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Banda della Magliana
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Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana (Italian: [ˈbanda della maʎˈʎaːna], lit. 'Magliana Gang') was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighbourhood, the Magliana, of some of its members.
The Banda della Magliana was heavily involved in criminal activities during Italy's Years of Lead (anni di piombo). The Italian government claimed that the Banda della Magliana was closely allied with and tied to other criminal organizations, such as Cosa Nostra, Camorra, and 'Ndrangheta. Some left-wing journalists have also claimed the gang had links to neofascist militant and terrorist groups, such as the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR), responsible for the 1980 Bologna massacre; the Italian secret services (SISMI), and political figures such as Licio Gelli, grand-master of the Freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2). They have also alleged that, along with Gladio, the NATO clandestine anti-communist organization, P2 was involved in a strategy of tension during the Years of Lead which included false flag terrorist attacks. However, no concrete proof exists to support these claims, and a memoir by a gang insider made no mention of any supposed links.
The Banda della Magliana was involved with the usual activities of Italian criminal gangs, such as drug dealing, horse race betting, and money laundering, among others; its ties to political groups set it apart. It is believed to have been involved with events such as the 1978 murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democracy party, who was negotiating the Historic Compromise with the Italian Communist Party (PCI); the 1979 assassination of journalist Carmine Pecorelli; the 1980 Bologna massacre; the 1982 assassination attempt against Roberto Rosone, vice-president of Banco Ambrosiano; and also Roberto Calvi's 1982 murder. The mysterious disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a case peripherally linked to former Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Ağca's 1981 Pope John Paul II assassination attempt, has also been related to the gang. The Orlandi kidnapping was allegedly to persuade the legally immune Vatican Bank to restore funds to Banco Ambrosiano creditors.
The first criminal act of the Banda della Magliana was the kidnapping of Duke Massimiliano Grazioli Lante della Rovere on 7 November 1977, against a ransom. The Duke was murdered but the ransom obtained anyhow, 1,500,000,000 lire of the time. Instead of spending everything, the group decided to keep the savings to invest in crime in Rome and take over the capital.
Unlike the Camorra or Cosa Nostra, the Banda della Magliana was not structured around a hierarchical pyramid. It was instead composed of various decentralized cells, each working on its own. Making equal shares and living off dividends obtained from the criminal association, they quickly took over Rome, surprising the underworld with their violent methods. If members were imprisoned, money continued to be sent to them through their families - while successful members, driving Ferraris and wearing Rolex watches, had to keep up their criminal activities, thus remaining "crime labourers" (operai del crimine).
Some gang members, including founder Franco Giuseppucci, were far-right sympathizers. Crime, however, and not politics, was the main activity of the group, and some material incentives were much needed to get them involved in this field. One of their first contacts with the Italian neofascist movement was in the summer of 1978 — a few months after Aldo Moro's murder — in a villa in Rieti owned by criminologist, psychiatrist and neofascist professor Aldo Semerari. In exchange for financing his political activities, Semerari provided psychiatric expertise to arrested gang members in order to help them be released.
The deal did not last long, as Semerari was assassinated on 1 April 1982 in Ottaviano (Metropolitan City of Naples). He had made the same deal with Raffaele Cutolo's Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), as well as with the rival organization of the Cutolo, the Nuova Famiglia (NF) headed by Carmine Alfieri. This pleased neither the NF nor the NCO. Besides being a famous far-right criminologist, Semerari was also a member of Propaganda Due (P2), a masonic lodge that had been turned into a conspirationist cell, and maintained links with SISMI, the Italian military intelligence agency.
More important links were found between the Banda della Magliana and the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR) far-right terrorist group, in particular through Massimo Carminati, a NAR member who was a good customer at Franco Giuseppucci and Maurizio Abbatino's bar. Massimo Carminati quickly became a "pupil" of the gang and introduced them to Valerio Fioravanti, Francesca Mambro, and Pierluigi Bragaglia who were later accused of complicity in the 1980 Bologna massacre. The two criminal organizations quickly became closely linked, with the Banda della Magliana laundering the money obtained from NAR's hold-ups to finance their political activities, while the NAR helped the Banda in street activities (racket, drug transportation, etc.). However, their most mysterious "joint venture," which raised serious questions, concerned weapons: ammunition, guns and bombs belonging to both groups were surprisingly found in the basements of the Italian Health Ministry.
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Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana (Italian: [ˈbanda della maʎˈʎaːna], lit. 'Magliana Gang') was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighbourhood, the Magliana, of some of its members.
The Banda della Magliana was heavily involved in criminal activities during Italy's Years of Lead (anni di piombo). The Italian government claimed that the Banda della Magliana was closely allied with and tied to other criminal organizations, such as Cosa Nostra, Camorra, and 'Ndrangheta. Some left-wing journalists have also claimed the gang had links to neofascist militant and terrorist groups, such as the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR), responsible for the 1980 Bologna massacre; the Italian secret services (SISMI), and political figures such as Licio Gelli, grand-master of the Freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2). They have also alleged that, along with Gladio, the NATO clandestine anti-communist organization, P2 was involved in a strategy of tension during the Years of Lead which included false flag terrorist attacks. However, no concrete proof exists to support these claims, and a memoir by a gang insider made no mention of any supposed links.
The Banda della Magliana was involved with the usual activities of Italian criminal gangs, such as drug dealing, horse race betting, and money laundering, among others; its ties to political groups set it apart. It is believed to have been involved with events such as the 1978 murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democracy party, who was negotiating the Historic Compromise with the Italian Communist Party (PCI); the 1979 assassination of journalist Carmine Pecorelli; the 1980 Bologna massacre; the 1982 assassination attempt against Roberto Rosone, vice-president of Banco Ambrosiano; and also Roberto Calvi's 1982 murder. The mysterious disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a case peripherally linked to former Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Ağca's 1981 Pope John Paul II assassination attempt, has also been related to the gang. The Orlandi kidnapping was allegedly to persuade the legally immune Vatican Bank to restore funds to Banco Ambrosiano creditors.
The first criminal act of the Banda della Magliana was the kidnapping of Duke Massimiliano Grazioli Lante della Rovere on 7 November 1977, against a ransom. The Duke was murdered but the ransom obtained anyhow, 1,500,000,000 lire of the time. Instead of spending everything, the group decided to keep the savings to invest in crime in Rome and take over the capital.
Unlike the Camorra or Cosa Nostra, the Banda della Magliana was not structured around a hierarchical pyramid. It was instead composed of various decentralized cells, each working on its own. Making equal shares and living off dividends obtained from the criminal association, they quickly took over Rome, surprising the underworld with their violent methods. If members were imprisoned, money continued to be sent to them through their families - while successful members, driving Ferraris and wearing Rolex watches, had to keep up their criminal activities, thus remaining "crime labourers" (operai del crimine).
Some gang members, including founder Franco Giuseppucci, were far-right sympathizers. Crime, however, and not politics, was the main activity of the group, and some material incentives were much needed to get them involved in this field. One of their first contacts with the Italian neofascist movement was in the summer of 1978 — a few months after Aldo Moro's murder — in a villa in Rieti owned by criminologist, psychiatrist and neofascist professor Aldo Semerari. In exchange for financing his political activities, Semerari provided psychiatric expertise to arrested gang members in order to help them be released.
The deal did not last long, as Semerari was assassinated on 1 April 1982 in Ottaviano (Metropolitan City of Naples). He had made the same deal with Raffaele Cutolo's Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), as well as with the rival organization of the Cutolo, the Nuova Famiglia (NF) headed by Carmine Alfieri. This pleased neither the NF nor the NCO. Besides being a famous far-right criminologist, Semerari was also a member of Propaganda Due (P2), a masonic lodge that had been turned into a conspirationist cell, and maintained links with SISMI, the Italian military intelligence agency.
More important links were found between the Banda della Magliana and the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR) far-right terrorist group, in particular through Massimo Carminati, a NAR member who was a good customer at Franco Giuseppucci and Maurizio Abbatino's bar. Massimo Carminati quickly became a "pupil" of the gang and introduced them to Valerio Fioravanti, Francesca Mambro, and Pierluigi Bragaglia who were later accused of complicity in the 1980 Bologna massacre. The two criminal organizations quickly became closely linked, with the Banda della Magliana laundering the money obtained from NAR's hold-ups to finance their political activities, while the NAR helped the Banda in street activities (racket, drug transportation, etc.). However, their most mysterious "joint venture," which raised serious questions, concerned weapons: ammunition, guns and bombs belonging to both groups were surprisingly found in the basements of the Italian Health Ministry.