The Mediterranean city of Naples has been gripped by a wave of Mafioso-inspired violence over the past year. Gun battles, robberies, muggings and murders have become commonplace in Italy’s third largest city. A war between the region’s major criminal gangs over control of various illicit activities has created an environment in which life has become cheap - there have been 75 mafia-related murders in Naples since the beginning of 2006, with 12 of these occurring in a ten day period in November. The violence in recent weeks has been such that there were calls for Italian prime minister Romano Prodi to deploy troops to the city to help tackle the crime wave. Although he resisted such a move, he did announce a package of hard-hitting measures aimed at quelling the violence. However, the degree of criminality and bloodshed in Naples suggests that the Mafia is as strong, pervasive and resilient as ever and that the government’s efforts are unlikely to curtail the violence.

It was a widely thought that the Neapolitan Mafia - the Camorra - like all major Italian Mafia organisations was struggling after two decades of costly conflict with the Italian state. The brutal government crackdown that followed the Mafia’s assassination of two high-profile magistrates in 1992 and its 1993 bomb attacks in Rome, Florence and Milan resulted in the arrest and conviction of hundreds of Camorra members and was credited with bringing the organisation to its knees. However, the group has demonstrated significant resilience. Its criminal activities – which include drug trafficking, extortion and fraud to theft, prostitution, illegal gambling, people and arms smuggling and illegal waste disposal - have generated substantial wealth, and with it, significant power and influence.

However, this wealth and the Camorra’s fragmented nature, in contrast to the stable, hierarchical structures of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Calabrian Ndrangheta, have resulted in a prolonged Mafia war in Naples. Whereas the Cosa Nostra and Ndrangheta have operated quietly, favouring intimidation and coercion to promote their criminal interests, the Camorra’s 130 clans have fought a violent war in an effort to gain control of the city’s criminal enterprises. In some ways, the recent deterioration in the city’s security environment is the unintended result of the success of the Italian police and carabineri in smashing the city’s most powerful gang structures after a Camorra war in 2004. The death or detention of many senior Mafioso created a power vacuum that has now been filled by a new, young, ruthless breed of gangster. These individuals want results immediately and often abuse their own supplies of hard drugs. Their greed, inexperience and drug-induced irrationality often leads to confrontation and conflict and, as a result, tit-for-tat killings have proliferated.

This situation has been exacerbated by a prison amnesty approved by the Italian parliament this summer. The amnesty, which was aimed at relieving the country’s overcrowded prisons, resulted in the release of over 2,700 criminals in the Naples area. Although these individuals were classified as ‘minor’ criminals, many were Camorra members who were to return to find their roles usurped by newcomers. The resulting vendetta-settling and turf warfare has contributed greatly to general air of lawlessness in the city.

This wave of criminal violence has driven the Italian government to announce a ‘package of proposals’ aimed at combating the Camorra outfit and at ending the violence. The government plan involves deploying an extra 1,000 police officers to the city, providing 235 new vehicles to the force, increasing police patrols by 50 percent, and creating a special police squad charged with protecting tourists. However, the government’s efforts are unlikely to break the back of the Camorra, with the violence therefore likely to continue. For starters, the social environment in the city is such that the police will always be fighting an up-hill battle. With the unemployment rate hovering at 27 percent, and rising to about 60 percent among the under-30s, working for the Mafia is an attractive option for many in Naples’ slums. A Camorra drug-pusher can earn US$5000 a month, a look-out US$3000 and a messenger $US2400. A capopiazza, or head of a particular area, will have an income of US$28-30,000 a month. As a result, it is unsurprising that some 50,000 people in Naples either belong to the Camorra, are related to a member, or depend on the syndicate for cash, and that the police force, even with the increase in the number of police officers, will still be badly outnumbered by the criminal gangs.

The Italian government’s constitutional and structural policies are also benefiting the Mafia. Rome has increasingly devolved power to local governments in recent years, but these bodies are heavily influenced – or even dominated – by organised criminal elements. Additionally, the government’s spending cuts are hampering anti-Mafia efforts. State prosecutors are having their budgets slashed and their capacity for investigation is being crippled. Moreover, the country’s judicial system also benefits the Mafia - the best judges and prosecutors are currently allowed to chose the region in which they work. Therefore those posted in deprived and dangerous areas, such as Naples, often ask to be transferred, leaving a weak, vulnerable judiciary behind.

Mafia activities have cost 2,500 lives in the past ten years, the Italian economy some US$34 billion a year, and forced nearly 350,000 companies out of business. However, the structural and social reforms necessary to tackle the Camorra in Naples and the Mafia throughout Italy appear to be beyond the capability of the current Italian administration. As a result, the violence in Naples is unlikely to be halted by the authorities. The Mafia, in Naples and elsewhere, will continue to drain the Italian economy and constitute a security threat in Italy, particularly in the country’s south.

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