Thu, 21 May 11:00 2009

Notorious Camorra mafia boss Raffaele Amato arrested in Marbella

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More News from the Costa del Sol

Raffaele Amato: In a Spanish prison awaiting extra

‘The Spaniard’ lived under a false name, spoke perfect Spanish and is accused of drug trafficking and murder
BY ALFREDO BLOY
FUGITIVE Neapolitan Camorra mafia boss, Raffaele Amato, head of the Scissionisti di Secondigliano, a Camorra clan from the Napolitano district of Naples, was arrested on May 16 at a Marbella restaurant in a joint Spanish-Italian police operation. Spanish Judge, Baltasar Garzon, ordered that Amato be remanded in custody pending his likely extradition to Italy where he faces drugs and murder charges.
Amato, who was known by the nickname ‘Lo Spagnolo’ (the Spaniard), is suspected of murdering eight people, between 1991 and 1993, during a bitter feud dubbed ‘the Mugnano Feud’.
Turf war
Amato, who split from his old boss, Ciro Di Lauro, head of the Di Lauro clan, in October 2004, disputed the new rules, fled to Spain to escape arrest and organized a revolt against his former bosses. From there, he tried to assert the Scissionisti's control over drug-trafficking and prostitution rackets in the areas of Secondigliano and Scampia.
The ensuing war, known as the Scampia feud, resulted in over 60 murders in 2004 and 2005 and was the basis for the 2006 best-seller and later box office hit, ‘Gomorra’, written by Italian investigative journalist, Roberto Saviano.
Amato was arrested, with five of his associates, in Barcelona in February, 2005 and extradited to Italy, but had to be released in 2006 due to a legal technicality, and immediately disappeared without a trace.
Eventually police were again hot on his track, discovering that he was living in a Costa del Sol village, under a false identity and using forged documents. Spanish police, working in collaboration with the Italian authorities, placed Amato under intense covert surveillance and wire taps until his arrest, together with one of his associates, Carmine Minucci.
Gateway to Europe
Due to its proximity to Italy, and it being the gateway for the North African and Latin American drugs trade into Europe, Spain has become the base of choice for many members of the Italian Mafia.
Antonio Laudati, an Italian Justice Ministry official and former chief prosecutor in Naples, told the Los Angeles Times, “One important route for cocaine into Spain went through North Africa. Another crossed the Balkans into Italy. And Barcelona became a hub for a land route for cocaine to Italy through France, where the Marseilles underworld has always had close ties to the Camorra. So you had a mixed operational group of bosses base itself in Spain.”
Money laundering
The construction boom on the Costa del Sol in the 90s saw many Russian and Italian organised crime figures buy great chunks of property in a bid to launder their ill-gotten money. This buying spree reached a frantic pace during the years leading to the inception of the euro in 1999, because these crime figures needed to ‘get rid’ of stockpiles of illicit currency (they could hardly take it to the bank to change it into euros).
“They use that name, ‘Costa Nostra’, because it's like a second homeland for them,” said Alessandro Pennasilico, an Italian prosecutor in Naples, in a press interview. “They like Spain - the climate, the coast, the beaches, because it's close to their culture. And the Camorra goes where there is business. Spain is an important country regarding drug trafficking.”

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