FBIS3-60984 "jptot002__l94082"
JPRS-TOT-94-002-L Document Type:JPRS Document Title:Terrorism
FOUO 12 January 1994 WEST EUROPE ITALY

Calabria Judge Seen as Target of 'Ndrangheta Bomb Attack

BR0701100994 Rome ANSAMAIL Database in English 1555 GMT 6 Jan 94 BR0701100994 Rome ANSAMAIL Database Language: English Article Type:BFN [Unattributed article: "'Ndrangheta Informant Warns of Explosives"] [Text] Reggio Calabria, 6 Jan (ANSA) -- Police in the Calabrian capital were searching for 350 kg of explosives that a 'Ndrangheta [Calabrian Mafia-style organization] informant had warned them were going to be used in an attack on a Reggio magistrate. That search was concentrated today in an area near the Ionian coast about 30 km from the capital, investigators said. A likely target of the reported plan was Giuseppe Verzera, assistant district prosecutor of Reggio, who has conducted some of the most important inquiries into organized crime in that region. Police said they had obtained the information from several members of 'Ndrangheta gangs who had decided to cooperate with the authorities, including one informant who only recently began to talk to police. This source told investigators that the explosive (of the same type used in deadly car bombs that blew up in Florence, Milan and Rome last spring and summer) was in the hands of the Calabrian crime organization as well as how they intended to employ it. In a search last July, carabinieri found 50 kg of explosives hidden in a field near Montebello Ionico, an area considered to be under the control of the Iamonte clan. That crime group was recently badly hit in a major dragnet on December 6, under the coordination of Verzera. The growing role of the 'Ndrangheta in national organized crime circuits, both alone and in cooperation with the Sicilian mafia was underlined in a report on crime filed by the Anti Mafia Investigating Directorate (DIA) to parliament yesterday. The national anti-crime police unit said that the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta has been expanding rapidly since 1991, when Sicilian Cosa Nostra representatives intervened among warring Calabrian rings to negotiate a `pax mafiosa' that led to a steep decline in inter-clan murders and a much improved capacity for illicit business. (DIA cited the 20 percent in Calabria's gangland killings in 1992, with inter-gang deaths continuing to fall this year.) Investigators linked the 'Ndrangheta's spread to the tight network of secret masonic lodges in the region of Calabria, first brought to the attention of law enforcement officials by the Palmi public prosecutor's office, then under the direction of Judge Agostino Cordova. One third of all southern Freemasons live in Calabria, investigators estimate, and they are stepping up their inquiries into the links between criminal activity and the secret and semi-secret lodges. In the province of Reggio Calabria alone, some 3,500 persons have been identified as 'Ndrangheta members, while the whole region numbers 155 clans and at least 5,500 working for organized crime. Catanzaro and Cosenza were cited as other major crime centers. 'Ndrangheta activities include extortion (with 368 related cases of arson in 1992), usury, kidnapping and drug traffic. The DIA report cites the spread of Calabrian crime activities to Northern Italy as well as abroad to Canada, the U.S. and Australia. In the past six months, 890 detentions or arrests have been ordered, including 524 regarding the 'Ndrangheta, as compared to 269 orders regarding the Sicilian mafia, 62 involving the Sacra Corona Unita [United Holy Crown -- Pugliese Mafia-style organization] of Puglia and 35 involving the Camorra.