My name is Marisa Merico, and I was a former Mafia princess to one of the most feared
crime families in Italy. This is how crime works. The 'Ndrangheta do have
different methods of violence, with hit men, car bombings,
people being put in acid tanks. It's really, it's bad. They're vicious. I guess that's because they mean business. And they're saying, "We do this to show you
not to step on our toes. And do not, because this
is what's gonna happen." There isn't one single Italian Mafia. You've got the 'Ndrangheta, you've got the Cosa
Nostra and the Camorra. So, and then within
that, there's families. It'd be very difficult for one family just to stand on their own. The one is a little bit further ahead, is in with the initiatives,
with the logistical side of it. But they will also need the other family for something else that
maybe they can't do. So they all complement each other. The biggest clans are still the ones that have been there quite a few decades. At the age of 22, I took
over the DiGiovine clan, which is my family. If you're in the family,
you've got the blood, you don't need to be made. One of the daughters marries someone, he's technically not blood, but there are rituals
where people do get made. And they go to the Madonna della Montagna, go procession through the streets. The Madonna gets carried. There's all singing and dancing. It's actually a very religious festival. And then afterwards there'll be a party, and someone will be made. That is one of the customs and one of the rituals, if you will. What makes the Italian Mafia different from the American Mafia is the Italian Mafia is old school. The American Mafia say they
don't involve the women. There's obviously a
perspective of the women. The Americans are
far more bolshie with it. A lot do expect respect like that. Whereas the Italians,
you earn that respect. You have the boss, which is at the top. The boss is the capo. Then a consigliere, who gives advice. The difference with the
Italians and Americans, the generals are the capo of each group under them. That would be a big insult
to an Italian real capo. And then you've got, under
that, sort of the generals that look over, if a project was coming in or there were exchange of
moneys, anything like that. Underneath them, you've
got the lieutenants. Then you're going right
down to the soldiers. So they're the ones on the street. They're the ones that
are applying violence. It's just like the ranking of an army. Because it is an army,
made up mainly of family. So, my father was the boss of our clan, and he was looked upon as a boss from our family down in southern Italy. A boss' child or another
member of the family can only take over his role, obviously, when he'd dead or in prison. And even in prison, he's
still carrying on the role. But you can't just give it to somebody. It's showing how intelligent they are and having that assertiveness that you need in a powerful position. My father was arrested,
and I had to take over, and my uncle was trying
to fight me for it. I was always surprised.
Why did I get chosen? Well, they must have seen
that you were strong enough. I was my father's voice. And my day-to-day tasks
would be the logistical side. If any product was
coming in, the payments. I took the money. Taking
the money to Switzerland, taking the money for payments for product. The women have never run the Mafia. Or, never known to
"technically" run the Mafia. But actually, from from the sidelines, of course. So, the 'Ndrangheta have such
a reputation of being feared because of the violence
being used in the past. But there are rules.
You don't touch women, you don't touch children,
you don't touch the elderly. Just stay in your lane and do your job and not trample on
anybody else's territory. One clan can't take out
another member of another clan. It doesn't work that way. It's much more to do with where that killing's going to take place and whose territory that's in. Well, it happened with my
family that a Camorra guy came and asked for permission to kill someone that was on our patch, my nonna and my father's. If they'd just said no,
it could have led us to war with the Camorra. Or if we'd reciprocated, you know, needed that help in the future, they could have said no. So, the law of omertà
is the law of silence, where you just don't speak. You just do not talk about it. I was arrested, and I've
never spoken about anything. You know, people say,
because I wrote the book, "Are you not scared of repercussions?" I said, "No, because I spoke of things that were in my trial
and things I did myself." I've never spoken about anything. And there's other things
I would never speak about. The homicides are declining because it's not lucrative
for them to kill people. It's a last resort. It just flares up sentiments that the Mafia don't want. Foggiana, a Mafia which is in Puglia, they are acting very violent at this time. They're asserting themselves
and their position. And unless there was fear,
people wouldn't care. Unfortunately, you get the casualties. There has been reports of
young children being killed. There must be someone outside or something that's affiliated with someone, because they wouldn't give
an order to kill a child. So, with the 'Ndrangheta, it's said they're making
$60 billion a year. The pandemic has made
the 'Ndrangheta stronger. The 'Ndrangheta will
have had a big influence on buying failing businesses or forcing the owners out of a business and taking over it. There's many people that were actually, were going to close the
shops, close businesses. But once they are involved, they own you. The wealth is divided with
what each family does. You can't have one family do a lot less and be entitled to the
same amount of money. You know, my family started on the streets tobacco smuggling and all sorts. We were going to open up
travel agents as well. You know, we had a leather factory. Anything that's through
a legitimate company. We invested everywhere that you could, especially to clean the money. There was a lot of kidnappings
in the '70s in Italy, but that was to do with a government. It was a gang even my Dad knew them that kidnapped very wealthy people. There's been a decline in the kidnapping because it just doesn't look
good with the authorities. They just come down really hard on them. And, of course, they found other ways, such as the drug trafficking, that could be far more lucrative than having half the
police force after you because of one kidnapping. I think the 'Ndrangheta
got involved more and more in the drugs trade towards the '70s, when there was the big hit of heroin. The heroin would be from Turkey, coming through from North Africa. I mean, my father went into cannabis. He was supplying nine countries. There was tons of cannabis coming across to Italy from Morocco. It's been said that 97% of the cocaine that comes through Italy
goes through Gioia Tauro. Gioia Tauro has always been a
port the 'Ndrangheta has used. And also because it's in their territory, so they can control it. They have many on the payroll. And not just the workers at the port, the authorities around
it are on the payroll. The 'Ndrangheta does have
strong links with the cartels, because the language is very similar. And then there's that thing
of Mediterranean bond. The drugs that are imported, they could be something that's
literally under your nose. They could be taken out by schoolchildren going for the day to the port, and then something under
the bus could be put there. Then it would be taken out. You got the weighing of it. But you know already where it's going, who's having what, who's got to pay what. It could be independent people that are in the drugs trade that want to buy a
certain amount of product. We had people that you'd never
dream of that used to buy. People very wealthy,
in very good positions, but their sideline was selling that. Police do get paid off. The 'Ndrangheta has police agents on their payroll, definitely. Police, judges, lawyers. We're talking about the garbage, you know, influencing who gets
the contracts for that. So it could be an
'Ndrangheta-affiliated company that can do the waste disposal, so the inside person can sway that they will get the contract and it won't be this other
company. It will be theirs. My father's escaped
from prison three times. He corrupted prison guards and a doctor in the prison, and he escaped. Police never tended to stop us, but they would come and
raid us every now and then. And then we'd know when
the raids would come in, because there was an informant inside the police that would tell us. I'd be sat in the kitchen
with loads of money around me and sat on a loose tile
where it's got a gun under. They would never make me
stand up and search me. There'd be bazookas, AK-47s, explosives. You know, we're talking
about heavy military weapons. We'd go around with guns
in our cars quite often, for protection, because that life, down the line there's always
some sort of violence. My family was the DiGiovine family. My nonna, she was like the boy mentality. She wanted her own. So much so that she left
and went up north to Milan and created her own group, a clan. She could see that there
was far more lucrative ways of making money there. The areas that we had
control of were in Milan. I was born in Milan.
My mother was British. She went over to Italy as an au pair. Met my father by accident. So, I moved into the UK
with my mother in 1979. I was 9 years old. I'd never forgotten my Italian. My mom still always spoke
to me in Italian as well. My father was arrested in '91. Was on the run for a year, and then he got arrested again in 1992. And that was the time that
I had to take over for him for about a year. It was never for power or money or ... it was genuinely to show him that he didn't need a boy. I as a girl could do that. So, the crimes I was accused of, that I got convicted of, are the money laundering
to the Swiss bank account, then ultimately into a UK banking system. It's the money laundering,
drug running at some point, gun running. Went down to southern Italy, took the guns myself with my then husband. I got a three-years, nine-month sentence. I served half of that. I was extradited to Italy, and I got a 10-year sentence over there, which was reduced to six years. It wasn't that I was too scared
of speaking out at the time. It was my, it was almost,
it was my environment. It was my life. It was my family. I love them. We would do
anything for each other, and that went with it. I regret the choices I made. I regret some of my decisions. The date that I left was when my whole family was,
massive arrest the year later. Up till that point, I was
still leading the operations. And the main reason was my daughter. I really took a step
back when I got pregnant and then I had my child. But then when you get a
responsibility comes along such as your child, everything sort of, it's a slap in the face. I didn't want her to
come and see me in prison like I had seen my father in
prison all them years before. Like, history repeating itself. Now he's out of the witness protection, and he's a qualified chef. So, since leaving prison, I decided 10 years later to write my book. Now I'm a criminologist. I help where I can through my knowledge, experience of my life in that. The 'Ndrangheta rose obviously through the misfortune of the Cosa Nostra. Cosa Nostra was largely in decline because of the arrests and the authorities having a crackdown. You know, the links with
South America were then, well, almost not given, but they would have been
taken by the 'Ndrangheta. There's currently some of
the biggest Mafia trials ever against the 'Ndrangheta
at this moment in time. Every so often, they manage to get enough
evidence to bring them down. See, it's like a domino effect. Once one starts to
collaborate with justice, the rest follow. Because they want to do the crime, but they don't want to do the time. In 20 years, I see the 'Ndrangheta still in the same position. The corruption goes as
far as the government. And unless that changes, you
will never bring it down. It's the authorities that
ultimately run a port, isn't it? It needs to be the government
that doesn't turn a blind eye. Nothing can be done about Gioia Tauro, not for as long as there's
corruption around it. Sorry, it's my Dad. That's my father ringing. [chuckles]
