‘Ndrangheta claimed they could 'fix' trial thanks to contact in the presidential palace

 ROME – Mobsters from the Calabrian Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, while being wire tapped, were heard gloating that they could fix a trial thanks to a contact who works at the Quirinale, the presidential palace in Rome, police said. 

 The investigation has been headed by the Gico-Goa of the Milanese Guardia di Finanza and had found that they were not merely drug traffickers but a cartel whose members, while they have not been accused of mafia crimes, have brought together the Alvaro, Pelle, Papalia clans. The increasingly influential ‘Ndrangheta was being run by Domenico Papalia, son of the infamous Antonio, who acted as a sort of regent for the ‘Ndrangheta in northern Italy and was, according to a police investigation, in contact with Giuseppe Pelle, also under investigation, who managed business and money laundering between Italy and Germany.  

 The authorities have reported that they are closing in on them however, after a preventive seizure was just signed by a judge, for crimes involving the dealing of cocaine and false invoices uncovered by the Guardia di Finanza of Cernusco Lombardone, Lecco. It was noted in the court documents that ‘Ndrangheta had claimed to have had contacts high up inside the Quirinale that could fix the trial of a boss linked to the Alvaro clan.

 In 2021 the anti-drug unit of Gico-Goa first started investigating the drug lord Pietro Garonfalo, whose friend and associate Domenico Violi’s uncle is the imprisoned Giorgio Violi. Garonfalo claimed, according to court documents that he can head straight to the Quirinale and dismantle Violi's conviction saying, “but I’m not telling Giorgio that we’re hiring a lawyer and when he gets out I’m going to knock on his door and say Giorgio, I paid you for the lawyer, give me my money back, this is something you do from the heart, he’s a Christian who deserves it and wherever he puts his foot, roses come out.” 

 The suspect working at the Quirinale was refered to by Garonfalo as such, “he is a lawyer but he is not a lawyer, he works at the Quirinale in the Presidency of the Republic when the President changes, he always stays there at the Quirinale, one of those who do what must be done at the Quirinale”. It was not clear whether this person was a man or a woman as in the original Italian transcript the non-lawyer-lawyer was referred to in both the feminine and the masculine. 

 Og