Judge Nicola Gratteri in Specchia

On Monday 22 July 2024, at 8.30 pm, in Piazza del Popolo in Specchia, the project “On our feet” promoted by the Municipality in collaboration with the Narazione Association and the Edrusa Library will host Judge Nicola Gratteri. After greetings from the Mayor Anna Laura Remigi and the President of the Municipal Council Federica Francesca Ricciotto, the Public Prosecutor of the Court of Naples, interviewed by the journalist Valentina Morieri, will present the book “Il grifone. “How technology is changing the face of the ‘Ndrangheta”, written with Antonio Nicaso and published by Mondadori (2023).

book page

In an increasingly interconnected world, where distances are eliminated with a click and virtual meeting places replace real ones, even the mafia is learning to adapt: ​​exploiting the potential of technology, it enters the digital space as if it were a new territory of conquest. Once again, organized crime is proving to be extremely flexible and able to keep up with the times. It no longer uses impudent and brazen children, but skilled professionals with skills in the IT and financial sectors. Its weapons today are highly sophisticated hardware and software, which allow it to infiltrate the darkest corners of the Internet, protected not by the old silence, but by the anonymity that the digital space allows us to maintain. The “discovery” of cryptocurrencies has thus opened up lucrative and unexpected prospects, if we consider that in 2022 the volume of illicit transactions reached a record level of 20.6 billion euros. Nicola Gratteri and Antonio Nicaso illustrate this transformation by citing figures and documents, which demonstrate the fact that the Mafia, and especially the ‘Ndrangheta, now operates on a global scale, trafficking drugs, laundering money, carrying out financial frauds and selling weapons in every part of the planet, without even having to leave home. In this strange process of hybridization, the ‘Ndrangheta, like the mythical griffin, simultaneously embodies traditional “values” and new demands, making the boundaries between legality and illegality increasingly fluid. Law enforcement agencies thus find themselves facing unprecedented challenges, which must be faced with the awareness that, in the transnational dimension, it is necessary to overcome political, cultural and legal differences in the name of a common goal: the protection of society and the protection of human rights. The next generations of “silent mafia” are very skilled in the art of imitation and transformation.