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Secondigliano Alliance

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Secondigliano Alliance

The Secondigliano Alliance (Italian: Alleanza di Secondigliano) is a strategic alliance of Camorra clans in the Italian city of Naples and its hinterland, controlling drug trafficking and extortion rackets in many areas of the city since the 1990s.

Currently, its considered by law enforcement authorities to be one of the two most powerful criminal organizations within the Camorra, alongside the Mazzarella clan, a long-standing rival of the Alliance.

The criminal group has branches in the Netherlands and in Spain, with interests in international drug trafficking and money laundering.

The Secondigliano Alliance originally consisted of the Licciardi clan and the Contini clan from Naples and the Mallardo clan from Giugliano. It was initiated by Gennaro Licciardi, who built his clan in the early 1990s in Secondigliano, a northern suburb of Naples. The alliance included Edoardo Contini and Francesco Mallardo, and dominated the Neapolitan underworld during the 1990s. When the three male leaders died or were imprisoned, Licciardi’s sister Maria Licciardi was left in charge of the alliance. Under her leadership, the alliance became more organized, secretive, sophisticated and consequently more powerful.

The reign of Maria Licciardi ran smoothly for many years until a disagreement arose over a consignment of pure unrefined Turkish heroin in the spring of 1999. Licciardi decreed it should not be used, as it was too chemically pure for drug users and would likely kill them. However, the Lo Russo clan, then an important ally of the Alliance, disagreed and repackaged the shipment for sale on the streets, resulting in the deaths of many. The subsequent great public outrage resulted in massive police crackdowns on the Camorra clans, with many camorristi arrested and imprisoned. The Lo Russo clan eventually split from the alliance, leading to a violent gang war against the other clans which claimed 120 lives in Naples and the surrounding region.

After Maria Licciardi was arrested in 2001, her brother Vincenzo Licciardi took over the Secondigliano Alliance along with Paolo Di Lauro and Edoardo Contini. Vincenzo Licciardi was himself arrested on February 7, 2008.

In June 2019, Italian police arrested more than 120 members of the Alliance in an anti-Camorra operation. Police also confiscated €130 million. Among those who were arrested were the wives of the bosses of the Bosti, Mallardo, Licciardi and Contini clans, as well as their lieutenants, children, grandchildren and entrepreneurs who worked for the alliance. The historical female boss managed to escape from the arrest in the operation.

Despite numerous police operations, the Secondigliano Alliance is still considered the most powerful organization in the Camorra.

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