalist for RTL Nieuws, a Dutch information program, who has written extensively about Italian crime within the Netherlands.
It has turn into customary apply for various prison teams to collectively spend money on drug shipments from South America and cut up the earnings, stated Paul Vugts, a Dutch journalist who’s an knowledgeable in drug-related crime.
And the group has expanded quickly. With Italian authorities cracking down on organized crime at house, dozens of ‘ndrangheta households have relocated overseas, to international locations together with Belgium and the Netherlands, the place authorities are nonetheless unused to their actions. “Belgian counterstrategies haven’t been as particularly developed because the Italian ones,” stated Vermeiren, the Limburg prosecutor common. Belgium, he added, has scaled up efforts in recent times.
Reasonably than attempting to overcome territory, the ‘ndrangheta has expanded via a system akin to a restaurant franchise. Establishing store overseas requires the approval of the crimine di San Luca — a committee made up of seven elders in Calabria, based on Gratteri. He added that franchisees pay annual dues of tens of 1000’s of euros — referred to as a fiore (flower). In alternate, they get pleasure from full autonomy overseas.
The scattered construction has made it tougher to crack down on the group. “These decentralized working fashions are like terrorist cells,” stated Stephen Kavanagh, government director for police companies at Interpol. “It’s very horizontal and clans function nearly uniquely from one another on events, and this makes it far harder for us to help member international locations in understanding the menace.”
The Dutch police estimate that as many as 100 recognized mobsters from Calabria function within the Netherlands. Voskuil, the Dutch journalist, described the ‘ndrangheta “as a multinational” that’s energetic each in Colombia and in key European entry factors reminiscent of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
The Limburg area the place the Aquino household lived was the proper place from which to base an operation. It’s near the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam, the place cocaine enters Europe, and to the manufacturing websites of ecstasy and hashish plantations within the south of Holland, based on Letizia Paoli, a professor of criminology on the College of Leuven.
Aquino’s position within the community wasn’t as a proper member of the ‘ndrangheta. Specialists described him as a “dealer” — somebody who provides his know-how to totally different prison organizations, with out belonging to any single one.
Prison nostalgia
In Maasmechelen, the Aquino household is usually remembered fondly. These days new gangs, from the Balkans or North Africa, have moved in, turfing out the native mobsters. “It’s worse than dwelling in Naples or Calabria,” stated Franco. “Most Italian mobsters went into retirement, and the brand new technology is nugatory.”
For the Italians on the town, the Aquinos are both a childhood reminiscence, a neighborhood success story, or mysterious next-door neighbors. “They’re at all times so well mannered,” stated Loredana, the proprietor of the native grocery store. “I don’t know what they do for a dwelling, and the way they will afford their way of life. I simply say that they’ve been very fortunate.”
“They’re fairly cherished inside their neighborhood,” stated the person with information of the household. “The assumptions we’ve got from motion pictures like ‘The Godfather’ or the story of [Colombian drug lord] Pablo Escobar are true of their case.”
Franco Roselli, a childhood acquaintance who runs a barber store, stated the Aquinos remind him of “the Daltons,” the prison brothers from the Fortunate Luke comedian books who look practically similar — within the case of the Aquinos with spherical faces, chubby cheeks and shaven heads. “It should be 20 years since I’ve final seen him [Lucio] in my hair salon,” stated Roselli. “I used to go to highschool with one of many siblings; however since then, we’ve lived parallel lives.”
Lucio was already in bother with the police earlier than he was arrested in Might, out and in of jail throughout a long-running trial, on fees of transport 1000’s of kilos of cocaine from South America in cahoots with a retired policeman gone rogue.
The brand new fees are extra severe and will land him a life sentence. Prosecutors accuse him of helming the drug community from his jail cell close to the town of Leuven, with the assistance of jailers who would smuggle him kebabs and encrypted telephones.
For the second, he’s the article of a tug-of-war between Italian prosecutors, who insist he ought to face trial there due to his use of the port of Gioia Tauro, and his attorneys, who’ve been keeping off makes an attempt to extradite him.
“He ought to have stopped way back,” mused Franco, his childhood buddy. “Should you at all times wish to make increasingly more cash, you’ll finally get caught.”
Elisa Braun contributed reporting for this text.